Community, Health and Wellbeing

The Community, Health and Wellbeing research cluster focuses on transdisciplinary research that looks to understand and improve wellbeing (e.g. physical, mental and spiritual health) at an individual, community, and policy level. We have a specific interest in understanding how aspects of the world around us (e.g., what we eat, the technology we use, our education system, the changing climate and improved sustainablity) impact our wellbeing, especially for communities who are often underrepresented in decision making (e.g. youth, older people, disabilities, LGBTQI+ and rural communities). We pride ourselves on projects that are designed in collaboration with the community partners to ensure that the cluster produces both academic and social impact. While the cluster has a strong focus on understanding the local Vietnamese context, having a team from a wide range of cultural backgrounds provides fertile ground for cross-cultural understanding of these socially impactfully topics.

We are very proud of the impact our work has had on the community, including:

• Dr Tuyen Truong, an RMIT expert, was asked to head a panel on Global Leadership Experience in Hanoi, co-organised by Common Purpose and RMIT.
• Dr Katrina Phillips was recently a keynote guest speaker at the inaugural South East Asia Applied Behaviour Analysis conference and won the RMIT storytelling competition when she talked about the rights of disabled people to choose.
• Dr. Anh Nguyen has not only obtained an RMIT grant to explore mindfulness in Vietnam, but she has also recently completed an Australian Alumni project on student well-being.

Below are some of the most recent impactful publications the show the breadth and depth of the research clusters focus on both physical and mental wellbeing for individuals and communities:

• Effects of emulsion droplet sizes on the crystallisation of milk fat - ScienceDirect
• Factors driving plastic-related behaviours: Towards reducing marine plastic waste in Hoi An, Vietnam - ScienceDirect
• Accuracy of bed-load transport models in eddy-resolving simulations - ScienceDirect
• A nationwide comparative study between private and public university students’ soft skills - Asia Pacific Education Review