Prof Gwynnyth Llewellyn

PhD, MEd, BA, Grad Dip ContEd, Dip OT

Sesquicentenary Professor and
Foundation Chair, School of Occupation & Leisure Sciences (OLS)
Director, FSSP

Dr Llewellyn is Sesquicentenary Professor and Foundation Chair, School of Occupation and Leisure Sciences and Director, Family Support and Services Project. Her research areas are in the family, disability and ageing field. Her work is funded by state and federal government departments, the Australian Research Council, the National Health and Medical Research Council and private foundations. She has published widely in national and international journals, contributed book chapters and authored consumer resources in the disability and family fields and supervises research candidates from many disciplines in these areas.

Gwynnyth currently serves as a ministerial appointee on disability to the EnAct Reference Group; to the Children's Court Clinic Advisory Committee; and is a member of the Expert Advisory Group of the NSW Commission for Children and Young People; the Children's Court Clinic Advisory Committee, and a Director of the Centre for Developmental Disabilities.

Gwynnyth can be contacted at the following email address: g.llewellyn@fhs.usyd.edu.au

Dr David McConnell

PHD, B.App.Sc (OT) Hons

ARC Post Doctoral Fellow
Research Manager (FSSP)

David holds an ARC Post-Doctoral Research Fellowship (2001-2004) and he is Research Manager of the Family Support & Services Project, located in the School of Occupation and Leisure Sciences, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Sydney. David is a former Chairperson of the Intellectual Disability Rights Service of NSW and continues to serve on the Management Committee. He has also contributed, as an advisory committee/reference group member, to the activities of the NSW Children's Court, the NSW Children's Court Clinic and the Association of Children's Welfare Agencies.

David's primary field of research is health and human services for families with a parent and/or child with disabilities. His current research activities and publication record demonstrate an interest in early intervention, early childhood, and statutory child protection services; the experiences and support needs of parents with intellectual disability; the health and wellbeing of parent-carers of children with disabilities and high support needs; and, inter-disciplinary and inter-agency service provision/coordination.

With his Post-Doctoral Research Fellowship, David is working in partnership with the NSW Department of Community Services on a project titled "Human services and parents with a disability: Working cooperatively in the best interests of the child". The aim is to develop a communicative model of casework practice, where parents are involved as partners in the process of determining what is in the child's best interests and what are the best supports for the family.

David can be contacted at the following email address: d.mcconnell@fhs.usyd.edu.au

Kirsty Thompson

B.App.Sc (OT) Hons

Lecturer (SOLS)

Kirsty Thompson is a Lecturer in the School of Occupation & Leisure Sciences. She is a part of the professional practice/fieldwork team and the Family Support & Services Project.

Kirsty has professional qualifications in occupational therapy and is currently completing her PhD focused on the narratives of practice with families of children with disabilities. Her interest and experiences in community practice and community development have shaped her clinical and research. Her clinical experience in community service systems includes work with children, adolescents and young adults with disabilities and their families. Her research experience has included work with various pre-school, early intervention and school aged services, children with disabilities, families, parents with disabilities, community development and community fieldwork experiences. She has an ongoing interest in developing and combining research, education and practice experiences and opportunities.

Kristy can be contacted at the following email address: kirsty.thompson@fhs.usyd.edu.au

Marian Dearn

MMgt (Cty), BSW, PG Cert in TESOL

Associate Researcher

Marian is a trained social worker with over 10 years' experience working with disadvantaged communities. These include people from a non-English speaking background and people with disabilities. Committed to community development principles, Marian has worked in various contexts - the Home Care Service of NSW, a local Council, a neighbourhood centre and a women's welfare organization. She has also engaged in numerous research projects - community needs analyses, student evaluations and service user feedback reports.

Currently Marian is studying for her doctorate at Macquarie University. Her research is concerned with examining the impact regulations have had on quality care and professional autonomy in long day care settings. She is also continuing to develop content for the FSSP website and can be contacted at mdearn@aces1.aces.mq.edu.au

Kathryn Delane

B.App Sc (OT)

Research Assistant

Kathryn Delaney completed a B. App. Sc (OT) at the University of Sydney in 2003.

She has 9 years' personal and professional experience working with people with intellectual disability, including community work with young adults with an intellectual disability. Kathryn has a keen desire to continue working in this field.

Kathryn completed her fourth year student placement with the Family Support and Services Team, assisting in the review of the Early Intervention Infoline.

Currently Kathryn is assisting on a project that is examining the experiences of 40 women with an intellectual disability during pregnancy and in their first year of motherhood.

Kathryn can be contacted at the following email address: k.delaney@fhs.usyd.edu.au

Angela Dew

B.A. (Sociology)

Research Assistant

Angela has worked in the field of disability for the past 23 years in both the government and non-government sectors in direct service provision, management, teaching and research. Angela's particular area of interest has been the de-institutionalisation of people with disabilities and their subsequent integration and participation in their local communities. Angela's other areas of interest include the ageing of people with disabilities and women with disabilities' health care issues. Angela is currently enrolled with the University of Western Sydney completing a Masters of Arts (Honours) thesis looking at the re-engagement and empowerment of parents of people with severe intellectual and physical disabilities who are leaving a small non-government institution.

Angela can be contacted at the following email address: a.dew@fhs.usyd.edu.au

Rebekah Dunn (nee Grace)

PhD B.A. Hons (Psychology)

Associate Researcher

Rebekah has worked with the Family Support and Services team on a number of different projects from 1995 on. She has been involved in our research on the family variables influential in choosing out of home placement for a child with special needs, our research on the issues facing the parent carers of adults with disabilities, our research on supporting parents with intellectual disability and school age children, and our research looking at the ways in which families with special needs engage with early childhood services. Her research experience outside of this team includes examining the issues for people with intellectual disability in the prison system. In 1996, Rebekah was a visiting scholar at the Primary Children's Hospital, University of Utah. During her time in Utah Rebekah sat as the potgraduate student member of the R.A.I.N.M.A.N (Resourceful Allies In Meeting Autism Needs) committee. Rebekah's PhD is from the Faculty of Medicine, Department of Psychological Medicine at the University of Sydney. Her thesis took a qualitative semi-longitudinal case-study approach, and examined the interaction between the ecocultural variables of a family and the manifestation of Tourette's symptoms in a child.

Kathy Gray

BSW, Dip Law

PHD Student, Teaching Fellow (SOLS)

Kathy holds a degree in Social Work and a Diploma in Law. Her professional background includes extensive experience in community development, child protection and children's services. Most recently, Kathy was employed as Senior Project Officer for the Office of Childcare, NSW Department of Community Services. Kathy has a substantial record of achievement in direct service delivery, policy development and implementation, research and resource management and project management/state wide coordination at a senior level. For example, during the Sydney 2000 Olympics, Kathy developed an effective teleservice for childcare services and, more recently, she has published a brochure about the role of children's services in child protection distributed to all childcare services in NSW. Kathy's PhD research is investigating inclusion for children with disabilities in mainstream children's services, including preschool, long day care and family day care.

Kathy can be contacted at the following email address: kathy.gray@fhs.usyd.edu.au

Marie Gustavsson Holmström

PhD (Disability Research), M. A. (Sociology)

Associate Researcher

Marie is working with the Family Support and Services Team as a visiting scholar on a scholarship from the Swedish Council for Working Life and Social Research (2002 - 2003). The project is a qualitative study on parents with intellectual disability and their involvement and connections in the community from their own perspective. To Marie doing research on intellectual disabilities was a new and interesting experience.

Marie has a special interest in parenting and disability issues. Her doctoral thesis, (published in 2002) was written on parenthood and family life for parents with physical disabilities. This was produced at a cross-disciplinary graduate program at the Swedish Institute for Disability Research at Linköping University, Sweden.

Marie is going back to Linköping University, the Tema Institute, in June 2002. The project will continue for a while yet. Marie can be contacted on following e-mail address: margu@tema.liu.se

Rachel Mayes

B-App-Sc (OT) HONS

PHD Student, Teaching Fellow (SOLS)

Rachel Mayes graduated in 1997 from the University of Sydney with a B.App.Sc (Occupational Therapy) and Class 1 Honours. Rachel spent two years working as a parent educator with the NSW Parent-Child Health and Wellbeing Project before heading overseas in 2000. Rachel worked as an OT in the UK and Africa, in diverse areas from wheelchairs and seating, to teaching occupational therapy students in the newly established OT school in Tanzania. Her final position was setting up an OT service for people with intellectual disabilities in northwest London. With her desire to work and study in the area of intellectual disabilities firmly established, Rachel has returned to the School of Occupation and Leisure Sciences and the Family Support and Services Project to undertake a PhD. Her research is about women with intellectual disability, their experiences of pregnancy and antenatal care services.

Rachel can be contacted at the following email address: r.mayes@fhs.usyd.edu.au

Julie Schneider

B.App.Sc (OT) Hons

PHD Student

Julie Schneider completed a B. App. Sc (Occupational Therapy) degree at the University of Sydney in 1997, and was awarded Honours Class 1 and the University Medal. Her published Honours research investigated inappropriate client sexual behaviour in occupational therapy practice.
Since graduating Julie has held clinical positions in acute care, rehabilitation, and outpatient settings. For the past 3 years Julie has been consolidating her skills and interest in aged care, specifically in the field of vision impairment and blindness. Currently, Julie is employed part-time by the Royal Blind Society of NSW in the Vision Assist Service. Her PhD research is a qualitative exploration of social processes inherent in the everyday lives of adults experiencing acquired deafblindness.

Julie can be contacted at the following email address: j.schneider@fhs.usyd.edu.au

Margaret Spencer

RN, BTh, BSW

PHD Student

Margaret Spencer holds qualifications in nursing, theology and social work. Margaret has 19 years clinical experience providing community support to individuals and families with complex care needs. Since 1996 Margaret has coordinated the Parent Access Program - A program auspiced by the Family Support Services Association of NSW. The Parent Access Program provides training and individual consultation to professionals supporting parents with intellectual and psychiatric disabilities. In 1999 Margaret was awarded a Churchill Fellowship to research supported parenting initiatives in the USA, UK and Denmark. Margaret is currently undertaking doctoral study with aim of developing an assessment method that can be used by family support workers to assess the support needs of parents with intellectual disability.

Margaret can be contacted at the following email address: m.spencer@fhs.usyd.edu.au

Alison Wicks

BAppSc (OT), MHSc (OT), AccOT

Associate Researcher

Alison Wicks, an occupational therapist, has 28 years experience in a broad range of fields, in the public and private sectors. Most recently, she worked with the Shoalhaven Division of General Practice co-ordinating community development projects that focused on health promotion, and was a health professional collecting data for the Preventive Care Trial (PCT). Commissioned by the Department of Veterans' Affairs. The PCT was a 3-year trial evaluating home-based preventive care for elderly people. For the past 10 years, driven by a passion for occupational science, the study of human occupation, Alison has been active at national and international levels promoting this relatively new academic discipline. She is President of the Australasian Society of Occupational Scientists (ASOS), Convenor of the International Society of Occupational Scientists (ISOS) and an executive member and Manager of the Journal of Occupational Science. Alison has recently completed a doctoral study that explored the development and realisation of occupational potential across the life course. The qualitative study, which adopted narrative and phenomenological approaches, analysed the life stories of older women from occupational and feminist perspectives.

As a contracted member of the Family Support Services Project team, Alison will be developing the grant application for a study examining family changes in the transition to adulthood of young people with a disability. In addition, she will be assisting with evaluation of some existing support services.

Bethany Wootton

Grad. Dip. Science (Psychology), BA (Psychology, Sociology)

Research Assistant

Beth holds qualifications in Psychology and is currently completing a Master of Psychology (Health), as well as a Psychological internship through the Transcultural Mental Health Center (TCMH).

She works as a research assistant with the team on many projects and is currently assisting with the development of an instrument to assess support needs of individuals with developmental disabilities with CDDS.

Her research experience and interests outside of the school have been in relation to prejudice and how it affects certain sub groups in the community.

Bethany can be contacted at the following email address: b.wootton@fhs.usyd.edu.au