Investigators: Megan Bell, David Ansell, Melissa O'Donnell, Nick De Klerk, Rebecca Glauert, Scott Sims
Where people live can strongly influence their level of exposure to health-damaging factors, their vulnerability to poor outcomes, and the consequences of experiencing those poor outcomes. Geographical mapping of child outcomes is therefore an important component of monitoring the health and wellbeing, educational achievement, and juvenile delinquency of WA children and young people.
The WA Child Development Atlas (CDA) will geographically map aggregated area-level data on child health, social, learning, and development indicators, overlaid by locations and catchment areas of child- and family-oriented services and programs. The CDA will be an online, interactive mapping tool that will enable the profiling of geographic areas within the State, to inform the planning and development of policies, services, and programs aimed at improving the outcomes of Western Australian children.
The first phase of this project is a proof of concept, and will involve the development of a pilot WA Child Development Atlas using data from the Department of Health WA (Midwives Notification System, Hospital Morbidity Data System, Emergency Department Data Collection, WA Cancer Registry, Mental Health Information System, and Death Registrations), Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) Census, Australian Early Development Census (AEDC), and Ngala service provision. For this phase, only the Department of Health WA data will need to be linked. The objective of the proof of concept is to develop a small-scale version of the proposed WA Child Development Atlas, and then conduct a formal evaluation of the functionality and format of the tool using quantitative (e.g., Google metrics) and qualitative (e.g., survey) methods.
The WA Child Development Atlas is currently in the pilot testing phase. It is only accessible with a valid login to approved users (<50) who have signed a confidentiality agreement. The pilot Atlas and associated website (information only - not maps) were launched in June 2018 and the event was attended by government, academic, community and not-for-profit groups.
For the second phase of the project, outcomes of the evaluation of the pilot will be used to refine and develop the full version of the CDA and additional data from partner agencies will be applied for and added to the maps.
External collaborators:
- Alan Dodson (Department of Education WA)
- Chris Dorrian (Department of the Premier and Cabinet)
- Karen Forde (Department of Health WA)
- Michael Bosley-Smith (Department of Communities)
- Ian Potter Foundation
- Minderoo Foundation
- NGALA
- Social Research Centre