The CP-Achieve webinar series

Published

Thursday, August 29, 2024 - 12:00 PM

Join us for the CP-Achieve webinar series!

📅 When: Wednesday 18 September

⏰️ Time: 5.00-5.30pm AEST

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER HERE

Including young people with complex communication needs in research by optimising informed consent procedures

Presented by Jacinta Pennacchia

People with complex communication needs are often excluded from participating in research projects – partly because researchers often do not know how to obtain informed consent from them. The systematic exclusion of people with communication disabilities from relevant research has a significant impact on the field’s knowledge and limits the development of effective evidence-based practices. This webinar is about enhancing the participation of people with communication disabilities in research by optimising informed consent processes. Jacinta will highlight strategies and flexible process she uses. She hopes to foster conversation from attendees about how they could also implement these strategies in their research.

Jacinta Pennacchia is a speech pathologist completing her PhD at the University of Melbourne. She works with children and young adults in education and hospital environments. She supports young people to communicate and develop their self-advocacy skills. Jacinta is currently involved in research focusing on the mental health of young people with communication access needs. She enjoys bringing her clinical knowledge on augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) into her research around mental health assessment in this population

Health service interactions by people with CP across the lifespan - 5 years of data from a single health network

Presented by Professor Prue Morgan

People with a disability such as cerebral palsy may access health services across the lifespan for planned or unplanned health needs. They may also move between and within a public health service - for example, accessing healthcare from an Emergency Department, inpatient hospitalisation, in- or out-patient rehabilitation, or community health programs. This study presents preliminary data from a cohort of people with CP who accessed healthcare from a single health network over a 5 year period, identifying frequency and reasons for access, healthcare services received, and the influence of age on healthcare interactions.

Professor Prue Morgan is a Specialist Neurological Physiotherapist with 14 years of academia experience after a 20 year clinical career working in Falls & balance clinic; acute neurosciences, and the Royal Children's Hospital. Pure is the immediate prior Head of Department, Physiotherapy at Monash University, having led the Department from 2011 to 2024. She is interested in Falls/mobility decline in adults with cerebral palsy (PhD topic), strategies to enhance physical health in adults with cerebral palsy and reasons for physical health decline in adults with cerebral palsy (hospitalisations). Her goal in CP-Achieve is to identify effective lifestyle program/s to address health needs of adults with CP with a view to optimising participation.