Lisa Jane Wood

• PhD, PostGrad Dip. Health Promotion, BComm (Hons)
• Professor (Full) at The University of Notre Dame Australia

Introduction The COVID-19 pandemic disproportionally impacted people experiencing homelessness, including people sleeping rough, people in temporary accommodation and those living in boarding houses. This paper reports on intersectoral responses across six health and social care agencies in Inner Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Prior to the pan...

Background Homelessness is associated with significant health disparities. Conventional health services often fail to address the unique needs and lived experience of homeless individuals and fail to include participatory design when planning health services. This scoping review aimed to examine areas of patient experience that are most frequently...

Objective Life expectancy and rates of premature death are fundamental markers of health and social equity globally, and measures on which people experiencing homelessness face enormous disparities. However, unlike for other population groups with similar disparities, concerted government action to reduce homeless mortality is rare, partly due to a...

There is a need to identify the outcomes of changes in loneliness during adolescence, and to consider this within a multidimensional framework of loneliness. This study considered the effects of different trajectories of change in Isolation Loneliness and in Friendship Loneliness upon both positive wellbeing and symptoms of depression. To achieve t...

This is the third evaluation report of outcomes for the Royal Perth Hospital (RPH) Homeless Team, covering the Team’s first seven years of operation. The first and second reports examined outcomes from the Team’s first 18 months and 2.5 years of operation, respectively.

Homelessness internationally and within Australia and WA is strongly linked to poorer health outcomes, higher rates of hospital use, and a sobering three-decade gap in life expectancy. Barriers to health care access and engagement are contributing factors, but the absence of safe, stable housing remains a fundamental driver of poor health. The enor...

Background: Homelessness is associated with significant health disparities. Conventional health services often fail to address the unique needs of homeless individuals. This scoping review aimed to examine areas of patient experience that are most frequently reported by people experiencing homelessness when seeking and receiving healthcare, and to...

The MRC is Australia's first medical respite care service for people experiencing homelessness who are being discharged from hospital. The MRC provides medically supported short-term accommodation, allowing individuals the opportunity to rest and recover in a safe and therapeutic environment following hospital discharge, whilst linking them to comm...

The overarching aim of the MRC is to improve physical health, mental health, and social outcomes by facilitating the transition out of homelessness, underpinned by: To provide coordinated medical and respite care following hospital admission or emergency department presentation for people without safe discharge options; Identify and address physica...

The ED is often the first and sometimes the only place where people experiencing home-lessness seek medical assistance. While access to primary healthcare is a preferable and more cost-effective alternative to ED, for many reasons, people experiencing homelessness are much less likely to have a regular General Practitioner compared to those living...

Analyses of the prevalence of homelessness suggest homelessness is increasing in Australia and other countries. Yet, difficulties exist in obtaining an accurate picture of homelessness due to a dearth of robust data and inconsistent definitions. This study aimed to build a comprehensive descriptive profile of homelessness and associated health need...

Internationally and across Australia, community need has changed significantly since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. In Western Australia, there have been impacts on employment, a lack of affordable and available housing, and an increase in people experiencing or at risk of homelessness and financial hardship. There has also been an eme...

The 20 Lives 20 Homes program (20 Lives) was a local, collective impact, place-based response to ending homelessness in the Fremantle and South Metropolitan areas of Perth, Western Australia (WA), that ran between November 2019 and June 2022.

Adolescence is the peak period for loneliness. Now a ubiquitous part of the adolescent landscape, electronic screens may provide avenues for ameliorating feelings of loneliness. Conversely, they may act as risk factors for the development of such feelings. Although cross-sectional studies to date have investigated the relationship between screen us...

Objectives: To examine the prevalence of Australian Defence Force veterans among people sleeping rough and explore their health and social needs relative to non-veteran rough sleepers. Method: Analysis of responses to the Vulnerability Index – Service Prioritisation Decision Assistance Tool (VI-SPDAT) collected from 8,027 rough sleepers across five...

Background: Although the poor health of people experiencing homelessness is increasingly recognised in health discourse, there is a dearth of research that has quantified the nature and magnitude of chronic health issues and morbidity among people experiencing homelessness, particularly in the Australian context. Methods: Analysis of the medical...

Background One of the opposing arguments to restricting or banning the sale of tobacco products stem from a perception that this would adversely impact on small retail stores that rely on tobacco sales for viability. It has also been argued that purchases of tobacco leads to unplanned purchasing of other items that yield income for small store owne...

This report provides a socio-demographic profile of the homeless population in Adelaide and South Australia. It summarises available data in order to develop a picture of their health status as well as outstanding health and service needs, and outlines gaps in knowledge that could be served by future research.

The neighborhood is a critical setting that broadly affects health, although specific mechanisms that link relationships between the neighborhood environment and indicators of health are still emerging. Children playing is a simple, but underexplored marker that may explain how the neighborhood built environment is related to a psychological sense...

History shows that pandemics rarely impact on the population equally – the 14th century Black Death plague reduced the global population by a third, with the greatest number of deaths occurring among the poor.¹ Fast forward six centuries, and the same pandemic inequities are prevailing due to COVID‐19; with Smith and Judd articulating that “while C...

Background: The RESIDential Environments (RESIDE) project is a unique longitudinal natural experiment designed to evaluate the health impacts of the "Liveable Neighbourhoods" planning policy, which was introduced by the Western Australian government to create more walkable suburbs. Objectives: To summarize the RESIDE evidence of the impact of th...

Background: Aboriginal people in rural and remote areas of the Northern Territory of Australia have suffered longstanding issues of homelessness and profound health and social inequities. The town and region of Katherine are particularly impacted by such inequities and have the highest rates of homelessness in Australia, composed almost entirely o...

In response to the need for stable and adequate funding for tobacco control and the shortage of personnel working in the field, the Vietnam Tobacco Control Fund (VNTCF) was established through the Law on Prevention and Control of Tobacco Harms in 2012. In September 2014, VNTCF awarded its first set of grants. Built on the local evidence-based conte...

Issue addressed: Tobacco products remain widely available and unplanned purchasing of tobacco has been implicated in cessation relapse. Little is known however about the frequency of consumers' unplanned tobacco purchases or the type of retail outlets where this is more likely to occur. Methods: Questions on cigarette purchasing were added to a...

This is a snapshot report of Homeless Healthcare's Street Health Service. Street Health is a nurse-led street outreach program that provides nursing care and support to rough sleepers in conjunction with a community case worker in Perth, Western Australia. This report uses clinic and hospital administrative data, based on clients who were seen betw...

Background Chronic homelessness is a problem characterised by longstanding inability to attain or maintain secure accommodation. Longitudinal research with homeless populations is challenging, and randomised controlled trials that evaluate the effectiveness of intensive, case management interventions aimed at improving housing and health-related ou...

Homelessness is a massive social, humanitarian and health issue in Western Australia. It results in adverse health outcomes including increased mortality and multiple morbidities. The Royal Perth Hospital (RPH) Homeless Team is a collaboration between RPH and Homeless Healthcare (HHC) General Practice. The RPH Homeless Team provides in-reach Genera...

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Purpose Homelessness is a colossal issue, precipitated by a wide array of social determinants, and mirrored in substantial health disparities and a revolving hospital door. Connecting people to safe and secure housing needs to be part of the health system response. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach This mixed-meth...

Purpose Co-existing health conditions and frequent hospital usage are pervasive in homeless populations. Without a home to be discharged to, appropriate discharge care and treatment compliance are difficult. The Medical Respite Centre (MRC) model has gained traction in the USA, but other international examples are scant. The purpose of this paper...

Adolescents are constantly connected with each other and the digital landscape through a myriad of screen media devices. Unprecedented access to the wider world and hence a variety of activities, particularly since the introduction of mobile technology, has given rise to questions regarding the impact of this changing media environment on the menta...

Homeless Healthcare is an innovative example of a specialised multi-site General Practice (GP) that seeks to meet the primary healthcare needs of people who are homeless, while also assisting patients to access housing and other support to break the cycle of homelessness. Although the physical delivery of healthcare is the entry point, it recognise...

Summary of Homeless Healthcare evaluation report October 2018

People experiencing homelessness have multiple complex health conditions yet are typically disengaged from primary health care services and place a significant burden on the acute health system. Barriers preventing people who are homeless from accessing primary care can be both personal and practical and include competing needs and priorities, illn...

Despite growing acknowledgement of the socially determined nature of health disparities among Aboriginal people, how to respond to this within health promotion programs can be challenging. The legacy of Australia’s assimilation policies have left profound consequences, including social marginalisation, limited educational opportunities, normalisati...

The 2014 National Review of Mental Health Programmes and Services by the NMHC drew attention to the need of local planning of care for people with a lived experience of mental illness in Australia, and the relevance of a bottom- up approach to understanding “services available locally [in] the development of national policy” (NMHC, 2014). In its re...

There is a growing body of literature identifying the benefits for families from accessing information and communicating online. What is less investigated and reported is the potential downside of online information, support and networks for parents of young children. Parents with at least one child 0–5 years of age (n = 487) were asked if they fe...

The Royal Perth Homeless Team (RPH HT) commenced in July 2016 as a collaboration between Royal Perth Hospital (RPH) and the Homeless Healthcare General Practice (HHC GP). The core aim of the RPH HT is to improve outcomes for homeless patients by supporting them through their time in hospital, improving discharge planning and continuity of care and...

Background: High quality, longitudinal data describing young people's screen use across a number of distinct forms of screen activity is missing from the literature. This study tracked multiple screen use activities (passive screen use, gaming, social networking, web searching) amongst 10- to 17-year-old adolescents across 24 months. Methods: Th...

The aim of this evaluation was to assess the social and developmental benefits of mountain biking as a way of engaging young people in recreational activity. The impact of the program across six domains was considered; these included the development of life skills; leadership and mentoring skills; and bike maintenance knowledge and skills; along wi...

Background: Homelessness is associated with enormous health inequalities, including shorter life expectancy, higher morbidity and greater usage of acute hospital services. Viewed through the lens of social determinants, homelessness is a key driver of poor health, but homelessness itself results from accumulated adverse social and economic conditi...

Infographic summarising the key findings in relation to mental health from the "What are the health and economic benefits of providing housing and support to formerly homeless people?" research report. See full report for more information.

Infographic summarising the key findings and implications of the "What are the health and economic benefits of providing housing and support to formerly homeless people?" research report. See full report for further information.

Background: This research examined the impact of a programme integrating therapeutic music and group discussions (Holyoake's DRUMBEAT programme) on disadvantaged adolescents’ mental wellbeing, psychological distress, post-traumatic stress symptoms and antisocial behaviour. Method: Students displaying antisocial behaviours in grades eight to ten at...

Disengaged and at-risk young people often have difficulty in their development as they head towards adulthood, and many of their outcomes in various areas of their life are often worse than those of their peers. For some time now, outdoor and adventure recreation has been shown to be a useful tool for facilitating the development of life skills, im...

This report presents results of an evaluation of four SVHM homeless services; (i) Assessment, Liaison, & Early Referral Team (ALERT), (ii) Clarendon Homeless Outreach Psychiatric Service (CHOPS), (iii) The Sister Francesca Healy Cottage (The Cottage) and, (iv) Prague House. There were eight specific objectives guiding the evaluation, the essence be...

Associations between parks and mental health have typically been investigated in relation to the presence or absence of mental illness. This study uses a validated measure of positive mental health and data from RESIDential Environments (RESIDE) Project to investigate the association between the presence, amount and attributes of public green space...

This study examined the association and directionality of effect between mental wellbeing and depressive symptoms in Australian adolescents. Data were collected on two occasions 21 months apart. At Time 1, 1,762 10- to 14-year-old adolescents from a range of socio-economic status areas participated. At Time 2 (T2), 1,575 participated again. On both...

This Integrated Atlas of Western Australia, commissioned by the Western Australian Primary Health Alliance (WAPHA) and the Western Australia Mental Health Commission aligns with the recommendations of the 2014 National Mental Health Commission report for local and regional planning. It is a tool for evidence informed planning that critically analys...

This research report constitutes the first of three reports for the evaluation of the 50 Lives. 50 Lives is a cross-sectoral collaborative project between a range of Perth-based agencies, including Ruah Community Services (which provides backbone support to the project) and, 27 other partner organisations to date, including, homelessness support se...

Background: Although public health concerns have been raised regarding the detrimental health effects of increasing rates of electronic screen use among adolescents, such effects have been small. Instruments currently available tend to be lengthy, have a clinical research focus, and assess young people's screen use on specific screen-based activit...

Parents' concern about children's safety is a recurring theme in studies exploring children's independent mobility and play. However, few studies have investigated neighbourhood features influencing parents' fear of strangers harming their child, nor the extent to which this fear is influenced by socio-economic status (SES). We explored i) parents'...

Few longitudinal studies have examined the impact of liquor licences on alcohol consumption, and none in young adults, the life stage when alcohol intake is at its highest. We examined associations between liquor licences (i.e., general licences, on-premise licences, liquor stores, and club licences) and alcohol consumption at 20-years (n=988) and...

Highlights • Pet ownership is significantly associated with higher levels of social capital. • Social capital was associated with pet ownership in the U.S. and Australia. • Results are not confined to dog owners nor dog walkers. • Pets are an under-recognized conduit for building social capital.

Linked government and administrative data sets are increasingly recognised as a powerful resource for program evaluation and policy research in a range of sectors, including health care, housing, and social services, and have been used world-wide for conducting health and social science research. This paper explores the potential application of suc...

This Integrated Atlas of Western Australia, commissioned by the Western Australian Primary Health Alliance (WAPHA) and the Western Australia Mental Health Commission aligns with the recommendations of the National Mental Health Commission's Review of Programmes in 2014 which drew attention to the need for local planning and mapping of services and...

This Inquiry into the funding and delivery of programs to reduce homelessness in Australia provides the first comprehensive Australian evidence of the funding of specialist homelessness services (SHSs) and mainstream services (e.g. in the health sector) with a homelessness service delivery focus. It examines the funding of these services and the im...

Introduction and aims: Research suggests that there are area-level disparities in alcohol outlets, with greater density in disadvantaged areas. In part, this might be explained by the inequitable distribution of retail, attracted by lower rents to disadvantaged neighbourhoods. This ecological study examines the distribution of liquor licences in P...

This report is one of three reports to be released as part of an AHURI Inquiry into the funding and delivery of programs to reduce homelessness. It provides evidence from the Australian Homelessness Funding and Delivery Survey of how services supporting those experiencing homelessness are funded and how different forms of funding and the level of f...