���������¼�

Can you tell us a little about yourself? 

I’m Alexandra, known as Lexie, and I grew up in Belmont on Lake Macquarie. My background is in social work, sociology, and communication. I’m particularly interested in applied social research, and I’ve conducted studies in areas such as family policy, social disadvantage, disability and education, community cohesion, and social change. Currently, my research focuses on improving vaccination rates among young people with intellectual disability who attend NSW special schools.

Can you describe the research project funded by the HSR Theme?

Students with disability have lower coverage of Human papillomavirus (HPV) and other routine vaccines compared to students without disability. Our HSR funded study builds on preliminary work from the Vax4Health project which aimed to understand the vaccination needs of students with disability in special schools, including research with families, health and school staff. Our results suggest a person-centred approach holds potential to improve vaccination experiences for students with disability and ensure equity in coverage. We aim to develop a person-centred practice framework to strengthen the school vaccination program for adolescents with disability by conducting two co-design workshops with 15-20 stakeholders.  

What were you able/hoping to achieve with the grant funding?

No framework exists for strengthening immunisation services through person-centred care globally, we hope this co-design project will be instrumental in national and global efforts to increase vaccination rates among people with disability. The developed framework will be used to evaluate future co-designed interventions to improve the vaccination experience for all stakeholders involved in vaccination in special schools. We plan to use the study outcomes to support the development of an NHMRC Partnership grant to increase vaccine uptake in special schools.  

Looking ahead, what do you see as the potential impacts of your research on future health systems?

This study highlights the importance of involving stakeholders as researchers and co-designers when trying to create health systems change. It is important to recognise the contribution that  lived experience and personal perspectives can have to enabling change. We hope that by involving stakeholders in the co-design process that a person centred practice for vaccination in special schools, can be developed to improve the vaccination experience and  vaccination rates for young people with disability. 

What do you enjoy doing away from your work?

I love to swim and do aqua aerobics. I recently enjoyed reading “Lessons in Chemistry” by Bonnie Garmus and Italian food is my favourite!