National agenda-setting workshop: Driving better health outcomes for multiple-birth families
Following on from the release of a world-first, international discussion paper earlier in 2019 in which the AMBA Chairperson, Ashlee Tenberge, was an author, the Australian Multiple Birth Association (AMBA) is excited to again be partnering with Twins Research Australia (TRA) and the International Council of Multiple Birth Organisations (ICOMBO) to move forward with the outcomes from an inaugural agenda-setting workshop.
Hosted by TRA on Thursday 5th December 2019 in Melbourne, we focused on developing national priorities and next steps to improve health outcomes for multiple-birth babies and their families. Over 30 participants attended and affirmed their commitment to working together to elevate awareness and action in four high-priority areas.
Open to people and organisations involved in the lives of multiple-birth families, its aim was to brainstorm next steps and to create a network of passionate people to drive this agenda forward. The workshop follows the release of the paper Multiple Perspectives: What support do multiple-birth families need to live happy and healthy lives?
Workshop participants included health professionals, researchers, educators, government agencies, not-for-profit and community organisations, parents of twins and adult twins.
Four high-priority areas
The main focus was a round-table discussion looking at recommendations for action in four high-priority areas as identified by the paper:
- Create and implement improved multiple-birth-specific educational resources for health professionals
- Support the development of evidence-based research on the financial disadvantage experienced by multiple-birth families to lobby government for funding support
- Advocate for further research to better understand the unique mental health concerns of multiple-birth families
- Advocate for further research to reduce pregnancy and birth complications
Program details
The workshop included:
- Background on how and why the paper was developed
- Presentation on each of the four priority themes
- Discussion around what are the challenges and potential solutions
- Presentations from topic experts in their field
- Break-out into four working groups to develop an action list of next steps and how to take these forward
- Potential funding opportunities to implement the next stages of work
Next steps
Recommendations, actions and next steps from the workshop are being collated into a report due for release in early 2020. Please join TRA's Facebook (general), Facebook (researcher), Twitter or LinkedIn to be alerted to the report's release.
Image: (left to right)
TRA Deputy Director, Kate Murphy; AMBA Chair, Ashlee Tenberge; ICOMBO Chair, Monica Rankin; TRA Deputy Director (Research), Jeff Craig.
Reference documents
Download the discussion paper: Multiple Perspectives Discussion Paper 2019.05
