Jaklin Eliott

Associate Professor Jaklin Eliott

Associate Professor/Reader

School of Public Health

Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences

Eligible to supervise Masters and PhD - email supervisor to discuss availability.


Associate Professor Jaklin Eliott employs qualitative methodologies to examine how people talk or write about their experiences and perceptions of health-related issues (e.g. serious illness, palliative care, death and dying, complementary medicine, alcohol use), considering the social and ethical implications of different ways of understanding for individuals, carers (personal and professional), and society in general. She is particularly interested in the intersections of private, public health, and clinical ethics in healthcare.

Often focusing on issues of equity, her research is a unique contribution to the literature dealing with the social and moral aspects of the experience of terminal illness - particularly with regard to patient/consumer perspectives in the areas of decision-making, advance care planning, hope, Complementary and Alternative Medicine, and death and dying. She has extensive experience in designing and conducting qualitative research, using focus group and personal interviews, and in analysing text, media, and speech via thematic and discursive analytical techniques. She has received funding from ARC Linkage and NHMRC Partnership Grant Schemes, and is currently the Lead Researcher for multi-University grant from The Hospital Research Foundation Group – 2021 State-wide Collaborative Palliative Care Research Program of $2.25M over 5 years to improve the access to and delivery of palliative care for South Australians facing the end of their lives, particularly focusing on communities who do not typically access such services.

Jaklin is currently Course Coordinator for PUB HLTH 5006 Ethics in the Counselling Workplace and PUB HLTH 7300OL Developing a Novel Research Question. She also guest lectures on Hope in Counselling, and provides Safe Environments training for counselling and psychology post-graduate students.

Research Interests

To listen to a podcast discussing some of my previous research about advance care planning in vulnerable populations, you can visit this site

end of life / palliative care
Advance Care Planning/Directives
medical decision-making
carers/families living with a serious illness
social aspects of alcohol consumption
social and moral aspects of healthcare
hope

For details on projects available please view the following booklet: School of Public Health Student Projects

Additional suggestions regarding project/s are listed below but enquries regarding any projects addressing how people and institutions make decisions about healthcare at Honours, Masters, or PhD level are welcome. I am particularly interested in working with minority or under-served communities.

1. Residential aged care home staff views on engaging residents in designing menus and foodplans 

This project involves analysis of brief interview data already collected on a pilot study of co-design of food choices for RACH residents. The student will also work with the RACH management in developing recommendations on how to increase resident engagement in designing food choices. 

This project is suitable for vacation scholars / Masters coursework / Honours projects. 

2. Death literacy 

A student may choose to focus on any area of Death Literacy -- that is, the knowledge and practical skills to provide support and care for those facing a life-limiting illness and/or facing the death of someone and/or recently bereaved. This project may include quantitative or qualitative projects working with community-based organisations. 

This project is suitable for HDR / Masters coursework / Honours / Master of Philosophy projects. 

3. Death in the media

Students involved in this project may tailor the topic to suit their own interests and address current gaps in the literature. It may include analysis of any media modality where data is publicly available. As public beliefs about and decisions regarding death and dying are often shaped by public representations of this, a better understanding of these may identify areas of misunderstanding or difference in sectors that may inform public policy or practice in the areas of death and dying. It may include qualitative and/or quantitative analysis. 
It is suitable for HDR / Masters by coursework / Honours projects. Some further suggestions are below. 

3a. Death and COVID-19 in the media

This project involves an analysis of media representations of death and COVID-19. A student may choose to focus on a specific aspect of this, including potential gender or socio-cultural differences, changes over time or across different media sources, and representations of different stakeholder (e.g., patients, families, medical professionals, policy-makers). It may include qualitative and/or quantitative analysis. 
It is suitable for HDR / Masters by coursework / Honours projects.

3b. Death and place in the media

This project involves an analysis of media representations of places of death. A student may choose to focus on a specific aspect of this, including potential gender or socio-cultural differences, changes over time or across different places of death, and representations of key stakeholders and processes. It may include qualitative and/or quantitative analysis. 
It is suitable for HDR / Masters by coursework / Honours projects.

3b. Voluntary assisted dying

This project could involve an analysis of media or policy representations of, or the perceptions of particular demographic groups regarding, voluntary assisted dying. A student may choose to focus on a specific aspect of this, including potential gender or socio-cultural differences, changes over time or across different places of death, and representations of key stakeholders and processes. It may include qualitative and/or quantitative analysis. 
It is suitable for HDR / Masters by coursework / Honours projects.

4. Perspectives of non-medical staff in providing care for persons in the last year of life

This project will examine the views of professional staff caring for those for whom cure is no longer possible, possibly considering those working within residential aged care facilities. It may involve survey or interview-based data and qualitative and/or quantitative analysis. 
It is suitable for HDR / Masters by coursework / Honours projects

5. The language of Advance Care Planning in the public domain

This project involves an analysis of discourse about and representations of Advance Care Planning in the public domain. As public beliefs about and decisions regarding planning for end of life care are often shaped by public representations of this, a better understanding of these may identify areas of misunderstanding or difference in sectors that may inform public policy or clinical practice in these areas. A student may choose to focus on specific aspects of these, including potential gender or socio-cultural differences, changes over time or across different media sources (e.g., recordings, visual imaging, and texts) and representations of key processes and stakeholders. It may include qualitative and/or quantitative analysis. 
It is suitable for HDR / Masters by coursework / Honours projects

6. Representations of child protection services in the media

This project involves an analysis of discourse about and representations of Child Protection Services in the public domain. As public beliefs about and decisions regarding the institutions and processes involved in Child Protection Services are often shaped by public representations via the media, a better understanding of these may identify areas of misunderstanding or difference in sectors that may inform public policy or practice in these areas. A student may choose to focus on specific aspects of these, including potential gender or socio-cultural differences, changes over time or across different media sources, and representations of key processes and stakeholders. It may include qualitative and/or quantitative analysis. 
It is suitable for HDR / Masters by coursework / Honours projects

7. The military in the media

This project involves an analysis of media representations of the military. A student may choose to focus on a specific aspect of this, including how serving personnel are represented during and after active service, potential gender or socio-cultural differences, changes over time or across different media sources, and representations of mental health issues and suicide associated with military service. It may include qualitative and/or quantitative analysis. 
It is suitable for HDR / Masters by coursework / Honours projects

Improving the access to and delivery of palliative care services to underserved populations ($2,250,000) (2022-27)
A project funded by the The Hospital Research Foundation
Summary:
 This project is conducted by the Palliative Care Research Collaboration (PCRC), and is a five-year Statewide project funded by The Hospital Research Foundation Group - Palliative Care . The program is aimed at improving access to and delivery of services to people and their families dealing with a life-limiting illness, to help them live as well as possible for as long as possible. This research program is an innovative public health collaboration involving experienced researchers and clinicians, local health networks, peak advocacy organisations, and patients and family members in South Australia. This Statewide research program includes five key research projects, each involving a dedicated research team and strong collaborations between university researchers, post-doctorate fellows, doctoral candidates, research students, healthcare and policy organisations, and advocacy groups. These collaborations will support the translation of the research outcomes into positive and sustainable change. 

A qualitative study: healthcare professionals’ views of patient and family perspectives on place of death ($20,350 total) (2019-20)
A project funded by the Northern Communities Health Foundation
Summary:
  This project aims to elicit and analyse the perspectives of healthcare professionals across diverse settings and disciplines about the experiences of their patients and families regarding actual and preferred place of death. During this study we will identify key factors (medical, familial, social, cultural) that healthcare professionals observe as influential in preferred place of death; analyse healthcare professionals’ views on patient and family preferences for place of death; and, develop an NHMRC (or similar) grant to document and analyse the stability, nature of, and justification for, preferences for place of death amongst patients and families over time.

Values and Ethics in Advance Care Planning within and for Vulnerable Australian Communities Supplementary Scholarship  ($5,000 per year up to 3 years) (2020 onward)
A scholarship funded by the Northern Communities Health Foundation
Summary: This scholarship will provide a supplementary scholarship for a PhD candidate to investigate the ethical issues evident in policy and practice pertaining to the National Framework for Advance Care Directives (2011), particularly regarding vulnerable groups in South Australia. With a focus on advance care planning, the successful candidate will analyse points of convergence and divergence between the ethical assumptions and values embedded in academic literature and policy documents relating to current legislation and clinical practice, as well as within the views of community and healthcare professionals. This will inform the development of legislation, policies, and practices that encompass the diverse views and values within the Australian population.

Culturally appropriate end of life care within Indigenous Communities Supplementary Scholarship ($10,000 per year up to three years) (2020 onward)
A scholarship funded the the Northern Communities Health Foundation
Summary:
 This scholarship will provide a supplementary scholarship for a PhD (or MPhil) candidate to work closely with community to learn values, preferences, and current practices around finding out what Indigenous Australians want, and get at the end of life. This will help those making policies and those providing care, to work with communities and individuals so that these policies and practices will better reflect Indigenous values and preferences. It will also provide an example of how to better work with Indigenous Australians so that sensitive policy and practice is more culturally appropriate.

Best practice in developing sensitive public policy within vulnerable communities (with a specific focus on Vietnamese communities (2019-20) ($88,000 total)
A project funded by The Hospital Research Foundation
Summary: This project will review best practice in engaging with vulnerable or marginalised communities in the development of complex and sensitive public policy, and is affiliated with the NHRMC Project ID APP1133407). The funds will be used to employ two post-doctoral positions (total 0.4 FTE for 18 months). The first will systematically review the national and international academic literature regarding engagement with vulnerable or marginalised communities in developing sensitive public policy; the second will focus on the role of 'silence' and/or the 'unspoken' in advance care planning amongst Vietnamese communities. 

Investigating the inclusion of vulnerable populations in Advance Care Planning: Developing complex and sensitive public policy (2016-21) ($781,842 total: NHMRC contribution $379,367)
A project funded by the National Health and Medical Research Council, Partnership Projects (ID: APP1133407), and partner organisations: 
  * Aged and Community Services SA & NT Inc
  * Alzheimer’s Australia SA
  * Law Society of South Australia
  * Modbury Hospital Foundation (MHF)
  * Multicultural Communities of SA (MCCSA)
  * Northern Adelaide Local Health Network (NALHN)
  * Northern Communities Health Foundation (NCHF)
  * Northern Health Network (NHN)
  * Palliative Care SA (PCSA)
  * SA Health
Summary: Through this Partnership Project, the topic of Advance Care Planning (ACP) will bring together key stakeholders from government, professions, NGOs, and community members to determine how people from different cultural backgrounds (with specific engagement with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples), and those requiring specialist health services to meet their health needs, can appropriately be included in policy development on issues that affect them. Building on knowledge and partnerships established during a 2015-16 scoping study, we will identify what is, what could be, and what should be done to support effective ACP and associated end-of-life care conversations within vulnerable communities.
You can learn more about this project here.

Hearing the voices of the vulnerable in end-of-life care planning (2015/16). 
A project funded by Northern Communities Health foundation ($25,000). 
Crawford, A., Burgess, T., Eliott, J., Richards, B., Zivkovic, T., Chong, Al, & Faulkner, D. 
Summary: This scoping study aimed to bring together diverse stakeholders in South Australia to identify and name the issues and challenges that need further investigation, in order to bridge the gap between policy and practice in vulnerable populations, specifically in initiating advance care planning processes and developing advance care plans in accordance with national policy.
The main outcome of the project was the development of an NHMRC Partnership Grant which drew on the results of consultations with participants working with people from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds and people with chronic disease around their perceptions of the current processes around end of life care conversations and advance care planning processes.

Public and ethical responses to mandated alcohol warning labels about increased long-term risk of cancer (2012/16)
ARC Linkage Project, 2012-2015 (LP120200175)
Miller, E.R.,Eliott, J., Olver, I.N., Ali, R., Braunack-Mayer, A.J.,Crabb, S.H., Louise, J., & Baratiny, G.Y.
Partner Organisations: Cancer Council Australia, Drug and Alcohol Services South Australia
Summary: This project examines how the Australian public will respond to the proposed introduction of alcohol product warning labels. It will establish how such at point of sale messages can acceptably and effectively inform Australians about the long-term, but modifiable, cancer risk associated with alcohol use and reduce the national cancer burden.

Adelaide-Bordeaux Student Alcohol Project – a Pilot Study (2014)
A project funded by the Faculty of the Professions, University of Adelaide
Miller, E.R.,Eliott, J., & Bouzdine-Chameeva, T.
Summary: This project examines all aspects of alcohol behaviour, including all forms of alcohol, in students in both university cohorts. The information will assist in characterising risk behaviour in relation to alcohol, and will benefit the University by providing risk level data specific to inform appropriate preventive activity planning.

 

 

Teaching Activities 

Courses

Date Course Title Institution Course Level /  Code Role
2023 Medical Studies 3 / Transition to Clinical Studies 3 University of Adelaide Medic ST 3501 / 3502 SPH Health & Society Coordinator
2022-present Developing a Novel Research Question University of Adelaide Masters / PUB HLTH 7033 & 4500 OL Course Coordinator/Lecturer
2012-15 Qualitative Research Methods in Health (inc. OL) University of Adelaide Masters / PUB HLTH 7078/7078OL Course Coordinator/Lecturer
2012-23 Ethics in the Workplace University of Adelaide Masters / PUB HLTH 5006 Course Coordinator
2012-17 Narrative Approaches to Counselling and Group Work University of Adelaide Masters / PUB HLTH 7005 Course Coordinator
2014 - 2022 Counselling Applications University of Adelaide Masters / PUB HLTH 7006 Sessional Lecturer
(Hope and positive psychology)
  • Current Higher Degree by Research Supervision (University of Adelaide)

    Date Role Research Topic Program Degree Type Student Load Student Name
    2024 Principal Supervisor Development of antimicrobial stewardship programs to limit inappropriate antimicrobial prescriptions for presumed UTIs in residential aged care facilities. Master of Philosophy (Public Health) Master Full Time Miss Maria Lin
    2024 Principal Supervisor 'Dying on Foreign Lands'; An exploratory review on Death Anxiety and Perceived Barriers to End-of-Life-Care by first generation CALD populations in Australia Master of Clinical Science Master Full Time Catherine Ooi
    2021 Principal Supervisor The impact of climate change concern on youth mental health and wellbeing Master of Philosophy (Public Health) Master Part Time Mrs Mariel Tapia Echanove
  • Past Higher Degree by Research Supervision (University of Adelaide)

    Date Role Research Topic Program Degree Type Student Load Student Name
    2017 - 2021 Principal Supervisor Developing a Disease-Specific Health-Related Quality of Life Instrument for Patients with Soft Tissue Sarcoma: A Proof-of-Concept Study Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Mr Joshua Henry McDonough
    2017 - 2017 Co-Supervisor An Ethical Analysis of Obesity, Weight Stigma, and Public Health Master of Philosophy (Public Health) Master Full Time Ms Alison Harwood
    2016 - 2018 Principal Supervisor Identity and veteran health: considerations of context, culture, and change Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time CAPT Paula Anne Dabovich
    2015 - 2020 Principal Supervisor The Social and Ethical Significance of Non-Problematised Middle-Aged Drinkers Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Part Time Mrs Emma Muhlack
    2015 - 2018 Principal Supervisor Negotiating the Social Consequences of Stopping or Reducing Alcohol Consumption Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Ms Ashlea Jade Bartram
    2014 - 2020 Co-Supervisor All in a day's work: A qualitative analysis of fathers' uptake of flexible working arrangements, workplace culture, and masculine identity Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Ms Ashlee Rae Borgkvist
    2013 - 2021 Principal Supervisor Warning: Alcohol causes cancer. Examining public responses to alcohol warning labels Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Part Time Ms Olivia Sydney Hawkins
    2010 - 2014 Principal Supervisor Interpersonal factors impacting the decision to (continue to) use Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) in men with cancer – a mixed-methods study Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Ms Nadja Klafke
    2010 - 2013 Co-Supervisor What is needed for telehealth to deliver sustainable value to the routine operations of health care in Australia? Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Part Time Dr Tori Wade
    2006 - 2009 External Supervisor Building Mental Health in Young Australians: A Positive Psychological Approach Master of Psychology (Clinical)/Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Dr Anthony Venning
  • Position: Associate Professor/Reader
  • Phone: 83133855
  • Email: jaklin.eliott@adelaide.edu.au
  • Fax: 83133339
  • Campus: North Terrace
  • Building: Rundle Mall Plaza, floor 4
  • Org Unit: Public Health

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