Carla Puca

Carla Puca

Project Officer

BSc, MPH, MIDI

carla.puca@telethonkids.org.au

https://www.linkedin.com/in/carlapuca

ORCID

Carla is an early career mixed-methods researcher in the infectious disease epidemiology field. In 2018 she completed a Master of Public Health, with units focused on epidemiology, disease prevention and early intervention strategies, followed by a Master of Infectious Disease Intelligence. Carla is currently completing a PhD evaluating current and future approaches to pandemic preparedness in regional aged care services.

Currently Carla is working on projects that seek to improve routine vaccine uptake in Aboriginal children in Perth, and on understanding the knowledge, attitudes and behaviour regarding COVID-19 vaccine uptake by Aboriginal adults in WA. Other projects she is working on seek to understand infectious disease transmission in early childcare centres, and the level of awareness of respiratory infections among Aboriginal parents.

Carla has organised and co-facilitated several community consultation and co-design workshops with Aboriginal health workers, Aboriginal Elders, and parents and carers of Aboriginal children. She has helped form an Aboriginal Community Reference Group to oversee one of the major projects she is working on and has co-facilitated multiple yarning sessions with community members. 

Prior to working at The Kids, Carla was employed at the Aboriginal Health Council of WA (AHCWA), where her work was focused on reducing the transmission of preventable infectious diseases in remote communities through targeted environmental health strategies. During her time at AHCWA, Carla led  the organisation of a two-day Aboriginal Environmental Health Forum, which brought together over 50 attendees representing all 23 Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Services (ACCHS) in WA. The core outputs from this Forum were the development of an Environmental Health ‘Model of Care’ policy for the ACCHS sector, and the prioritisation and development of future environmental health strategies for rural and remote communities.