Health Sciences

Anne has a background in teaching and adult education with a particular interest in innovative and flexible methods of program delivery. She has been working in the field of sexuality education, sexual health and STI prevention for over 20 years. This included a period in the Victorian Health Department where she was responsible for HIV/AIDS prevention education and policy development. She is co-author of the book Youth, AIDS and Sexually Transmitted Diseases published by Routledge in 1997.

Anne was a founding member of the Australian Research Centre in Sex health & Society and has worked at the Centre since its inception. In her present position she has the responsibility of developing and maintaining effective links between researchers and the community, including making research outcomes accessible to community members. This is often done through the development of health promotion print resources. The Unit also specialises in developing collaborative relationships with hard-to-reach communities such as sex workers, people with intellectual disabilities, rural gay and lesbian people and homeless young people.

A large part of Anne’s work has been related to sexuality education in schools. She headed the team that produced the Talking Sexual Health materials. This was a Commonwealth funded project to develop a national theoretical framework for guiding approaches and curriculum development in the sexuality education area, a professional development resource for training teachers, classroom materials for years 9 and 10 and a parents' resource. More recently she has been involved in offering training and consultancy around the Victorian Catching On resource. She also ran the Safety In our Schools project initiative which was directed at homophobia in schools and designed to support teachers to combat it. She was a member of the National STIs Strategy 2005-2008 Drafting Advisory Group and the federal Chlamydia Communication and Education Working Group.

She was Deputy Chair of the Victorian Ministerial Advisory Committee on Gay and Lesbian Health from 2000 - 2006, and has a strong interest in using education to challenge homophobia. She currently holds a part time position as Director of Gay and Lesbian Health Victoria (GLHV) which was established in 2003 by the Health Minister at ARCSHS at La Trobe University in consortium with Women’s Health Victoria and the Victorian AIDS Council. The Unit has been responsible for developing health promotion resources, conducting training for health care professionals in meeting the needs of gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and intersex (GLBTI) clients, providing advice to government and running a clearinghouse of health information.

She has also participated in research activities related to the work of GLHV. These include TranZnation: A report on the health and wellbeing of transgender people in Australia and New Zealand, Private Lives: A report on the health and wellbeing of GLBTI Australians which is the largest study of its kind ever conducted in Australia, and Writing Themselves In Again – 6 Years On: The second national report of the sexuality, health and wellbeing of same sex attracted young Australians. She is currently working on a study of violence and discrimination against GLBTI Victorians funded by the Victorian Law Foundation.

Moore SM, Rosenthal DA and Mitchell A., (1996) Youth, AIDS and Sexually Transmitted Disease. London, Routledge  pp175

Hillier, L, Mitchell, A & Mallett S (2007) Duty of care: researching with vulnerable young people. In Pitts, M & Smith, A. (Eds) Researching the Margins. London: Palgrave McMillan

Mitchell, A (2005) The Facts of Life: Sex Education for Young People in Temple-Smith, M & Gifford,S. (Eds) Sexual Health: An Australian perspective. IP Communications, Melbourne. 215-231
 
Mitchell A (2004) Sexual health promotion. In R. Moodie (Ed) Hands on Health Promotion. IP Communications, Melbourne 207-217

Mitchell A & Walsh J. (2003) “The Community Liaison Model of Research Transfer”. In V. Lin & B. Gibson (Eds) Evidence-based health policy: Problems and possibilities OUP 263 – 71 

Mitchell A, Peart R & Rosenthal DA (2000). “You can con a chick into anything The impact of gender expectations on the sexual relationships of young men” In J.Healy (Ed) Relationships.  Issues in Society Series Vol 124. Sydney: Spinney press 2000 68 - 77

Hillier, L. & Mitchell, A. ( in press) “It was as useful as a chocolate kettle”: sex education in the lives of young same sex attracted people in Australia. Sex Education  Sex Education

Agius P, Pitts MK, Dyson S, Mitchell A, Smith AMA. (2006). Pregnancy and contraceptive use in a representative sample of Australian secondary students. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health, 30(6): 555-7.

Agius P, Dyson S, Pitts MK, Mitchell A, Smith AMA. (2006) Two steps forward and one step back? Australian secondary students’ sexual health knowledge and behaviors 1992 - 2002. Journal of Adolescent Health 38 (3)247 - 52

Dyson S, Agius P, Pitts MK, Mitchell A & Smith AMA. (In press). Same-sex attraction, binge drinking, drug injection and sexual experience from a national survey of secondary students. Journal of School Health.

Dyson, S & Mitchell, A. (2005) Sex education and unintended pregnancy: Are we seeing the results? Australian Health Review 29 (2) 135-139

Rosenthal, DA, Haste, B, Mitchell, A & Ollis,D. (2002) Teaching about Hepatitis C: A national survey of secondary teachers. Health Promotion Journal of Australia 13 (3)  214 – 219

McNair, R, Anderson, S & Mitchell, A. (2001) Addressing Health Inequalities in Victoria Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Communities. Health Promotion Journal of Australia.  11 (1) 32-38

Mitchell A, Ollis D & Watson J (2000). Talking sexual health: What goes into a National Framework for HIV/AIDS education in secondary schools? Youth Studies Australia 19 (4), 20 –24

Mitchell A,  Ollis D & Watson J (2000). Talking sexual health: A national application of the health promoting schools framework for HIV/AIDS in secondary schools. Journal of School Health 70(6), 262-264

Mitchell A & Smith AMA (2000). Safe sex messages for adolescents: Do they really work? Australian Family Physician, 29(1), 31-34.

Hillier, L & Mitchell, A. (2004) Shifting the discourse about same sex attraction from the moral to the safety and rights arenas: a collaboration between research, the community and those who liaise between them. In Bailey, C, Cabrera, D & Buys, L (Eds) Social change in 21st century: 2004 conference proceedings

Mitchell, A (2008) We treat eceryone the same: The impact of heterosexism on the health and wellbeing of lesbians Health Issues 94: Autumn

Mitchell, A & Callan, M (2007) “It’s none of my business”: Gay and lesbian people seeking aged care services. Geriaction 25 (3) pp31- 33

Mitchell, A (2005) Young people and Sex: Taking a reality check YACSaround Number 10

Mitchell, A (2003) Still Talking Sexual Health: Where are we in 2003? Health Education Australia Journal

Leonard, W, Dowsett, G, Slavin, S., Mitchell, A. & Pitts, M (2008) Crystal Clear: The social determinants of gay men’s use of crystal methamphetamine in Victoria. Australian Research Centre In Sex, Health and Society. Melbourne.

Couch, M., Pitts, M., Mulcare, H., Croy, S., Mitchell, A & Patel, S. (2007) TranZnation: A report on the health and wellbeing of transgender people in Australia and New Zealand Australian Research Centre In Sex, Health and Society. Melbourne.

Dyson, S., Flood, M., Mitchell. A & Fox, C (2007) AFL Respectful behaviours in sport :Review of adult education & behaviour change literature and evaluation of 2005 training.

Pitts, M, Mitchell, A & and Patel, S (2006) Private Lives: A report on the health and wellbeing of GLBTI Australians. Australian Research Centre In Sex, Health and Society. Melbourne.

Hillier, L, Turner, A & Mitchell, A (2005) Writing Themselves In Again – 6 Years On: The second national report of the sexuality, health and wellbeing of same sex attracted young Australians.

Dyson, S, Mitchell, A, Smith, A, Dowsett, G, Pitts, M & Hillier, L (2003) Don’t Ask Don’t Tell Hidden in the crowd: The need for documenting links between sexuality and suicidal behaviours amongst young people. Australian Research Centre In Sex, Health and Society. Melbourne.

Smith, A, Agius,P, Dyson, S, Mitchell, A & Pitts,M (2003) Secondary Students and Sexual Health: 3rd National Survey of Australian Secondary Students, HIV/AIDS and Sexual Health. Australian Research Centre In Sex, Health and Society. Melbourne.

Email: a.mitchell@latrobe.edu.au

Tel: +61.3 9285 5124