Stretton Health Equity Policy Lab
Translating our research: Rapid summaries for busy policy actors.
The Stretton Health Equity Policy Lab brings together policy briefs and summaries of key findings from our research to inform practice and policy in Australia and internationally.
Stretton Health Equity undertakes research focused on what can be done about the underlying factors that determine the distribution of health and wellbeing outcomes. We produce knowledge on why health inequities exist, what can be done about them and how population health overall can be improved.
We will continue to develop and add to the Stretton Health Equity Policy Lab with more policy-relevant research outputs, so bookmark this page and visit us again soon.
Policy briefs
The policy briefs produced by the Stretton Institute are listed below.
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Commercial determinants of health during COVID-19
This policy brief summarises the policy implications from our research on the influence of commercial determinants of health during the COVID-19 pandemic, with proposals for the health system, as well as other sectors and whole of government approaches to ensure we are in the strongest position possible to respond to future pandemics.
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Lessons drawn from a history of community health services
This policy brief summarises the policy recommendations from the Australian Research Council funded project “A History of Community Health in Australia.” It draws out lessons for contemporary Australian health policy from the vibrant history of community health in Australia, with a particular focus on the community health services established out of the 1973 National Community Health Program.
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Social determinants of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health
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Intersectoral collaboration models to address social determinants of health
This review summarises global evidence for models of intersectoral collaborations to address social determinants of health and health equity, and build healthy public policy, including the Health in All Policies approach.
Policy Reports
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Health equity impact assessment tools
This report reviews available tools for policy makers to build equity into public policies designed to promote health. A co-design process was used to develop a Health Equity Impact Assessment Tool (Wellbeing SA) and a Health Equity Impact Assessment Frame (Healthy Tasmania). These are included in the project report below.
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Priority Populations in Mental Health and Suicide Prevention
This policy report summarises the findings and recommendations from research examining the practice of naming priority population groups in mental health and suicide prevention policies.
We also produced a Decision-Making Tool and companion Workbook for organisations working in mental health or suicide prevention, to be freely used by organisations.
The Southgate Institute for Health, Society, and Equity (2008 - 2021)
Stretton Health Equity staff were previously members of the Southgate Institute for Health, Society, and Equity at Flinders University, which was also headed by Director Prof. Fran Baum until the team moved to Stretton Health Equity at the University of Adelaide in 2022.
The policy briefs produced by the Southgate Institute are listed below.
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Action on social determinants of health in Australian early childhood education policy
This 12-month research project involved a desktop analysis of Australian federal and state/territory early childhood education policies current in 2019 to understand the extent to which they recognized and proposed action on the social determinants of health and health equity. ��This policy brief identifies strengths and weaknesses, and opportunities for improvement.
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Action on social determinants of health
This policy brief summarises key findings from policy and qualitative research on the uptake of evidence on social determinants of health and health equity in Australian governments’ health policies.
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Belonging begins at home
This policy brief summarises research on the experience of refugees and asylum seekers in South Australia who had been in Australia for seven years or less, and presents recommendations to facilitate positive housing outcomes for asylum seekers and refugees in ways that promote social inclusion and health and wellbeing.
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Digital equity
The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated a shift towards online health services, and has highlighted the importance of digital access for social connectedness, access to services, and access to resources such as education, employment, and housing that are critical to people’s health. However, resources including equipment, finances, and digital literacy are not distributed equitably in the population, and so some groups will have more access to digital services than others. This policy brief presents findings from research examining equity in access to, use of and benefits from digital health services.
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Evaluating the effectiveness of comprehensive primary health care
This policy brief summarises the “Evaluating the Effectiveness of Comprehensive Primary Health Care in Local Communities” project. The aim of the research was to study different models of comprehensive primary health care services. The research examined how the services are putting primary health care principles into practice, and what barriers and challenges they face.
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Health in All Policies
This policy brief presents key messages from a five year research project to examine the adoption and implementation of Health in All Policies in South Australia, to determine its effectiveness in motivating action across sectors to improve population health and health equity.
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Healthy South executive briefing
The Healthy South project has examined the feasibility of a whole-of–community approach in the southern area of Adelaide to support health, wellbeing and environments that minimise the risk of non-communicable diseases. This policy brief outlines what the research found is required for health and wellbeing to flourish in southern Adelaide and list strategies below that could be adopted or adapted to guide a Healthy South initiative.
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The Healthy Urban Neighbourhood Transition Tool (HUNTT)
The quality of home area neighbourhoods is a foundation of healthy cities and locational advantage or disadvantage. A well designed and connected ‘liveable’ neighbourhood has the potential to facilitate physical activity and satisfy instrumental and existential needs; the degree they do so significantly affects the health and wellbeing of residents. This policy brief describes the development of the Healthy Urban Neighbourhood Transition Tool (HUNTT) to assess the strengths and weaknesses of the liveability of suburbs.
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Health impacts of transnational corporations
This policy brief summarises research on the health impacts of transnational corporations, and the development of a Corporate Health Impact Assessment framework.
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Reform of Primary Health Networks
This policy brief outlines research-based recommendations for the reform of Primary Health Networks to better achieve the vision of comprehensive primary health care.
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Social determinants of health and psychological wellbeing
This policy brief presents the main findings and recommendations from the research project ‘The Social Determinants of Health and Psychological Wellbeing: Improving the mental health of all through broad based policy and intersectoral action’, which examined state-based policy for strategy that enabled population mental health.
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Vision for comprehensive primary health care - 10 point plan
This policy brief outlines a 10 point plan based on research to reform primary health care in Australia to better achieve the vision of comprehensive primary health care.
This policy brief summarises the findings from the Centre for Research Excellence on Social Determinants of Health Equity related to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health, arguing for the need for policy action on the social and cultural determinants of Indigenous health.
View policy brief