Partnerships and research collaborations
Partnerships
Since its inception in 2017, Radiance has worked collaboratively developing partnerships and collegial networks to strengthen sustainable capacities and to ensure service delivery that is both genuinely effective and incorporates practices respectful to individual and community ethnicities.
Key partnerships have been with:
- WA Mental Health Commission
- Community Health and Community Mental Health Services
- Mother Baby Nurture
- Stan Perron Charitable Foundation
- Alcock Family Foundation
- 100 Women
- Parenting Connection WA
- Maternity and Mother Baby Units in Perth and regional hospitals
- Peach Tree Perinatal Wellbeing
- GPs, obstetricians, midwives, and allied health services
- National and state peak perinatal bodies
- Anglicare, WA Women’s Health (WAWH), South-West Aboriginal Medical Service Aboriginal Corporation, Southwest Counselling, South West Women’s Health and Information Centre, Collie Child and Parent Centre, Carey Park Child and Parent Centre, Margaret River Playgroup
- Local Governments
- Bendigo Bank branches
- Act Belong Commit
- Regional community organisations
and more
Consultations with community, people with lived experience, professional and peak bodies, alongside research, consumer feedback and data, inform Radiance’s comprehensive understandings of the needs, gaps and strengths in perinatal matters and defines the organisation’s strategic plan.
Research collaborations
Research partner | Current research focus | Radiance’s role |
Perinatal trauma and dissociation, including mothers’ experiences of disconnection, unreality and emotional numbness during pregnancy, birth and the postpartum period. | Connecting researchers with mothers and clinicians and contributing lived-experience perspectives to future research directions. | |
WA Mental Health Commission / Statewide Perinatal and Infant Mental Health Program | Development of a Statewide Perinatal and Infant Mental Health Framework. | Key stakeholder consultation, providing regional and community sector feedback and supporting stakeholder surveys. |
University of Western Australia
| Rural clinical education and service learning, supporting community and health services. | One student working with Radiance one day a week. Research/service learning partnership and connection with rural clinical student. |
| Low-intensity Behavioural Activation intervention of women experiencing perinatal mental health problems, including co-design, implementation, evaluation and economic analysis. | ECU has put in for an application for grant with Radiance as a partner using the peer-led non-clinical model of care. NGO/Community research partner, contributing consumer involvement, co-design and implementation. |
Neonatal Critical Care Alliance
| Improving support for families with babies requiring neonatal critical care, including advocacy for increased paid parental leave. | Participation in a national alliance advocating for increased support for vulnerable babies and their families. |
FIFO Family Project + Parenting Research Centre
| National research exploring the experiences of FIFO parents and addressing gaps in evidence around FIFO parenting. | Confirmed research partner supporting promotion and recruitment through Radiance’s community networks. |
ECU Postpartum Exercise & Mental Health Research
| Research examining the effects of exercise on postpartum and maternal mental health. | Supporting participant recruitment and research promotion. |
Suicide Prevention Australia – Post-Doctoral Fellowship Bonnie Scarth
| Development and evaluation of a kin peer-support model within Radiance Outreach, supporting partners, parents, siblings and friends around mothers experiencing suicidal distress. | Research and co-design partner, providing access to lived experience, Outreach workers and community expertise, with Radiance involved in governance and evaluation. |
Our research contribution
Radiance is actively contributing to research and collaboration across perinatal mental health, trauma, infant and neonatal wellbeing, peer support, family and kin support, regional and FIFO parenting, postpartum health, and statewide policy development.
These partnerships position Radiance as an important regional research and lived-experience partner, ensuring the voices and experiences of South West families contribute to research, service design and policy development.
