Our work
Our work is organised around four key themes, summarised below:
LGBTIQ health and wellbeing
ARCSHS is the largest research centre focussed on LGBTIQ health and wellbeing in Australia, and since the 1990s has led the field internationally in investigating the experiences and needs of LGBTIQ communities. This research theme aims to advance knowledge of the lives of LGBTIQ individuals and communities, particularly as they relate to health and wellbeing. The new knowledge produced is used by the Centre and others to lead public discussion around the experiences of LGBTIQ communities, and to inform service delivery and policy responses.
Recent projects
- Private Lives 3 - A study of the health and wellbeing of LGBTIQ+ adults in Australia
- Writing Themselves In 4 - A study of the health and wellbeing of LGBTQA+ youth in Australia
- Rainbow Realities - In-depth analyses of large-scale LGBTQA+ health and wellbeing data in Australia
- LGBTQA+ people with disability - Violence, abuse, neglect and exploitation of LGBTQA+ people with disability
- Lean on Me - Peer support for mental health amonging LGBTQ adults in Melbourne
- Pride and Pandemic - The health impacts of COVID-19 on LGBTQ communities
- Opening Doors - Ensuring LGBTIQ-inclusive family, domestic and sexual violence services
- Responsive Pandemic Practice - LGBTIQ+ family violence service innovation in Victoria during COVID-19
- The religious experiences of LGBTQA+ Australians - a population survey of experiences of religious and non-religious LGBTQA+ adults
- LGBTI+ Lives in Crisis - Mental health crisis support for LGBTIQA+ adults
- Rainbow Ageing - Health and social wellbeing of older LGBT people in Australia
- QSOX - Queer women's substance use over time
- Catalysts of Change - Interventions and service pathways for gay, bisexual, trans and queer (GBTQ) men who have used family violence in Victoria, Australia
Explore our LGBTIQ health and wellbeing reports
Social responses to HIV and viral hepatitis
ARCSHS has long delivered high-quality strategic research that addresses international issues, and also informs Australia’s HIV and viral hepatitis national strategies. This research theme is focussed on the experiences, wellbeing and social connections of people living with HIV and viral hepatitis. It also addresses the role, quality and impact of community and peer-led social responses, and their influence in community and policy systems. The theme outcomes advance knowledge on the relationships between community, policy and health services, and inform prevention, testing, treatment and care, and community and peer-led interventions.
Recent projects
- HIV Futures 10 - Quality of life among people living with HIV in Australia
- The blood-borne viruses and sexually transmissible infections stigma reduction toolkit - A stigma reduction toolkit for the Victorian healthcare workforce
- Addressing hepatitis-C-related legal, policy and practice discrimination in a post-cure world - A project aimed at supporting better legal, social and policy outcomes for Australians cured of hepatitis C.
- W3 Framework - Understanding, demonstrating, and improving the impact of peer work in public health
- Understanding experiences of telehealth care delivery for hepatitis C treatment in Australia
- VitalvoicesonhepC.org - Personal stories of hepatitis C, treatment and cure
- Asia-Pacific MSM Internet Study - A six-country feasibility survey examining HIV prevention and care need and engagement among men who have sex with men
Explore our Social responses to HIV and viral hepatitis reports
Sexual health and wellbeing
ARCSHS is a leader in research on sexual health and wellbeing, including experiences of sexuality and sexual health across the life course, from young people to older people. With repeated funding under the national STI strategies, we also track young people’s sexual health knowledge, practice and behaviours, and their experiences of sexual health education and prevention. This research theme builds new knowledge, fosters public discussion, and informs interventions in ways that foreground healthy sexuality and pleasure as positive intimate and social expressions.
Recent projects
- Secondary Students and Sexual Health 7
- Young people, sexual literacy and sources of knowledge
- Understanding the health and social wellbeing needs of sex workers in Victoria
- Tech Sex - technology, sexuality and the law
- M-Sex - A program of research exploring men, bodies, sexuality, health, and technology
Explore our Sexual health and wellbeing reports
Sex, gender and consumption
A relatively new area of research for ARCSHS focuses on sex, gender and consumption. The rise of the consumer society worldwide since the middle of the 20th century has redefined key notions of the self, productivity and responsibility in contemporary life. From shopping, digital sociality, and the healthy body as identity project, to alcohol and other drug use, and other marginalised consumption activity, consumption is sexualised and gendered in ways that shape social, health and other supports and responses. ARCSHS aims to understand the rich dynamics at work in the sexual and gender meanings of consumption in order to enhance academic and public discourse and inform relevant policy responses and service provision. .
Recent projects
- Drugs, Gender and Sexuality Program
- Gender, Law and Drugs Program
- Addressing gender and sexuality in drug education - Developing effective and ethical drug education
- Drugs and human rights - A world-first ‘post-human rights’ framework for drug policy: Improving social, economic and health outcomes
- Overdose Lifesavers - Personal stories of opioid overdose and the use of take-home naloxone to save lives
- Lives of Substance - Personal stories of alcohol or other drug addiction, dependence or habit