“Quality research and post graduate education focusing on the health and wellbeing of individuals and the community”

The Centre for Health Research and Practice (CHRP) is one of four designated research Centres under the Institute for Regional and Rural Research and Innovation (IRRRI) at the University of Ballarat.

Located at the Mt Helen Campus, CHRP comprises Director A/Prof John McDonald and over 80 staff and post graduate students from its two member Schools of Behavioural and Social Sciences and Humanities and Nursing. The Centre also has a small proportion of associate members who are active researchers working in other organisations and agencies outside the University. All Centre members have strong research and practice backgrounds in disciplines including psychology, nursing, sociology, and welfare.

The Centre fulfills two important and distinct roles: (1) to support and promote the research expertise of its members, and (2) to provide consultancy and research expertise through services to the wider community. To address these roles, two interdependent units within CHRP have been established:

• Priority Driven Research: Comprising three newly-formed research groups (“Resilience: Measurement, Predictors, Processes & Intervention”, “Research to Enhance Health and Welfare Service Systems” and “Preparing Health Professionals for Practice: Pedagogical Innovation”) each consisting of a leader and a core body of researchers drawn from staff across the two member schools who have research expertise in these nominated fields. Groups are closely aligned with the national Research Qualify Framework (RQF).

• Research and Capacity Building Services: This arm of CHRP provides research and consultancy services to the wider community. The work is characterised by a high standard of quality research that provides value to the customer and the community. A selection of some of the services that can be provided through this unit include: workforce capacity building; community profiles; community health planning and surveys; developing appropriate research methodologies and tools; feasibility studies/needs analysis; service mapping; spatial mapping; strategic planning; program evaluations.