Sarah Wallace

Family Voice, Dementia and Digital Health

We are seeking expressions of interest from prospective PhD students interested in dementia, communication, digital health and co-design.

This project will explore how recordings from family members can support the wellbeing of people living with dementia and how technology can help families create meaningful, personalised content. The research will combine communication science, dementia care, lived-experience co-design and digital intervention development.

The project will be supervised by Associate Professors Anthony Angwin and Sarah Wallace.

Applicants from speech pathology, psychology, linguistics, cognitive science, dementia care, public health, human-computer interaction and related disciplines are encouraged to get in touch.

Profound Pathways: Including people with severe and profound intellectual disability in health research, policy and practice

Young Australians with severe and profound intellectual disability are rarely included in the research, consultation and policy that shapes their care.

Profound Pathways, a four-year consumer-led MRFF program, is co-designing guidelines for health care transition and decision-making, and a toolkit for consumer and community involvement.

This interdisciplinary PhD asks how the perspectives and needs of people with severe and profound intellectual disabilities can be included and consulted. The topic will be shaped collaboratively with you. We welcome applicants from any relevant discipline, including public health, policy, law, social sciences, disability studies, or clinical practice.

Questions might include: how can health systems better include people they rarely reach? How can policy be co-designed more inclusively? How does legal capacity work in practice in health settings? What is inclusive research, and what does profound disability ask of models of inclusion?

Principal supervisor: Dr Michelle King; School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences; View Dr Michelle King's profile

Associate supervisor: Associate Professor Sarah Wallace; School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences; View Associate Professor Sarah Wallace's profile

Preferred educational background

Your application will be assessed on a competitive basis.

We take into account your:

• previous academic record
• publication record
• honours and awards
• employment history.

A working knowledge of disability and inclusion, health systems and policy, or research methods and ethics would be of benefit to someone working on this project.

You will demonstrate academic achievement in the fields of public health, health policy, sociology, social sciences, disability studies, law, allied health, medicine or related disciplines and the potential for scholastic success.

A background or knowledge of lived or professional experience with people with intellectual disability, and a commitment to inclusive and consumer-led research, is highly desirable.

Stay In the Conversation: Speech and Communication in ALS

We are seeking expressions of interest from prospective PhD students interested in motor neurone disease (ALS/MND), dysarthria, telehealth and co-design.

This project will explore how a structured communication maintenance program, developed through community co-design with people living with ALS, care partners and speech pathologists, can help people with ALS sustain natural speech and stay connected as their speech changes. The research will combine motor speech science, clinical trial methods, lived-experience co-design and telehealth intervention delivery to develop and pilot-test the program with people in the early-to-mid stages of ALS.

The project will be supervised by Dr Brooke-Mai Whelan and Associate Professor Sarah Wallace.

Applicants from speech pathology, psychology, neuroscience, public health, allied health and related disciplines are encouraged to get in touch.

Communication Partner Training in ALS

We are seeking expressions of interest from prospective PhD students interested in motor neurone disease (MND/ALS), communication, dysarthria and co-design.

This project will explore how communication partner training (CPT) can support people living with ALS/MND and their families as speech changes over the course of the disease. The research will combine motor speech science, communication partner intervention, lived-experience co-design and clinical translation, working closely with people with lived experience of ALS/MND to develop and evaluate an approach that helps families stay connected in conversation as the disease progresses.

The project will be supervised by Dr Brooke-Mai Whelan and Associate Professor Sarah Wallace.

Applicants from speech pathology, psychology, linguistics, disability studies, public health, allied health and related disciplines are encouraged to get in touch.