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ProfessorMichelle Dickson

(She/Her)

NHMRC Professorial Research Fellow

Faculty of Medicine and Health

Orcid identifier0000-0003-0713-7803 (opens in a new tab)⁠
  • NHMRC Professorial Research Fellow
    Faculty of Medicine and Health

Research projects & supervision summary

I currently supervise 14 students, 9 of whom identify as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander I have been recognised for my Koori research expertise at other Universities and have joined supervisory teams for 2 PhD candidates at other Universities.

 

Some examples of my key research projects and themes include:
1. Changes to policy change and health and wellbeing service improvements:
MRFF: Working together: a collective approach to achieve priority reforms underpinning Closing the Gap targets.
NHMRC Investigator Grant: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander wellbeing: developing and implementing culturally relevant and robust wellbeing
measures


2. Increased understanding of contributing factors to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health and wellbeing:
MRFF: Connecting our Way (CoW): Improving the wellbeing of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children aged 5-12 years
NHMRC: Supporting healthy lifestyle choices to promote mental health and wellbeing of Indigenous youth in out of home care in urban settings

 

3. Capacity building in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health and wellbeing research
NHMRC National First Nations Research Network (OCHRE)
NHMRC Healthy Environments and Lives (HEAL)- National Research Network on Human Health and Environmental Change

RESEARCH PROJECTS & ACTIVITIES

  • PROJECT
    Evaluation of the NSW Health Building on Aboriginal Communities’ Resilience Initiative
    21 Jan 2026
    Project leaders:
    Collaborators:
    • Angelo C,
    • Cameron D,
    • Kalucy D
  • PROJECT
    Connecting Our Way
    22 Jul 2025
    Project leaders:
    • Dickson M,
    • Cameron D
  • PROJECT
    Evaluation of the NSW Health Building on Aboriginal Communities’ Resilience (BACR) Initiative
    The Leeder Centre for Health Policy, Economics and DataNSW Ministry of Health30 Jun 2025 - 30 Jun 2027
    Project leaders:
    Collaborators:
    • Nicholls A,
    • Angelo C,
    • Cameron D
    Looking at enablers of success for building community resilience aligned with self harm and suicide.
  • PROJECT
    Evaluation of Central West NSW Mental Health and Wellbeing Program
    NSW Ministry of HealthWestern New South Wales Local Health DistrictWeigelli Aboriginal CorporationCondoblin Aboriginal Health ServiceOrange Aboriginal Medical ServiceYoorana Gunya Family Healing Centre Aboriginal CorporationBila Muuji1 Jun 2024 - 30 Jun 2026
    Project leaders:
    • Dickson M
    Collaborators:
    Evaluating long term outcomes: Improved mental health and wellbeing of Aboriginal people in Central West NSW. Evaluate culturally safe and accessible referral and care pathways for mental health, alcohol and other drugs and wellbeing services for Aboriginal people in Central West NSW. Utilising Co-designed metrics and monitoring. Economic evaluation that considers value for money including cultural value. Assessment of Program logic models. Needs assessments. Yarning of community perspectives. Generating evidence to drive recommendations. Assessment of program scalability and guiding principals
  • PROJECT
    Identifying social and emotional wellbeing needs of healthcare workers in Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Services
    Riverina Medical and Dental Aboriginal CorporationEleanor Duncan Aboriginal Services17 Jul 2023
    Project leaders:
    Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Services (ACCHS) provide culturally safe care but face challenges in recruiting and retaining healthcare workers (HCW). Both Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander HCWs (AHCW) and non-Indigenous staff experience high stress, burnout, and limited social and emotional wellbeing (SEWB) support. For AHCWSs this is further exacerbated by cultural responsibilities and systemic barriers. This research aims to strengthen ACCHS workforce sustainability by addressing HCWs’ SEWB needs through a culturally responsive framework.
  • PROJECT
    Yalbilinya Miya
    17 Jul 2023
    Project leaders:
    Yalbilinya Miya is a holistic and culturally responsive breastfeeding project being designed and led by an Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Service in New South Wales (NSW).
  • PROJECT
    Antecedents of Renal Disease in Aboriginal Children and young adults study ARDAC
    Flinders University1 Jan 2020 - 31 Dec 2026
    Project leaders:
    Collaborators:
    For two decades a cohort study following the kidney health of Aboriginal and Non Aboriginal young people in NSW. In 2021, ARDAC evolved into a data linkage project to evaluate the cohort’s healthcare utilisation and kidney health trajectory. The breadth and scope of this data linkage is unique, making it the largest dataset focused on the emergence of chronic disease and kidney health of First Nations Peoples anywhere in the world. There are three main aims for Phase 4 of ARDAC. The first is to determine the life-course of the development of chronic disease from childhood to adulthood among Aboriginal peoples. The second is to understand the complex interplay between a range of sociodemographic factors, such as age, gender, socioeconomic disadvantage and geography, in the development of chronic disease among Aboriginal peoples, from childhood to adulthood. While the third is to use these understandings to inform the development, implementation and evaluation of a range of community co-designed programs and services in partnership with Aboriginal community-controlled health services in New South Wales, Australia.
    https://www.ardac.org.au/ (opens in a new tab)
  • RESEARCH-BASED DEGREE SUPERVISION
    Aboriginal community perspectives for closing the gap in kidney disease
  • RESEARCH-BASED DEGREE SUPERVISION
    Co-creating a Health Navigator model of care to address social determinants of ear health among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children: addressing upstream drivers rather than downstream symptoms
  • RESEARCH-BASED DEGREE SUPERVISION
    Community pharmacist-delivered mental health support for First Nations consumers: Co-design of a training program
  • RESEARCH-BASED DEGREE SUPERVISION
    Dalki Garringa (Good Growing): Co-creating Evidence to Support the Healthy Growth of Children and Improving Food Security Among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Communities in Non-remote Areas of Australia
  • RESEARCH-BASED DEGREE SUPERVISION
    Epidemiology and equity of kidney failure in Australasia
  • RESEARCH-BASED DEGREE SUPERVISION
    Improving Health Services Delivery for Better Outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children
  • RESEARCH-BASED DEGREE SUPERVISION
    It's more than pieces of paper : Understanding Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander lived experiences of kidney health
  • RESEARCH-BASED DEGREE SUPERVISION
    Its showing incorrectly here only - please change to: Are there perception gaps in patient and provider expectations and needs of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander healthcare
  • RESEARCH-BASED DEGREE SUPERVISION
    Listening to the voices of our First Nations young people through their Ear health journey.
  • RESEARCH-BASED DEGREE SUPERVISION
    Social and Emotional Wellbeing impacts of prolonged extreme heat driven by climate change: lived experiences of public housing residents in a regional community in Victoria, Australia
  • RESEARCH-BASED DEGREE SUPERVISION
    Supporting shared decision making SDM about cardiovascular CVD prevention in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Communities in Australia
  • RESEARCH-BASED DEGREE SUPERVISION
    The lived experience of mentoring in the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health and wellbeing workforce in New South Wales, Australia
  • RESEARCH-BASED DEGREE SUPERVISION
    Training community pharmacists to better support the mental health and wellbeing of First Nations Peoples in Australia – Co-design and evaluation
  • RESEARCH-BASED DEGREE SUPERVISION
    Upholding sovereign knowledges and practices through an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Lactation Counsellor training program