Health Check Issue 19 2008 (PDF 283k) - Griffith University

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Krumping on campus Three hundred students from Logan high schools plus their friends and families enjoyed an afternoon of street dance and music at Logan campus recently. The event, which included a display of krumping, hip-hop and rapping and a dance competition between the schools, was the culmination of a 10-week health promotion project to increase physical activity in local teenagers. Other aims for the project include building connectedness and self-worth in the local community which boasts more than 15 cultural groups. This is the second year of the HYPE project, a community partnership between Griffith University, Queensland Health, Logan City Council and a number of youth and health organisations. The number of participating schools doubled from five last year to ten this year – bringing an estimated 1800 visitors onto Logan campus for the event. Plans are already underway to further expand the program in the future. Dr Naomi Sunderland, Griffith PhD candidate Debra Domalewski, Emma Bennison (Access Arts) and Sally Josephson (Access Arts) at the exhibition. A picture of health The Griffith Abilities Research Program within the Research Centre for Clinical and Community Practice Innovation recently hosted the inaugural Arts Intersections Symposium at Logan campus. The event, co-hosted by Access Arts Queensland, featured presentations and workshops on the themes of arts, disability, happiness and wellbeing. Symposium convenor and post doctoral fellow Dr Naomi Sunderland said a key aim of the event was to connect artists and arts workers, researchers, and health and community service providers. “We wanted to share experiences and understanding from a number of perspectives on how art-making can promote happiness and wellbeing for all people but particularly for people with disabilities. “We also wanted to offer learning both ways so that community participants could learn about things like evaluation research methods and researchers could learn more about working with artists and arts-based methods.” A number of professional artists exhibited work as part of the event, exploring topics including mental illness, AIDS, and chronic disease. Sponsorship for the event was provided by Arts Queensland, Disability Services Queensland, Griffith University Logan Campus, the Griffith Institute for Health and Medical Research, and Chenoweth Environmental Planning and Landscape Architecture. Bright young minds create cultural experience for refugees Social work student Michelle Hoomans has been selected as one of Australia’s Brightest Young Minds in a nationwide search for the top 100 young people to drive a range of innovative social projects. Ms Hoomans was selected after a rigorous process to identify 18-25 year olds with talent, passion and ideas. “Basically the vision of Brightest Young Minds is to develop new social initiatives which can then be launched to business people and organisations for funding. One of the themes for us is to be significant, not just successful.” “My group and I came up with an initiative called Grounded which aims to use creative arts to increase the longterm social inclusion of young migrants and refugees.” Ms Hoomans said their plan was to pair up students from schools in areas with high refugee populations and a range of creative arts professionals including musicians, writers and visual artists. “We want to give migrants and refugees the opportunity to develop their stories into performance pieces and present them at Arts Festivals so we can all share in their experiences, become more informed about the issues they face, and enhance community connections.“ “Because the project involves a mentoring process between the refugees and artists, long-term we would love to see the young refugees take charge.” Ms Hoomans has previously helped young migrants and refugees with inductions and homework programs while working as a youth worker at the Logan based Multilink Community Services. She is currently doing her final field placement with the Australian Red Cross before graduating with a Master of Social Work in December. Ultimately she hopes to work in the area of international and humanitarian aid. The Brightest Young Minds Foundation, sponsored by corporate giants Westpac and Lend Lease, was launched in Australia in 2005. One aim is to show young Australians that social responsibility is a benefit, rather than a barrier, to their career development. www.bym.com.au 4 Health check
3 www.griffith.edu.au/health 5 Head of School measures up Professor Peter Milburn started his career as a physical education teacher and still loves the process of teaching and learning, understanding how people learn new skills, enabling people to participate safely, and finding creative ways to meet those needs. His new role as head of the School of Physiotherapy and Exercise Science gives him the opportunity to further pursue that passion and extend the School’s reputation as a provider of high-quality undergraduate and postgraduate programs. Professor Milburn said the strength in Griffith’s exercise science program underpinned the School’s overall success. “Exercise science is an entirely appropriate starting point for careers in physiotherapy and Griffith is recognised for its unique double-degree program that builds on the synergies between the two disciplines.” “I see the opportunities here are to further define alternate career pathways for exercise scientists and enhance their employability in areas such as sport, health and education,” he said. Professor Milburn helped establish human movement studies at the University of Wollongong and also supervised the transition of the Bachelor of Physiotherapy program from New Zealand’s Otago Polytechnic to the University of Otago. As well teaching at Griffith, he said he looks forward to playing a mentoring role for the many new and early career researchers in the School. His own areas of research are based on biomechanical analyses of musculoskeletal stress during activities such as sport and at work. ”I’m particularly interested in the development and application Professor Peter Milburn of new technologies such as stereophotogrammetry which allows us to take accurate three dimensional measurements of the shape of the back and spine.” Some of his current projects include documenting the change in shape of the spine as it compresses and bends during the course of the day, during high intensity activity such as rugby scrums or pace bowling, and in specific conditions such as pregnancy. He is also interested in developing targeted exercise programs for overweight children who already suffer from extra loading on their knee and hip joints and typically experience pain or discomfort with physical activity. International researchers flexing their collective muscle A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to develop collaborative research initiatives in exercise physiology and other areas has been signed by the University of Copenhagen Muscle Research Centre and Griffith Health. The MoU initially supports a research partnership between Griffith’s muscle physiologist Dr Luke Haseler and internationally recognised exercise physiologist Professor Bengt Saltin, founder of the Copenhagen Muscle Research Centre. The two researchers have teamed up to further investigate how muscles use oxygen. Their findings will contribute valuable information to help combat heart and lung diseases such as chronic heart failure and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Professor Saltin’s extensive experience in the field and Dr Haseler’s expertise in magnetic resonance spectroscopy make for an extremely effective partnership. While magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanners are best known for taking images of the brain, Dr Haseler has designed a system for scanning lower limbs and obtaining real-time information on muscle function including the matching of oxygen delivery to metabolic demand. “Only a handful of places in the world can do these metabolic measurements,” he said. “Hopefully we will be able to tease out whether the problem in people with these conditions is due to poor blood flow and oxygen delivery to the muscle or a problem within the muscles themselves.” The research will also provide evidence about the effectiveness of exercise training in managing these conditions. The MoU builds on a 2006 Exchange Agreement for student and staff exchange between the two institutions, and mutual strengths in medicine, oral health, public health and biomedical sciences.
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Health Check Issue 19 2008 (PDF 283k) - Griffith University

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