Improving collaboration between private psychiatrists, the public mental health sector and general practitioners : evaluation of the Partnership Project

Objectives: We describe the evaluation of the Partnership Project, which was designed to improve linkages between public and private sector mental health services. We consider the Project's key elements: a Linkage Unit, designed to improve collaborative arrangements for consumers and promote systems-level and cultural change; and the expansion of private psychiatrists' roles to include supervision and training, case conferencing and secondary consultation. The evaluation aimed to describe the impacts and outcomes of these elements.

Method: The evaluation used de-identified data from the Linkage Unit database, the Project's billing system, and the Health Insurance Commission (HIC). It drew on consultations with key stakeholders (semistructured interviews with 36 key informants, and information from a forum attended by over 40 carers and a meeting of five public sector and three private sector psychiatrists) and a series of case studies.

Results: The Linkage Unit facilitated 224 episodes of collaborative care, many of which had positive outcomes for providers, consumers and carers. It had a significant impact at a systems level, raising consciousness about collaboration and influencing procedural changes. Thirty-two private psychiatrists consented to undertaking expanded roles, and the Project was billed $78 032 accordingly. Supervision and training were most common, involving 16 psychiatrists and accounting for approximately 80% of the total hours and cost. Commonwealth expenditure on private psychiatrists' participation in the expanded roles was not associated with a reduction in benefits paid by the HIC. Key informants were generally positive about the expanded roles.

Conclusions: The Project represented a considered, innovative approach to dealing with poor collaboration between the public mental health sector, private psychiatrists and GPs. The Linkage Unit achieved significant systems-level and cultural change, which has the potential to be sustained. Expanded roles for private psychiatrists, particularly supervision and training, may improve collaboration, and warrant further exploration in terms of costs and benefits.

Teaching like an artist : the pedagogic identities and practices of artists in schools

This article reports findings from an ethnographic study of the arts curriculum and pedagogy in a British primary school. The policy context for the study is the school's involvement in promoting creative partnerships between teachers and artists. The pedagogies of three different artist-led projects are analysed, using a Bernsteinian framework, and are characterised in relation to notions of 'competence' and 'performance' pedagogies. These characterisations are then used to consider the impact of the artists' pedagogies on teachers in the school, and the extent to which the different pedagogies promote inclusion. Broad conclusions are drawn about the relative difficulty of adopting competence pedagogies in the current educational culture of British schools; more specific conclusions are drawn about the importance of time, text, discourse and interpretation in arts pedagogies.

Collaboration in the online e-learning environment

Based on the fundamental elements of computer Supported Collaborative Learning, the Online Collaboration Model was developed to improve teaching and learning outcomes for students and staff. This model now stands as a framework that can support further exploration and inquiry into issues related to collaboration in the online e-learning environment.

Supporting community, culture and collaboration with emerging e-Learning technologies

This thesis examined whether wikis, online lectures and Drupal could be used to support community, culture and collaboration in an e-Learning environment. A series of information technology usability studies informed the iterative development of the technologies, culminating in a framework for implementing e-Learning technologies to support community, culture and collaboration.

Undertaking public health research in collaboration with disenfranchised groups

Examines a series of projects conducted by a university research centre in collaboration with a sex worker organisation. The aim was to establish guiding principles for a practical, ethical, and methodologically sound approach to conducting collaborative participatory health research with disenfranchised groups.

International collaboration for women in IT : how to avoid reinventing the wheel

This paper uses information contributed by ACM-W Ambassadors from nine countries to build a picture of women working to improve the gender balance in IT around the world. The focus on women’s participation in education, the workforce and the political arena is presented using Hofstede and Hofstede’s (2005) dimensions of cultural masculinity, power distribution and individuality for each of the ACM-W Ambassador countries to set the scene. It is apparent from this compilation of information that different social and cultural climates in many parts of the world will necessitate different actions by ACM-W Ambassadors in their respective countries. While the ACM-W Ambassador program provides a forum for ideas, support and strategies to deal with the under-representation of women in IT, many of the current Ambassadors have more pressing issues to deal with, and indeed a ‘one size for all’ model for programs to promote IT to women will not be suitable. Exploring the network from an Australian perspective this work demonstrates that much is to be gained from increasing international networks to share the strategies and support required to encourage more women into IT.

Collaboration with entrepreneurship education programmes : building spinout capacity at universities

As the University Spin Out (USO) has become a highly desirable outcome for commercialization efforts, the development of entrepreneurial capacity within the university system becomes increasingly more important. We hypothesize that entrepreneurship education (EE) programs ceterus paribus may play a role in developing this capacity. This paper examines the attitudes and perceptions of academics who are directly involved in the field of EE programs with four research goals in mind: 1) to determine whether or not there are perceived advantages to collaboration between EE programs and technology transfer departments, 2) identify specific factors that influence these perceptions, (3) query academics as to perceived barriers to collaboration, and (4) to identify whether collaborations already exist and categorize them. Our findings suggest that significant advantages from collaboration between these two functions are perceived and that indirect linkages are believed to be more important than direct linkages.

The Early Prevention of Obesity in CHildren (EPOCH) collaboration : an individual patient data prospective meta-analysis

Background
Efforts to prevent the development of overweight and obesity have increasingly focused early in the life course as we recognise that both metabolic and behavioural patterns are often established within the first few years of life. Randomised controlled trials (RCTs) of interventions are even more powerful when, with forethought, they are synthesised into an individual patient data (IPD) prospective meta-analysis (PMA). An IPD PMA is a unique research design where several trials are identified for inclusion in an analysis before any of the individual trial results become known and the data are provided for each randomised patient. This methodology minimises the publication and selection bias often associated with a retrospective meta-analysis by allowing hypotheses, analysis methods and selection criteria to be specified a priori.

Methods/Design
The Early Prevention of Obesity in CHildren (EPOCH) Collaboration was formed in 2009. The main objective of the EPOCH Collaboration is to determine if early intervention for childhood obesity impacts on body mass index (BMI) z scores at age 18-24 months. Additional research questions will focus on whether early intervention has an impact on children's dietary quality, TV viewing time, duration of breastfeeding and parenting styles. This protocol includes the hypotheses, inclusion criteria and outcome measures to be used in the IPD PMA. The sample size of the combined dataset at final outcome assessment (approximately 1800 infants) will allow greater precision when exploring differences in the effect of early intervention with respect to pre-specified participant- and intervention-level characteristics.

Discussion
Finalisation of the data collection procedures and analysis plans will be complete by the end of 2010. Data collection and analysis will occur during 2011-2012 and results should be available by 2013.

The development of a network for community based obesity prevention : the CO-OPS collaboration

Background: Community-based interventions are a promising approach and an important component of a comprehensive response to obesity. In this paper we describe the Collaboration of COmmunity-based Obesity Prevention Sites (CO-OPS Collaboration) in Australia as an example of a collaborative network to enhance the quality and quantity of obesity prevention action at the community level. The core aims of the CO-OPS Collaboration are to: identify and analyse the lessons learned from a range of community-based initiatives aimed at tackling obesity, and; to identify the elements that make community-based obesity prevention initiatives successful and share the knowledge gained with other communities.
Methods: Key activities of the collaboration to date have included the development of a set of Best Practice Principles and knowledge translation and exchange activities to promote the application (or use) of evidence, evaluation and analysis in practice.
Results: The establishment of the CO-OPS Collaboration is a significant step toward strengthening action in this area, by bringing together research, practice and policy expertise to promote best practice, high quality evaluation and knowledge translation and exchange. Future development of the network should include facilitation of further
evidence generation and translation drawing from process, impact and outcome evaluation of existing communitybased interventions.
Conclusions: The lessons presented in this paper may help other networks like CO-OPS as they emerge around the globe. It is important that networks integrate with each other and share the experience of creating these networks.