CASE STUDY 9 - Developmental Pathways Project, Western Australia
DATA LINKAGE CASE STUDY
Developmental Pathways in WA Children Project
The Developmental Pathways in WA Children Project (DPP) is a landmark project taking a multidisciplinary approach to investigate the pathways to health and well-being, education and juvenile delinquency outcomes among Western Australian children and youth.
To achieve this, researchers from the Telethon Institute for Child Health Research and the University of Western Australia have been working in collaboration with a number of Western Australian Government departments:
- Department of Education
- Disability Services Commission
- Department for Communities
- Department for Child Protection
- Department of Health
- WA Police
- Department of Corrective Services
- Department of Indigenous Affairs
- Department of Treasury and Finance
- Department of Housing
- Department of the Attorney General
- Mental Health Commission
- Department of Training and Workforce Development
The project has established the process of linking together de-identified, longitudinal, population-based data collected and stored by many of the WA Government departments listed above, as well as the Telethon Institute for Child Health Research, to create a significant research and policy planning/evaluation resource.
The linked data are being used by researchers and the respective departments to identify determinants of developmental outcomes.
Through the communication of the research findings, future government agency policies, practice and planning initiatives will be more preventative, culturally appropriate and cost efficient.
The DPP encourages cross-agency collaboration to ensure improved
health, well-being and development of children and youth, their
families and their communities.
The main aims of this project are:
- to determine whether changes at the child, family and community level increase or reduce vulnerability to poor outcomes in health, school, maltreatment, and juvenile offending in all Western Australian children
- to identify areas of prevention and intervention across the different government sectors, as well as evaluate existing government initiatives and determine their impact on these outcomes
- to improve the collection, utilisation and reliability of Government department data in program evaluation and policy development
The project encompasses a number of important areas of research;
- mental and physical health
- child abuse and neglect
- alcohol and drug use
- juvenile delinquency
- disability
- education and housing.
A number of our research questions overlap areas of focus. This reflects the complex nature of many of the problems facing Australian children and youth, and highlights the strengths of this project to address these multi-sectoral issues.
The questions can be grouped into two broad areas:
- Improved understanding of the child, family and community factors that are involved in the complex pathways to juvenile offending, child abuse and neglect, poor physical and mental health outcomes, educational achievement and school attendance/suspension; and the identification of required interventions (optimal ways to influence pathways)
- Monitoring of outcomes and evaluation of existing initiatives and policies.
Through this project, we have developed our capacity and expertise in working with complex linked data sets and established a best practice for working with a large number of government agencies.
This provides us with the opportunity to investigate in more breadth and depth the pathways and factors contributing to complex child and youth outcomes, and training a new generation of students and researchers.
This project will also allow a broader approach to addressing these complex problems, with thirteen WA Government departments and a Directors-General Steering Committee collaboratively involved, providing the data and capacity to evaluate existing policy initiatives and programs, and supporting the development of cross-government intervention and prevention strategies.
For more information on the Telethon Institute for Child Health Research click here.
