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Deborah Schofield is an Australian academic in the Macquarie Business School, Macquarie University where she is the director of the Centre for Economic Impacts of Genomic Medicine (GenIMPACT) [1]
Schofield was born in 1965 in Wahroonga, Sydney. She has worked for the Australian Government, in academia and clinical practice and studied health microsimulation modelling at National Centre for Social and Economic Modelling.
Prior to joining Macquarie University and the University of Sydney, Schofield worked for a decade in senior governmental roles where she led the development of major new policies.
Schofield began her career with a Bachelor of Speech Therapy from the University of Queensland in 1986, which she followed up with Graduate Diploma in Computing Science from the University of Canberra in 1993. She received a PhD in applied microsimulation modelling in 1999, also from the University of Canberra. [2]
Schofield's research includes assessments of the productivity impacts of illness. She currently leads a research program at Macquarie University on the relationship between health and social policy. The applications of microsimulation Schofield and colleagues pioneered helps to ensure health care funding is sustainable and labour force participation is maximised. This assists governments providing the information needed by policymakers who impact health, the labour market, income and taxation policy.
The purpose of Schofield's research is to ensure that the health and aged care systems meet the demands of an ageing population. [3] It uses data drawn from her own work, other studies and publicly available datasets in areas as diverse as IQ deficits caused by anaemia in pregnancy, poverty and mental illness, [4] [5] genetic testing for highly disabling childhood genetic disorders, chronic pain [6] and whole genome sequencing.
A disease is a particular abnormal condition that adversely affects the structure or function of all or part of an organism and is not immediately due to any external injury. Diseases are often known to be medical conditions that are associated with specific signs and symptoms. A disease may be caused by external factors such as pathogens or by internal dysfunctions. For example, internal dysfunctions of the immune system can produce a variety of different diseases, including various forms of immunodeficiency, hypersensitivity, allergies, and autoimmune disorders.
In common usage and medicine, health, according to the World Health Organization, is "a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease and infirmity". A variety of definitions have been used for different purposes over time. Health can be promoted by encouraging healthful activities, such as regular physical exercise and adequate sleep, and by reducing or avoiding unhealthful activities or situations, such as smoking or excessive stress. Some factors affecting health are due to individual choices, such as whether to engage in a high-risk behavior, while others are due to structural causes, such as whether the society is arranged in a way that makes it easier or harder for people to get necessary healthcare services. Still, other factors are beyond both individual and group choices, such as genetic disorders.
Biopsychosocial models are a class of trans-disciplinary models which look at the interconnection between biology, psychology, and socio-environmental factors. These models specifically examine how these aspects play a role in topics ranging from human development, to health and disease, to information processing, and to conflict.
Mental health encompasses emotional, psychological, and social well-being, influencing cognition, perception, and behavior. According to World Health Organization (WHO), it is a "state of well-being in which the individual realizes his or her abilities, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively and fruitfully, and can contribute to his or her community". It likewise determines how an individual handles stress, interpersonal relationships, and decision-making. Mental health includes subjective well-being, perceived self-efficacy, autonomy, competence, intergenerational dependence, and self-actualization of one's intellectual and emotional potential, among others. From the perspectives of positive psychology or holism, mental health may include an individual's ability to enjoy life and to create a balance between life activities and efforts to achieve psychological resilience. Cultural differences, subjective assessments, and competing professional theories all affect how one defines "mental health". Some early signs related to mental health difficulties are sleep irritation, lack of energy, lack of appetite, thinking of harming oneself or others, self-isolating, and frequently zoning out.
Health psychology is the study of psychological and behavioral processes in health, illness, and healthcare. The discipline is concerned with understanding how psychological, behavioral, and cultural factors contribute to physical health and illness. Psychological factors can affect health directly. For example, chronically occurring environmental stressors affecting the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal axis, cumulatively, can harm health. Behavioral factors can also affect a person's health. For example, certain behaviors can, over time, harm or enhance health. Health psychologists take a biopsychosocial approach. In other words, health psychologists understand health to be the product not only of biological processes but also of psychological, behavioral, and social processes.
A chronic condition is a health condition or disease that is persistent or otherwise long-lasting in its effects or a disease that comes with time. The term chronic is often applied when the course of the disease lasts for more than three months. Common chronic diseases include diabetes, functional gastrointestinal disorder, eczema, arthritis, asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, autoimmune diseases, genetic disorders and some viral diseases such as hepatitis C and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome. An illness which is lifelong because it ends in death is a terminal illness. It is possible and not unexpected for an illness to change in definition from terminal to chronic. Diabetes and HIV for example were once terminal yet are now considered chronic due to the availability of insulin for diabetics and daily drug treatment for individuals with HIV which allow these individuals to live while managing symptoms.
Multimorbidity, also known as multiple long-term conditions (MLTC), means living with two or more chronic illnesses. For example, a person could have diabetes, heart disease and depression at the same time. Multimorbidity can have a significant impact on people's health and wellbeing. It also poses a complex challenge to healthcare systems which are traditionally focused on individual diseases. Multiple long-term conditions are much more common in older people, affecting more than half of those over 65, however, they can also be found in young people.
The recovery model, recovery approach or psychological recovery is an approach to mental disorder or substance dependence that emphasizes and supports a person's potential for recovery. Recovery is generally seen in this model as a personal journey rather than a set outcome, and one that may involve developing hope, a secure base and sense of self, supportive relationships, empowerment, social inclusion, coping skills, and meaning. Recovery sees symptoms as a continuum of the norm rather than an aberration and rejects sane-insane dichotomy.
The Minister for Social Services is the Australian federal government minister who oversees Australian Government social services, including mental health, families and children's policy, and support for carers and people with disabilities, and seniors. Amanda Rishworth was appointed as minister on 1 June 2022, following the Australian federal election in 2022.
Australia is a high income country, and this is reflected in the good status of health of the population overall. In 2011, Australia ranked 2nd on the United Nations Development Programme's Human Development Index, indicating the level of development of a country. Despite the overall good status of health, the disparities occurring in the Australian healthcare system are a problem. The poor and those living in remote areas as well as indigenous people are, in general, less healthy than others in the population, and programs have been implemented to decrease this gap. These include increased outreach to the indigenous communities and government subsidies to provide services for people in remote or rural areas.
Neuroscience Research Australia is an independent medical research institute based in Sydney, Australia. Previously called the Prince of Wales Medical Research Institute, the institute relaunched as Neuroscience Research Australia on 1 June 2010. NeuRA is accredited by the National Health and Medical Research Council.
Shoba Raja is an Indian psychologist and known for her work in developmental issues of vulnerable groups within the field of disability and mental health.
Males make up just under half of the total Australian population of 23 million. On average Australian males live to around 78 years of age, with the life expectancy of an Indigenous Australian male in 2009 being around 67 years of age and non indigenous men in remote areas living to around 70. On average female mortality rates are lower than males across the entire age spectrum.
MindSpot Clinic (MindSpot) is Australia's first free national online mental health clinic which launched in December 2012. It provides screening assessments and internet-delivered cognitive behavioural therapy (ICBT) courses for Australians troubled by stress, worry, anxiety and depression.
Christine Vivienne Stephens is a New Zealand psychology academic. She is currently professor of psychology at Massey University based in the Palmerston North. She is one of the founding members of the International Society of Critical Health Psychology, which she has also chaired. She is currently the society's treasurer.
Deborah A. Cobb-Clark is an Australian economist. She is currently working as a Professor in the University of Sydney and as a Chief Investigator in the ARC Centre of Excellence for Children and Families over the Life Course. She has also worked in Bonn, Germany at the Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) since 2000, where she holds the position of director of the Program in Gender and Families.
Asghar Zaidi is a social policy analyst and population ageing researcher. He is the 4th and current Vice Chancellor and 31st head of the Government College University Lahore (GCU), serving since October 2019. Previously, he served as the Professor of Social Gerontology at Seoul National University, South Korea.
Ann Margaret Harding was an Australian economist and Emeritus Professor at the University of Canberra.
The social determinants of mental health (SDOMH) are societal problems that disrupt mental health, increase risk of mental illness among certain groups, and worsen outcomes for individuals with mental illnesses. Much like the social determinants of health (SDOH), SDOMH include the non-medical factors that play a role in the likelihood and severity of health outcomes, such as income levels, education attainment, access to housing, and social inclusion. Disparities in mental health outcomes are a result of a multitude of factors and social determinants, including fixed characteristics on an individual level – such as age, gender, race/ethnicity, and sexual orientation – and environmental factors that stem from social and economic inequalities – such as inadequate access to proper food, housing, and transportation, and exposure to pollution.
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