Working groups
Amy Kirwan is an applied researcher with a long history of operationalising research in sensitive and challenging environments with populations experiencing social and structural disadvantage. Their work is informed by a career in multicultural health, policy development and advocacy, harm reduction, social work and public and community health. Their research has explored the experiences, needs, structural contexts and aspirations of people who use drugs, who have been incarcerated or criminalised, who come from multicultural communities and who have cognitive disabilities. They have worked to bring the outputs of these types of research into policy and practice across systems and services.
Alongside these studies, Amy has conducted many commissioned evaluations and other qualitative studies, completing technical reports for government and service providers that have strongly influenced policy and practice across a range of settings. Amy has led a number of design research projects with people with lived experience to explore how better models of care and responses to social and structural disadvantage can be co-designed with communities. Amy is also a qualified social worker who has undertaken roles in forensic mental health, primary care and harm reduction outreach.
The Salvation Army commissioned the Burnet Institute to gather data on its 24-hour needle and syringe program (NSP) in St Kilda. Uniquely in Victoria, the St Kilda NSP is funded to run a staffed service 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and has been in operation with this model for over 10 years. This section is an executive summary of the Burnet Institute’s findings about the role, impact, and effectiveness of the St Kilda 24-hour NSP service.
ST KILDA 24-HOUR NSP EVALUATION.Explains how we developed The Forest - a model to address underlying causes of incarceration.
The Forest proposalDescribes the process and evidence behind The Forest - a model to address underlying causes of incarceration.
The Forest co-design report (Burnet Institute and Paper Giant)Describes the economic and social benefits of The Forest - a model to address underlying causes of incarceration.
Economic and health cost benefit impacts of The Forest (Insight Economics)Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health
Amy Kirwan, Alexandra Head, Megan S. C. Lim, Ana Isabel Blanco Orozco, Laura Dunstan, Julie Hennegan, Laura Dunstan, Alexandra Head, Megan S. C. Lim, Ana Isabel Blanco Orozco
Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health
Amy Kirwan, Alexandra Head, Megan S. C. Lim, Ana Isabel Blanco Orozco, Laura Dunstan, Julie Hennegan, Laura Dunstan, Alexandra Head, Megan S. C. Lim, Ana Isabel Blanco Orozco
Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health
Amy Kirwan, Alexandra Head, Megan S. C. Lim, Ana Isabel Blanco Orozco, Laura Dunstan, Julie Hennegan, Laura Dunstan, Alexandra Head, Megan S. C. Lim, Ana Isabel Blanco Orozco
We're working with criminalised communities to help end domestic, family and sexual violence.
We’re working closely with staff and artists at The Torch, a not-for-profit First Nations-led arts organisation, to improve program engagement and effectiveness.
The Forest is a public health model that addresses underlying causes of incarceration. It's led by people who use drugs, for people who use drugs.
This study provided evidence on whether a supervised drug consumption room (or rooms) is suited to the ACT context.
A unique prospective study of people incarcerated and released from prison with recent histories of injecting drug use in Australia.
The project is designed to evaluate a pilot program introducing condoms and dental dams for prisoner use into Victorian prisons.