Staff profile

Dr Virginia Lewis

Associate Professor, Director of Research & Evaluation

Faculty of Health Sciences

School of Health Sciences Research Australian Institute for Primary Care and Ageing

Health Sciences 2, 5th Floor, Melbourne (Bundoora)

 

Qualifications

BA(Hons), MA, PhD

Membership of professional Associations

Australasian Evaluation Society (AES)

Area of study

Health Policy
Health Promotion
Public Health

Research interests

Health Services and policy reform

- Primary and Community Health

Health Services Management

- Primary and Community Health

Recent Publications

  1. Lewis, V., Gardner, L., & Matthews, L., (Accepted December 2012). Evaluating the Feasibility of Goal Attainment Scaling as a Rehabilitation Outcome Measure for Veterans. Journal of Rehabilitation Medicine.
  2. Bauer, M., Fetherstonhaugh, D., & Lewis, V. (Accepted October 2012) Attitudes towards family-staff relationships in Australian residential aged care settings: development and psychometric evaluation of the “Family and Staff Relationship Attitude Tool” (FASRAT). Australasian Journal on Ageing.
  3. Crane, M., Lewis, V., Cohn, A., Hodson, S., Parslow, R., Bryant, R., Chesney, C.  (2012). A Longitudinal Study of Psychological Resilience in the Australian Defence Force.  Journal of Military and Veterans' Health.
  4. Sylvester, W., Fullam, R., Parslow, R., Lewis, V., Sjanta, R., Jackson, L., White, V. (2012). Quality of advance care planning policy and practice in residential aged care facilities in Australia. BMJ Supportive and Palliative Care.
  5. Bauer, M., Fetherstonhaugh, D., & Lewis, V. (2012) Assessing the quality of staff-family relationships in the Australian residential aged care setting: development and evaluation of the Family and Staff Relationship Implementation Tool (FASRIT). International Journal of Person-Centered Medicine.
  6. Parslow, R.A., Lewis, V.J., Nay, R. (2011). Successful aging: Development and testing of a multidimensional model using data from a large sample of older Australians. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, 59 (11), pp. 2077-2083.
  7. Hanley, F., Matthews, L., Lewis, V. (2011). Improving Rehabilitation Services for Veteran Populations: Key Areas for Reform. International Journal of Disability Management Research, 6, pp. 10-21.
  8. Forbes, D., Lewis, V., Varker, T., Phelps, A., O'Donnell, M., Wade, D.J., Ruzek, J.I., Watson, P., Bryant, R.A., Creamer, M. (2011). Psychological first aid following Trauma: Implementation and evaluation framework for high-risk organizations. Psychiatry, 74 (3), pp. 224-239. 
  9. Parslow, R.A., Lewis, V., Marsh, G. (2011). The general practitioner's role in providing mental health services to Australians, 1997 and 2007: Findings from the national surveys of mental health and wellbeing. Medical Journal of Australia, 195 (4), pp. 205-209. 
  10. Merkes, M., Lewis, V., Canaway, R. (2010). Supporting good practice in the provision of services to people with comorbid mental health and alcohol and other drug problems in Australia: Describing key elements of good service models. BMC Health Services Research, 10, art. no. 325. 
  11. Evans, L., Cowlishaw, S., Forbes, D., Parslow, R., Lewis, V. (2010). Longitudinal analyses of family functioning in veterans and their partners across treatment.  Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 78 (5), pp. 611-622. 
  12. Lewis, V., Creamer, M., Failla, S. (2009). Is poor sleep in veterans a function of post-traumatic stress disorder? Military Medicine, 174 (9), pp. 948-951.
  13. Creamer, M., O'Donnell, M.L., Carboon, I., Lewis, V., Densley, K., McFarlane, A., Silove, D., Bryant, R.A. (2009). Evaluation of the Dispositional Hope Scale in injury survivors. Journal of Research in Personality,  43 (4), pp. 613-617.
  14. Forbes, D., Lewis, V., Parslow, R., Hawthorne, G., Creamer, M. (2008). Naturalistic comparison of models of programmatic interventions for combat-related post-traumatic stress disorder. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, 42 (12), pp. 1051-1059.

Research projects

Current Research Projects

  • Overcoming barriers for transitioning vulnerable clients from targeted programs to mainstream primary care. Australian Primary Health Care Research Institute Funding Stream: coordination and the vulnerable consumer Primary Health Care. (Chief Investigator A)
  • Evaluation of a Pilot of Models for Requesting Donation, Australian Organ and Tissue Donation Authority
  • LASER-Resilience: Longitudinal ADF Study Examining Resilience. Study funded by Australian Department of Defence. (Chief Investigator)
  • Evaluation and Research support for Advance Care Planning training and implementation. With Austin Health Respecting Patient Choices team.
  • Development of a Program Logic Research and Evaluation Framework for the Rural Adversity Mental Health Program (RAMHP). Centre for Rural and Remote Mental Health, University of Newcastle.
  • Healthy, Happy And At Home: NBN-Enabled Medication Management for Older Adults Living Independently. RDNS-led project funded by the Department of Business and Innovation.
  • Development and implementation of an Evaluation Framework for suicide prevention activities. With Australian Healthcare Associates. Provision of Expert Advice. 
  • Development of a tool to measure the quality of staff-family relationships in residential aged care services. This project is led by Dr Michael Bauer, Australian Centre for Evidence-Based Aged Care (ACEBAC).
  • The use of MP3 players by carers of people with dementia to support home-based care. This project is led by Dr Margaret Winbolt, Australian Centre for Evidence-Based Aged Care (ACEBAC).

Recently completed Research Projects

  • Victorian Community Health Indicators Project: Immediate Outcome Indicators. Victorian Healthcare Association (VHA). 2012
  • Rapid Review : Reducing SexuallyTransmissible Infections(STI) in Young People. Victorian Department of Health. With Prof Marian Pitts and Dr Graham Brown from the Australian Research Centre in Sex Health and Society (ARCSHS). 2012
  • Implementation of the Gambler’s Help Client Experience Survey. With Janette Collier, e-Health Unit, AIPCA. Department of Justice.  2012
  • Evaluation of Connecting Healthcare In Communities (CHIC). Queensland Health. 2008-2011
  • Program Logic Mapping for KidsMatter Primary, Australian Psychological Society (APS), 2011
  • Development of a Program Logic Framework for MindMatters. Principals' Australia, 2010
  • Evaluation of DVA Mental Health Initiatives, 2007-2010. Department of Veterans Affairs
  • Research into Barriers to Rehabilitation, Department of Veterans Affairs