Community Health

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Julia came to Australia in 1985 after training and working as a physiotherapist in London.  Julia's Australian clinical practice spanned 20 years with experience across metropolitan, regional and remote areas, and in both public and private health contexts. She joined the School of Community Health at Charles Sturt University in 1999 and is now the Head of School educating future occupational therapists, physiotherapists, podiatrists and speech pathologists.  Julia is a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors. Her key research interests are in interprofessional practice, team work and injury prevention. Julia's core aim as a community member, educator and researcher is to facilitate the development of quality health services appropriate for rural communities' current and future needs.

Roles

• Head of School
• Chair, School of Community Health Research Committee
• Charles Sturt University Professional activity committee
• Charles Sturt University Indigenous employment advisory committee CSU

Teaching

A key focus of Julia's teaching practice has been to engage students in effective interprofessional learning opportunities. Currently this work involves collaborative projects with the University of New South Wales, and La Trobe University, and regional clinicians to provide opportunities for students from different health professions to come together in case based learning.

Subject Delivery

• Bachelor of Health and Rehabilitation Science (Charles Sturt University)
• Member of the Course Development Advisory Committee for the Bachelor of Muscular-skeletal Therapy at North Melbourne Institute of TAFE (NMIT)
  
• Bachelor of Physiotherapy (Honours) (1997 - 2006)
• Physiotherapy Honours Coordinator (2001 - 2002)
• Masters in Orthopaedic Manipulative Therapy Co Coordination  (1999 - 2000)
• Course Development Committee - Physiotherapy (1997) Charles Sturt University

Research

Julia's research has focussed on two main areas

1. Health practice, and
2. Injury prevention

The health practice research is centred on understanding integrated and collaborative models of health practice and their impact, especially for the rural context (i.e., teams and interprofessional practice), and research that leads to service reform (i.e., reframing Allied Health assistance and developing supervision and support models)

Research into injury prevention has been predominantly with Research Higher Degree students, encompassing defence force injury prevention as well as community injury prevention.

Current Research Projects

• Assoc Prof Julia Coyle (Chief Investigator), Dr Rod Pope, Anna Moran, Dr Diane Boxall, Prof Susan Nancarrow (Southern Cross University), Prof Pam Enderby (Sheffield University, UK).
  Rural Allied Health Support and Supervision Project (RAHSSP)
  
  Funding Body: Ministry of Health NSW
• Assoc Prof Julia Coyle (Chief Investigator), Dr Stephen Gill (Senior Physiotherapist,  Barwon Health, Geelong), Dr Rod Pope.   
  Primary contact physiotherapy: emergency department staff's perspectives and experiences
  
• Assoc Prof Julia Coyle (Chief Investigator), Justine Parer, Wendy Rose Davison
  Client Centred Care Project   
  
  Funding Body: Ministry of Health NSW

Current Research Higher Degree Students

• Sandra van Dort    PhD   
  Community Based Rehabilitation and Speech Pathology education
• Rob Orr    PhD   
  Optimising risk management for soldier load carriage
• Illena Young    PhD   
  Health care: designing services appropriate for Indigenous communities
• Kate Freire    PhD   
  Exercise Co-participation in families
• Melissa Johnson    PhD   
  Injury prevention and eventing
• Kristy Robson    PhD   
  Falls Prevention in rural NSW
• Michael Hussey    Honours   
  Golfer's low back pain: the biomechanical impacts of the Golf swing

Professional & Community Engagement

Julia's strong engagement in roles in health stems from a passionate desire to enhance rural health services, and in particular address service access issues that can negatively impact on individual's health. This engagement is also driven by a need to establish new models of health service delivery that may address immediate and projected workforce shortages in the rural health sector.

Roles

• Director, Nursing and Allied Health Rural Locum Scheme
• Director, Albury-Wodonga Health Service Board
• • Chair - Quality and Clinical Governance Committee Albury-Wodonga Health Service:
  • Member  - Audit and Risk Committee Albury-Wodonga Health Service
  • Member - Executive remuneration committee Albury-Wodonga Health Service
• Workforce Development Strategic Sub-committee  - Murrumbidgee Local Health District
• Community Advisory Board: University of NSW Rural Clinical School Albury
• External advisory Committee - Client Centred Care Project: NSW Health for Murrumbidgee LHN
• Participated in the working party, led by Dr Craig Underhill, for the successful Albury-Wodonga Regional Cancer Centre ($65 million)
• Australian Physiotherapy Council standing Panel of Reviewers.