INCLUSIVE FUTURES BOOK CLUB
A conversation with authors Dr. Marita Heck (author of Secret Forces) and conversation partners Lisa Cox and Chantelle Otten.

Inclusive Futures: Reimagining Disability, Griffith University hosted our latest #BookClub event on #SexualHealth, #wellbeing and #disability, with author Marita Heck and conversation partners Lisa Cox and Chantelle Otten online, on Wednesday, 23 August on Microsoft Teams.

It is a human right to experience positive #SexualHealth and wellbeing, yet it is a topic that is often neglected and ignored. Please join us (via our online recording) for an open, honest discussion about challenges experienced by #PeopleWithDisability and how we can increase awareness, education and support.

Dr Marita Heck (PhD, Master of Midwifery, Bachelor of Nursing Science) is an Adjunct Research Fellow with The Hopkins Centre, Menzies Health Institute Queensland, Griffith University on the Gold Coast in Queensland. Dr Heck is further a member of the Griffith University’s Inclusive Futures task force. In this space, Dr Heck is leading a consumer-led multidisciplinary research project in collaboration with five Australian universities promoting holistic sexual health support for people living with a spinal cord injury.

In addition, Dr Heck conducts research into supporting women living with an SCI in pre-pregnancy, antenatal, birth and postnatal support. Dr Heck is further a very experienced #clinician working with people living with a disability in the sexuality and fertility, and antenatal, birth and postnatal period in the Australian community. Besides her work in the research and the clinical setting, Dr Heck is a vivid romance novel author and published her first suspense romance novel Secret Forces in 2020.

Lisa Cox is an Internationally awarded thought leader, TEDx speaker, #authorand consultant who is working with business, government, Griffith University and others to help create solutions and change social attitudes towards disability. Her work has been recognised around the globe and featured in media like FOX, NBC News, Huffington Post, Smart Company, Vogue and AdNews Australia.

Chantelle Otten is a Melbourne based Psycho-Sexologist who is passionate about empowering people to feel great about their sexual health, self-esteem, communication and education. With a background in scientific research, sexual medicine, and counselling, she believes that sexuality and self-esteem are an integral part of life, which everyone is entitled to. Good sexual health should always be enjoyable, pain free and without prejudice.

For those who missed the event, you can access the recording here https://youtu.be/11DP3nz_Tn4 - A full and accessible transcript can be provided upon request.

For more information about the author Dr. Marita Heck:
https://www.amazon.com.au/Secret-Forces-Marita-Heck-ebook/dp/B08KTSLM2G

https://www.sexpositivecommunity.com/

For more information about Lisa Cox:

https://lisacox.co/

https://www.instagram.com/lisacox.co/

For more information about Chantelle Otten:

https://chantelleotten.com/

https://www.instagram.com/chantelle_otten_sexologist/

If you would like to stay up to date with upcoming events and join the Inclusive Futures book club community, you can join up here: https://inclusivefutures.griffith.edu.au/inclusive-futures-book-club?tool=survey_tool#tool_tab

If you have any questions or would like a copy of the transcript, please do not hesitate to contact the team at inclusivefutures@griffith.edu.au.

INCLUSIVE FUTURES: REIMAGINING DISABILITY - INDUSTRY ADVISORY BOARD

Griffith Inclusive Futures: Reimagining Disability (IFRD) Industry Advisory Board is a rare collective of amazing leaders, influencers and achievers in business, industry, and society. The Board’s role is to advise on strategic direction and identify and review sustainability pathways and opportunities for growth and influence.

They are passionate about extending the Beacon’s work into industry, by connecting our cutting-edge research and researchers with real-world commercial possibilities, applications, and solutions.

The Advisory Board members are mentors, connectors, and supporters, they help grow researcher’s skills, networks and impacts by providing personalised guidance, introductions, resources, and feedback.

They listen to the needs and challenges of both sides and help the researchers find and seize commercial opportunities and industry to connect and engage with our researchers and programs.

They also create and oversee their own industry projects that combine and leverage the expertise, research and capabilities across different researchers and IFRD research specialities, which deliver innovative and practical products and services for the disability sector and into industry.

Our incredible team of Industry Advisors include:

• Morris Misel – Board Chair, Industry Fellow, and Global Foresight Strategist
• Prof. Abby Bloom – Adjunct Professor and Industry Fellow
• Dawn Adams – Industry Fellow and Founder/Imagination Coach, Imagination Session
• Sharon Hunneybell – Industry Fellow, and CEO, The Gold Coast Innovation Hub
• Scott Chapman – Industry Fellow, and Co-Founder, Able Digital Wellness Pty Ltd
• Justin MacDonald – Industry Fellow, and Managing Director, Just SDA Management Pty Ltd
• Ali Galadari – Industry Fellow, and CEO, Compago

For more information, contact:

Morris Misel, Board Chair

m.misel@griffith.edu.au

Education is more than a privilege; it’s a pathway to success.

Griffith’s Inclusive Futures: Reimagining Disability research alliance is committed to supporting students with disability to achieve their educational aspirations.

To this end, we are pleased to announce an exciting opportunity for a student with a permanent disability to undertake a HDR program at Griffith University in 2024.

The Griffith University Disability Scholar Research Scholarship provides a stipend of AUD $32,192 (2023 rate, indexed annually) — paid as a fortnightly stipend, to support a commencing candidate of exceptional research potential, who has a permanent disability and who may have experienced educational disadvantage, while they undertake a higher degree research program at Griffith University.

In addition to the usual research allowance allocated to HDR candidates to support the cost of their research period, a GUDSRS awardee is provided an additional research support allowance of up to $6,000 for the entirety of a Doctoral Program (or a pro rata amount for a Masters Research program) to support research related costs associated with a disability.

This scholarship is available for international onshore and domestic students.

Apply before 5 September for intake 1, 2024.

https://www.griffith.edu.au/research/inclusive-futures-reimagining-disability

For more information contact:

Griffith Graduate Research School

Phone: 07 373 53817
Email: hdr-scholarship@griffith.edu.au
Web: Griffith Graduate Research School

NATIONAL STROKE WEEK 7-13 August 2023

Living Well: Promoting adherence to stroke secondary prevention behaviours by imparting behaviour change skills (GU ref no: 2022/308)

National Stroke Week 2023 encourages the community to fight stroke together, so that you and your loved ones can continue to enjoy life during and after recovery.

Fighting stroke together aims to bring people together to share knowledge, support and resources to help prevent strokes form occurring and to aid in the recovery process for those who have experienced stroke.

People who have had a stroke are at a higher risk of having another stroke.

Making healthy changes can help reduce this risk, but not everyone gets the right support after they leave the hospital. That's why National Stroke Foundation, along with experts at Griffith University, developed "Living Well After Stroke".

This program teaches stroke survivors how to manage their own health by helping them make changes to their behaviour like eating more healthily, increasing physical activity, and taking medications regularly.

The intervention is expected to improve patients' healthy behaviours and teach them how to make further changes independently. The goal is that this program will help prevent recurrent stroke and transform how we care for stroke patients in Australia.

Chief Investigator:

Professor Kyra Hamilton, Director, Health and Psychology Innovations (HaPI), School of Applied Psychology, Griffith University

Co Investigators:

Professor Joy Parkinson - ACU, Dr Stephanie Smith – Stroke Foundation & Griffith University, Tom Caitens, Andrea Sanders and Dr Lisa Murphy – Stroke Foundation

Get involved or find out more:

https://strokefoundation.org.au/what-we-do/prevention-programs/living-well-after-stroke

Contact:
Professor Kyra Hamilton

kyra.hamilton@griffith.edu.au

or

Dr Stephanie Smith

Living Well After Stroke Coordinator

Stroke Foundation

ssmith@strokefoundation.org.au

Visit our websites:

HaPI Lab: hapiresearchlab.com

Stroke Foundation: https://strokefoundation.org.au

DESIGN CAFÉ PILOT

Co-designing solutions people want and need

Last Saturday, 22 July at Griffith University’s Gold Coast Campus, “Design Lab” Lead - Mathew McShane delivered our first Inclusive Futures Design Café Pilot program.

The Design Cafe is a community building and technological engagement project that brings together engineers, designers, and occupational therapists with people with disability, to explore engineering and technology solutions to challenges people face every day.

Together with people who have lived experience, the program put forward new, co-created solutions for development, and thus provided valuable enhancements to people’s lives.

“We had an amazing opportunity to collaborate on inclusive designs during this event, truly embracing the essence of co-design. It was remarkable to directly learn from users and understand their unique challenges, while actively involving them in the design process. Such involvement has often been overlooked when designing for disability, but this event showcased a refreshing approach to human-centred design.”

For more information on future Design Cafés, please contact:

Matt McShane

m.mcshane@griffith.edu.au, or

Inclusive Futures: Reimagining Disability

inclusivefutures@griffith.edu.au

Congratulations to the Inclusive Futures: Reimagining Disability and Griffith University staff, students and ambassadors with disability who competed in the 2023 Gold Coast Marathon this weekend.

A shout out to several members of our team who powered home to the finishing line in their respective races:

Katie standing next to Running Guide Simon. Both smiling and showing their finisher’s medals.

KATIE KELLY OAM PLY & SIMON FOSTER

Inclusive Futures Engagement Council and Gold Medalist para-triathlete (Rio 2016 Paralympics) Katie Kelly and her amazing guide Simon ran a powerful race together in the full marathon 42.2km (F45-49) today with a time of 3:47:56 – Congratulations Katie and Simon!!! We are in awe of not only your combined endurance and stamina, but your incredible teamwork!

“Today I could run because of people like Simon. A father of two, with his own business, he found time to train with me on the weekends and run today. That’s community at its best. And today despite the challenges of running with less than 5-degree vision, I felt free. I was reminded again why we must always stay focussed on celebrating what we can do today.” Katie Kelly OAM PLY

MICHAEL DOBBIE-BRIDGES OAM PLY

Michael—a former Paralympic tennis champion and Inclusive Futures Engagement Council Member raced the 21km (M40-44) event on Saturday, with a most impressive 2:07:42 time – Epic result, Michael!

Kudos also to Michael and Katie, who teamed up to raise money for the Sports Access Foundation, which supports children with disability to play more sport and live healthier and happier lives.

DR MARETTA MANN

Maretta, our very own Inclusive Futures Strategic Development Manager, ran an exceptional race in the 10km (F45-49) with a 53:30 time. Exceptional time Maretta!

And lastly, a shout out to JUSTIN PAMENTER, from Griffith’s Learning Futures team, who ran his second fastest time in the 10km, with 59:37 (M50-54).

Congratulations to all the athletes and citizens with disability and chronic conditions who competed. Awesome achievement everyone!

Did you participate in the event? Let us know, so we can celebrate with you!

Inclusive Futures: Reimagining Disability, Griffith University would like to extend a warm welcome to our newest team member Dr. Talitha Kingsmill, Research Fellow. Dr. Talitha Kingsmill is a Non-Executive Director, consultant, educator and solicitor with 25 years’ experience across the private, public and NFP sectors in law, education, educational leadership, research, digital citizenship, cybersecurity, regulatory compliance and policy development.

With 18 years of experience working and raising a family while living with a vision disability, Talitha is a passionate advocate for equitable, accessible opportunities for all.

Talitha believes that access in all its forms is fundamental to equitable opportunity so that individuals may live their best lives. Her lived and professional experiences provide rich insights to the confronting and very real challenges and obstacles for people living with disability and equip Talitha to be a powerful and articulate disability and inclusion advocate.

Talitha’s doctoral research concerned the integration of digital citizenship (safe, responsible and respectful online engagement) in secondary school curriculum. She has published and presented within Australia and internationally in the field of building individual and collective digital citizenship capacity. In 2017, Talitha was awarded an Australian Council for Educational Leaders Research in Educational Leadership and Management Award for exceptional academic achievement in advanced studies in educational leadership.

Talitha understands that a collective voice achieved through consultation and collaboration is powerful, and passionately advocates for this.

Dr. Kingsmill will be working with Prof. Elizabeth Kendall to establish and develop the Queensland Disability Research Network (QDRN) – an enterprise led by researchers with disability and researchers with a particular focus or expertise in the disability sector across Queensland universities.

FIND OUT MORE:

https://qdn.org.au/meet-your-nominees/dr-talitha-kingsmill/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/tkingsmill/

Inclusive Futures: Reimagining Disability:

https://www.griffith.edu.au/research/inclusive-futures-reimagining-disability

CONTACT:

t.kingsmill@griffith.edu.au or inclusivefutures@griffith.edu.au or qdrn@griffith.edu.au

National Pain Week is Australia’s annual awareness event for chronic pain. National Pain Week takes place in the last week of July each year and aims to support and provide awareness to the 3.6 million Australian’s living with chronic pain.

This week Griffith Inclusive Futures: Reimagining Disability, together with The Hopkins Centre has teamed up with Dr Nicholas Aitcheson, Rehabilitation and Pain Specialist, at Metro South Pain Rehabilitation Centre to raise awareness, further explain acute and chronic pain, how the body feels pain, current treatment options and lifestyle solutions.

Keep an eye out each day this week, as we share information, tips and tricks that can help you can create a new life path with pain and why you should do it.

Acute pain vs chronic pain

Picture a child with a band-aid vs a person with pills and injections and ongoing pain.

Our upbringing often tells us that pain is associated with body damage and that we need to rest and get other people’s help to fix it. This works for acute pain, but in chronic pain we need to take control of our own lives, actively work on changing our bodies and minds and find new ways of existing, instead of trying to return to a life that we miss and are nostalgic about.

Relying on rest leads to deconditioning, isolation and weakness. Relying on other people can lead to dynamics of disempowerment. Similarly, relying on medications and surgery leads to reliance on interventions that promise only temporary relief and can have serious side effects.

Check with your health professional that you are safe to proceed (most people with chronic pain are sore but stable and are safe to move). Then gently and progressively start to actively create a new life for yourself.

The graphic below shows the difference between Acute and Chronic pain.

Chronic pain is like a malfunctioning, overly sensitive alarm system.

In acute pain our alarm system is working well. If there is body damage or the potential for damage, then we feel it and do something about it.

In chronic pain the alarm system reacts too strongly with only very small input. It is like a smoke alarm going off when you are cooking toast or a car alarm going off when it rains. The alarm does not accurately represent the threat to the body. Often in chronic pain, the body is stable and safe, but the alarm system is still going.

The brain drives the pain

Pain is felt in the brain. What we are starting to understand is that our mood and the way we think about pain affects the strength of the pain signal that reaches our brain. If we are really worried about the meaning of the pain, then the pain tends to be worse. If you can successfully change your thinking around pain, then you can “decrease the volume” on the pain signal by affecting the pain signal transmission in the spinal cord and brain.

Here are some thoughts that may be unhelpful and some ways to address them:

My body is broken. It wouldn’t be so painful unless there was something seriously wrong.

Pain can exist without damage. Amount of pain does not reflect amount of damage. Think “sore but safe”, “hurt not harm”

This pain means I’m never going to be able to do anything I enjoy again.

Think of the things you can enjoy now even with your current condition. Enjoy those things and gently find ways to expand the things you enjoy.

My back is so sore that I’ll probably be in a wheelchair soon.

Pain is often not indicative of damage, especially not the kind of nerve damage that leads to paralysis.

I might not be able to work for much longer because of this pain and then I won’t be able to support myself or my family.

These are reasonable thoughts to have, however worrying about them can make pain worse. Trying to address unhelpful, repetitive thoughts can help with your pain.

I need to protect my body. That’s why I keep my muscles so tense.

Muscle tension in itself usually leads to worsening of chronic pain. Gentle relaxation and movement is much more beneficial.

Low mood, anxiety, excessive worry, poor sleep all increase pain as well, so dealing with these tends to improve pain.

Movement as a way to teach the brain

Sometimes our brain is unable to realise that our body is not broken and it needs the body to lead the way.

Slowly progressing activity with a relaxed and attentive attitude can help the brain to learn how the body is able to move in relaxed and less guarded ways. Tai chi, Feldenkrais, gentle yoga and qigong are all movement practices that can help in this way. Pacing yourself and slowly increasing your activity (rather than trying to go too hard too soon) can help with this approach.

Find out more by reading the Pain Revolution fact sheets:

https://www.painrevolution.org/factsheets

For more information, contact:

Dr Nicholas Aitcheson
Rehabilitation and Pain Specialist
Metro South Pain Rehabilitation Centre

Nicholas.aitcheson@health.qld.gov.au

A Griffith University and Queenslanders with Disability Network-led research initiative to discover the lived experience of Queenslanders with disability was released at Australia’s Disability Strategy Forum in Brisbane today.

The first annual Voice of Queenslanders with Disability report which aims to inform policy to remove barriers to access and produce equitable outcomes for a diverse Queensland, was funded by the Queensland Government and delivered in partnership with Queenslanders with Disability Network.

Griffith researchers adopted a unique approach to gathering survey information by engaging nine citizen scientists with lived experience of disability to enable participants to share their stories authentically and transparently about challenges and successes in their lives.

Griffith Inclusive Futures: Reimagining Disability and Hopkins Centre Research Fellow Kelsey Chapman said the initiative examined a range of areas which impact daily life for Queenslanders with disability.

“The findings reflect a meaningful step towards understanding what life is like for Queenslanders with disability, their family and carers, and the organisations that support them,” Ms Chapman said.

““Participants called for improved standard of living and social protection for Queenslanders with disability, to improve economic security, accessible housing, increased employment opportunities, and support lifelong learning.”

Read more about the report in Griffith News: https://news.griffith.edu.au/2023/06/19/first-annual-report-reveals-lived-experience-of-queenslanders-with-disability/

Please email inclusivefutures@griffith.edu.au for a PDF copy of the dashboard (see below).

Image 1: Left: IFRD Researchers Kelsey Chapman and Dr Camila Shirota stand in front of the Queensland’s Disability Plan pull up banners, Top Right: Craig Crawford MP delivers the Ministers Address to attendees from the stage, Bottom Right: Panel 2 sit on the stage, including Katie Kelly, A/P Michelle Villeneuve and Jennifer Cullen with moderator Peter Tully. Bottom: Logos – Griffith University, Inclusive Futures: Reimagining Disability and The Hopkins Centre.

Image 2: Top: Panel 2 on the stage including Kevin Cocks, Katie Kelly, A/P Michelle Villeneuve and Jennifer Cullen with moderator Peter Tully, Bottom Left: Craig Crawford MP delivers the Ministers Address to attendees from the stage, Bottom Right: Mathew Ames sit in his motor chair and addresses the audience. Bottom: Logos – Griffith University, Inclusive Futures: Reimagining Disability and The Hopkins Centre.

Image 3: The Sunshine Troupe performing a western style line dance on stage at the Australia’s Disability Strategy Queensland Forum. Dancing in time to the music, the troupe are wearing western attire, consisting of black jeans and boots, shiny gold belt buckles with longhorn bull head and fringed or embroidered collared western style shirts and black cowboy hats. Bottom: Logos – Griffith University, Inclusive Futures: Reimagining Disability and The Hopkins Centre.

Below: The Queenslanders with Disability Dashboard infographic

SUPPORT FOR STUDENTS WITH A DISABILITY

This scholarship supports a commencing student with a disability, who is experiencing financial hardship and/or educational disadvantage.

• Targeted: to commencing students with a disability.
• Value: up to $20,000
• Level of study: Undergraduate
• Apply by: 4pm Monday 19 June 2023

APPLY NOW!

https://www.griffith.edu.au/scholarships/scholarship-listings/matt-levy-inclusive-futures-scholarship

More information: inclusivefutures@griffith.edu.au