Stuart Auckland

University of Tasmania · University Department of Rural Health (UDRH)

Suicide rates in rural communities are higher than in urban areas, and communities play a crucial role in suicide prevention. This study explores community-based suicide prevention using a qualitative research design. Semi-structured interviews and focus groups asked participants to explore community-based suicide prevention in the context of rural...

Purpose With emerging evidence indicating that systems-based approaches help optimise suicide prevention efforts, the National Suicide Prevention Trial sought to gather evidence on the appropriateness of these approaches to prevent suicide among at-risk populations, in regional and rural communities throughout Australia. The Tasmanian component of...

Background Food insecurity during the COVID-19 pandemic has been impacted by necessary public health restrictions. Tasmania, an island state south of the Australian mainland, recorded no community transmission of COVID-19 between May 2020 to November 2021 due to strong border restrictions. This study aimed to determine the changes in prevalence and...

Background The COVID-19 pandemic and associated public health restrictions temporarily disrupted food supply chains around the world and changed the way people shopped for food, highlighting issues with food systems resilience and sustainability. The aim of this study was to explore consumer-driven strategies towards a more resilient and sustainabl...

Introduction: Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, queer, and people with a diversity of sexual and gender identities (LGBTIQ+) residing in rural contexts may face additional challenges to attaining wellbeing, yet a comprehensive understanding of these experiences is lacking. The purpose of the systematic review is to address this knowle...

The benefits of positive education initiatives are well understood in educational settings but less is known about how positive education can support remote communities to embrace change and become more resilient. This paper draws on the findings from an evaluative study of the Foundations to Flourish (F2F), a positive education programme, delivere...

The COVID-19 lockdown disrupted food supply chains across the world, and social distancing and travel restrictions changed how, when and where people shopped. Tasmania relies on imports and exports with mainland Australia and other countries, despite a thriving agricultural sector. During the pandemic, we asked Tasmanians about 1. their perceptions...

Purpose: Emerging evidence indicates that systems-based suicide prevention programs can help optimise suicide prevention activities, with the National Suicide Prevention Trial using these approaches in regional and community contexts throughout Australia. The Tasmanian arm of the Trial adopted the LifeSpan systems framework to deliver suicide preve...

The COVID-19 pandemic negatively affected the Australian food supply. However, it has remained unclear how food access, food availability and consumption were impacted, especially for households experiencing food insecurity. This study aimed to determine the association between food security and cooking and eating habits, food access and availabili...

The National Suicide Prevention Trial in Tasmania – sharing of evaluation findings

Purpose Food insecurity and poor access to healthy food is known to compromise tertiary studies in university students, and food choices are linked to student perceptions of the campus food environment. The purpose of this study is to describe the prevalence, demographic and education characteristics associated with food insecurity in a sample of A...

The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated economic vulnerabilities and disrupted the Australian food supply, with potential implications for food insecurity. This study aims to describe the prevalence and socio-demographic associations of food insecurity in Tasmania, Australia, during the COVID-19 pandemic. A cross-sectional survey (deployed late May t...

Regional food systems are complex networks, with numerous retail sources that underpin a local economy. However, evidence is limited regarding how consumers define, identify, and source regionally grown fresh fruits and vegetables (RGFFV). A cross-sectional study was conducted in Tasmania (TAS) and South Western Australia (SWA) to compare how RGFFV...

Aims Refugees and asylum seekers are at high risk of mental health problems such as post‐traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depression. Elucidating the occurrence and correlates of these problems in specific resettled refugee populations may be helpful in informing tailored prevention and health promotion programs. We sought to elucidate the occu...

Objective Tasmania is one of the 12 Australian sites chosen to participate in the National Suicide Prevention Trial. The Centre for Rural Health, University of Tasmania, was contracted to conduct a local‐level, process evaluation of this initiative using a Participatory Action Research approach, with the objective of this article to summarise progr...

Background: Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is common among resettled refugee populations and may be particularly problematic for refugees who have resettled in rural and regional areas. Aims: The aim of this study was to examine the occurrence and correlates of PTSD among Afghan refugees resettled in a regional area of Australia, namely, Lau...

Mental health promotion programs are important in rural communities but the factors which influence program effectiveness remain unclear. The aim of this mixed-methods study was to assess how community resilience affected the implementation of a mental health promotion program in rural Tasmania, Australia. Four study communities were selected based...

Refugees experience traumatic life events with impacts amplified in regional and rural areas due to barriers accessing services. This study examined the factors influencing the lived experience of resettlement for former refugees in regional Launceston, Australia, including environmental, social, and health-related factors. Qualitative interviews a...

Fresh fruits and vegetables are a cornerstone of a balanced diet; their consumption has health, environmental, ethical, and economic implications. This pilot study aimed to: (i) measure fruit and vegetable consumption; (ii) understand consumer perceptions of the perceived importance of regionally grown fresh fruit and vegetables (RGFFV); and (iii)...

Objective To examine the resettlement experiences of former refugees living in regional Australia, focusing on mental health and mental health and support services, including barriers to access. Design A phenomenological approach utilising a combination of six qualitative, semi‐structured, face‐to‐face focus groups (n = 24) and seven individual in...

The paper explores the processes by which two Australian rural communities established Community Learning Plans (CLPs). It acknowledges the role of CLPs as contributors to social and economic change through influencing employment rates, income equity, social cohesion and reduction in poverty. In addressing the research question: What factors contri...

Healthy Food Access Tasmania (HFAT) is a multi-dimensional community based food security initiative aimed at supporting local projects that make healthy food choices easy choices through building local solutions within communities across Tasmania that increase access to fruit and vegetables (preferably locally grown). The evaluation of HFAT applie...

Network analysis is a relatively new approach to evaluating research projects within Public Health and specifically Community Food Security. The Tasmanian Healthy Eating Resilience Project used social network analysis to build a picture of the social networks and relationships established between local food programs (LFPs) across Tasmania to help i...

An evaluation of a flexible education program that utilises information and communication technology which help to effectively integrate health promotion principles into the day to day practice of health professionals working in a range of diverse settings.

A Geographical Information System (GIS) using ArcGIS tools was adopted to implement three types of spatial analysis: coverage, density and proximity, to evaluate the geographical access to healthy food of the populations in Dorset Municipality, Tasmania, Australia. Data on food outlets, the aggregated socioeconomic disadvantage index, locations, in...

The Tasmanian Local Food Supply project (LFSP) has been a crucial step in the path towards building a picture of current food systems in Tasmania. Importantly, the LFSP seeks to explore the opportunities and challenges for local food systems in Tasmania, specifically with regards to fruit and vegetables, as presented through the views and perceptio...

The 2014 Tasmanian Healthy Food Access Basket (HFAB) survey is the first state-wide cross-sectional survey focussing on the availability, cost and affordability of a basket of basic healthy food items throughout Tasmania. Food shop selection was based on four shops categories including Major Supermarkets, Minor Supermarkets, General and Convenience...

Australia is considered a highly food-secure nation; however, this is not always the case for every individual, household, and community. This article examines the physical and financial access to food of the population of Dorset, a rural municipality in North East Tasmania (Australia); the impact that socio-economic factors have on their food secu...

Teenage pregnancy is associated with adverse social, economic and health outcomes for both mother and child. The factors frequently associated with teenage pregnancy or related sexual health issues include teenagers' knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs about sex and other social-economic factors such as levels of poverty, academic success or failure,...

In Tasmania, food insecurity is believed to affect a proportionately higher number of people due to a higher level of socio-economic disadvantage compared to other states with food insecurity characterised by uncertainty about future food availability and access; insufficiency in the amount and kind of food required for a healthy lifestyle, and the...

While Australia is considered to be a highly food-secure nation, some

There are a number of risk factors which increasingly impact the

The quality and usefulness of patient held logbooks as a record to

Food is a major contributor to the Tasmanian economy. However, due to a higher level of socioeconomic disadvantage, compared to other states of Australia, food insecurity is likely to be experienced by proportionately more people. Whilst there have been efforts made to address the causes of food insecurity in Tasmania such as the establishment of t...

Food is a major contributor to the Tasmanian economy. However, due to a higher level of socioeconomic disadvantage, compared to other states of Australia, food insecurity is likely to be experienced by proportionately more people. Whilst there have been efforts made to address the causes of food insecurity in Tasmania such as the establishment of t...

In Australia, international students have not only made an enormous economic contribution to the educational sector, but also enriched the cultural diversity of Australian institutions and societies. When international students become a part of the Australian community, issues related to their personal safety are significant, not only to relevant a...

This study aimed to examine the food security challenges experienced

Primary health care plays a significant role in the well-being of

Local governments have a governance responsibility to identify local solutions that support individual, household and community food choices that strengthen the health and wellbeing of communities. Social cooperation in communities is essential to ensure sustainability of local food supplies. Local governments are key facilitators of health and wel...

The study is aimed at investigating access to primary health care by

In population health, data collection presents a great challenge for researchers; particularly when it involves participants from isolated and remote communities. There are many factors which account for poor responses from these communities such as isolation and poor motivation, limited access to and knowledge of information technology, coupled wi...

The concept of partnership has entered policy rhetoric and is urged as good practice in a variety of domains including health. Rural communities tend to have fewer resources available for the provision of services such as health than their metropolitan counterparts, and so could be expected to benefit from partnerships with external agencies. Indic...

The Tasmanian health system is experiencing considerable change as it shifts toward a primary health care approach with associated restructuring of rural health services. These changes will impact significantly on small isolated and socially fragmented communities such as those on the west coast of Tasmania. This paper examines how understanding so...