• Evaluation of Mount Isa Liquor Restrictions (2003)
• Evaluation of the Family Healing Program Pilot (2002)

• The examination of the skill mix needed by a clinically extended mid-level health professional to meet the needs of patients, rural doctors and general practitioners working in rural and remote areas of Australia (2004)
• Researching appropriate structures for junior doctors going into rural practice (2003)
• Health & Harmony for Indigenous Mental Health Clients (2003)
• Is Streptokinase an effective thrombolytic agent in the Mount Isa Health District? (2001)
• Building the capacity of two indigenous school communities to address nutrition through the development of school based gardens (Outreach School Garden Project) (2001)
• Value of Home Blood Glucose Monitoring in Type 2 Diabetes in a Remote Indigenous Population (2001)

• Are immediate changes in active movements a valid and reliable basis for decision-making when treating musculoskeletal conditions? (2003)
• Do bush children have a real opportunity to become rural health professionals? (2002)

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In May 2002 the Liquor Licensing Division (LLD), Queensland Department of Tourism, Racing and Fair Trading, announced the introduction of a set of restrictions on liquor sales in Mount Isa for a 12-month trial period commencing 1 August 2002. The purpose of the restrictions was to reduce alcohol-related harm and community concerns about alcohol misuse in Mount Isa.

The LLD’s decision was in response to a submission from the Mount Isa Riverbed Action Group calling for variations to trading hours and types of beverage on sale. Following receipt of the submission, the LLD also held discussions with other parties, including licensees, and invited further submissions from interested parties.

The restrictions were in three parts:

1. no on-premises sales of liquor before 9am each day
2. no sale of liquor for off premises consumptions before 10am each day
3. no sales of wine in casks or other containers larger than 2 litres for consumption off premises

In announcing the restriction, the LLD also indicated that an evaluation would be conducted by the Mount Isa Centre for Rural and Remote Health throughout the trial period, in order to monitor the impact of the restrictions on alcohol-related harm and community concerns relating to alcohol.

Analysis of liquor purchases by Mount Isa liquor outlets, as recorded by wholesale suppliers, indicate that, as expected, introduction of the restrictions led to a sharp drop in purchases of cask wine by Mount Isa outlets (from 30,208 litres in April-June 2002 to 12,740 litres in July-September 2002). The decline was partially, but far from fully, offset by an increase in purchase of fortified wines and in pre-mixed spirit drinks. In January-March 2003 the total volume of alcoholic beverages purchased by Mount Isa Liquor outlets was 5.9% lower than during the same quarter of 2002. When beverages were converted to equivalent amount of absolute alcohol, the magnitude of the fall was greater: total volume of absolute alcohol purchased in January-March 2003 was 8.8% below the level 12 months earlier.




The Family Healing Program is a community driven response to the issues of inhalant use amongst young teenagers in Mount Isa. The Program has gone through several years of development and changes in coordination prior to funding being received. A proposal was submitted by the Department of Families.

The Mount Isa Centre for Rural and Remote Health, James Cook University, was appointed to evaluate the Mount Isa Family Healing Program in June 2002. The program was described to evaluators as a community developed, structured, 12 week pilot program to target “youth at risk”, aged 10 to 14 years of age, who were know to be “chronic users”, or as “ringleaders”.

As a result of this pilot, a further 2 year project was funded by the Alcohol Education and Rehabilitation Foundation. This project will be complete in 2006 and is also being evaluated by the MICRRH research unit.

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The research will consider the development of a clinically extended mid-level health professional coming from the ranks of current health professionals. The skill mix needed for such a professional will be considered, professional and legislative issues will be examined and a proposed curriculum will be developed for the clinical and other preparation of the proposed health professional.




Overall this study has confirmed that there are a number of barriers influencing the ability of junior doctors to provide high quality care when undertaking practice in rural or remote communities. A lack of supervision and on-site support, inadequate orientation, uninformed expectations, limited access to relevant education, and the influence of isolation results in an overall lack of preparation both professionally and personally. Despite the fact that junior doctors are sometimes sent out earlier than is ideal, the second postgraduate year is a good time to ensure they are competent in core skills for rural practice and have been exposed to a range of experiences. This study has: suggested competencies for junior doctors undertaking rural or remote practice, identified recommendations for terms, priorities for orientation activities, evaluated education topics for an ongoing support program, and assessed the usefulness of courses currently available. These outcomes will inform the content and format of activities which will be included in the rural support program and trialed in 2004.




The purpose of this investigation was to identify gaps in mental health service delivery by working with the community to identify shortcomings and to work towards developing practical strategies to address any problems. The project evaluation wanted to find out how culturally appropriate the delivery of service is, and to identify what support services are in place to ascertain how effective those services are for Iindigenous mental health clients as well as carers and families.




Those living in rural and remote Australia are inevitably disadvantaged in the management of Acute Myocardial Infarction (AMI), where simple thrombolysis is increasingly seen as a treatment of the last century. Urgent angiography and stenting, the management of choice for AMI in metropolitan areas, are not readily available to patients in the bush because of transfer times and distance from tertiary centres offering interventional cardiology services. Both Queensland Health and the RFDS (Royal Flying Doctor Service) are reviewing policy on the management of AMI in light of the findings from this study which will be published at a future date.




The overall goal of the research component of the Outreach School Garden Project is to evaluate the implementation and sustainability of these gardens in two indigenous school communities located in North West Queensland over a six month period.

Two indigenous school communities in North Queensland have developed and implemented school based gardens as one approach to addressing nutrition issues. Children from selected grades at both schools were involved in this project as part of their core curriculum. The focus was on enhancing the nutritional knowledge, skills, and attitudes of these children.




It is believed that the provision of a blood glucose monitoring device, and the home monitoring of blood glucose levels, can have a beneficial effect in the long-term management of Diabetes Mellitus Type 2 in members of an indigenous population.

The aim of this project is to determine whether the provision of blood glucose monitoring devices to selected members of a remote Australian community, along with support currently supplied by the town community health centre’s Diabetic Clinic can be justified by an improvement in long-term diabetes control, and a consequent reduction in complications and disease load on the community.

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This project intends to investigate a form of assessment that is an important part of the clinical reasoning process used by many physiotherapists in clinical practice. For a given patient in a single treatment session a Clinical Test Movement might be reassessed several times during the treatment and again at the end of treatment. This project addresses the validity of the interpretation of this reassessment process. Subjects will be drawn from physiotherapy patients with sub-acute symptoms of cervical origin. In addition to their usual treatment, subjects will complete outcome measure assessments and have cervical range of movement assessed using validated instrumentation before and after treatment. The treating physiotherapist’s assessment of changes in the patient’s range of movement will be compared with the results of the instrumented measurements. Both assessments of movement will be compared with the other outcome measures. This trial aims to determine the reliability and validity of active movement tests as immediate indicators of a patient’s progress.





The main perceived barriers between rural remote students and the health professional career courses were cost of university study, competing with academic score of the relatively large number of city students to gain acceptance and distance between university and family. Diversity in health professional role models for rural and remote students is restricted, 48.7% of surveyed rural families had not received information on health professional careers and 48.7% had not discussed the health professions as career options with their children. Almost all (96.6%) believed that if more rural students could enter health professional courses it would contribute to solving the rural health professional shortage.