INRICH Member Profile Card
Sue Woolfenden
ccSydney Local Health District/USYD/UNSW
Sue Woolfenden is the Director of Community Paediatrics at Sydney Local Health District. She is a NHMRC Senior Research Fellow with the University of New South Wales School of Clinical Medicine, Discipline of Paediatrics. She has led research that investigates the impact of inequitable health service provision on child health outcomes in the early years of childhood in Australia and globally. Her research has strong translational components. Sue co-chaired the Royal Australasian College of Physicians working group that developed the first Child Health Equity Policy Statement in Australia. She holds a NHMRC Career Development Fellowship in " Overcoming health inequity by using integrated models of care for children with neurodevelopmental problems" in the Population Child Health Research Group at UNSW School of Clinical Medicine, Discipline of Paediatrics.
Type of member: Regular (since 2014)
Telephone: +61429889196
Email Address: susan.woolfenden@health.nsw.gov.au
Collaborative ProjectsHub work in Australia with Professors Sharon Goldfeld and Lynn Kemp.
Current research interests
Integrated health-social care Hubs in priority populations
Social prescribing for children at risk of/with neurodevelopmental disorders
Strengths based health inequity research including exploring the impact of positive childhood events.
Research priorities
Pathways and mechanisms: Cumulative and additive social risk exposures (e.g. transient v. persistent poverty). | Methodological issues: Need to study social gradients as well as poverty. Multi-level studies - Society, Family & Individual. | Other:
Strengths based work with priority populations to address child health inequities
Selected publications
Wong-See H, Calik A, Ostojic K, Raman S, Woolfenden S. Clinical Pathways for the Identification and Referral for Social Needs: A Systematic Review. Pediatrics. 2023 Feb 8:e2022056837. https://publications.aap.org/pediatrics/article/151/3/e2022056837/190636/Clinical-Pathways-for-the-Identification-and
Mimmo L, Harrison R, Travaglia J, Hu N, Woolfenden S. Inequities in quality and safety outcomes for hospitalized children with intellectual disability. Dev Med Child Neurol. 2022 Mar;64(3):314-322. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34562021/
Chando S, Craig JC, Burgess L, Sherriff S, Purcell A, Gunasekera H, Banks S, Smith N, Banks E, Woolfenden S. Developmental risk among Aboriginal children living in urban areas in Australia: The Study of Environment on Aboriginal Resilience and Child Health (SEARCH). BMC Pediatr. 2020 Jan 13;20(1):13. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6956483/
Edwards K, Fernandez R, Rimes T, Stephenson L, Smith R, Son J, Sarkozy V, Perkins D, Eapan V, Woolfenden S. Happy, Healthy, Ready – working with early childhood non-government organisations for developmental surveillance for vulnerable children. Aust J Adv Nurs . 2020; 37, Issue 4, Pages 37 - 46 https://www.ajan.com.au/index.php/AJAN/article/view/277
Woolfenden S, Galea C, Smithers-Sheedy H, Blair E, McIntyre S, Reid S, DeLacy M, Badawi N, ACPR Group, CP QUEST. Impact of social disadvantage on cerebral palsy severity. Dev Med Child Neurol 2019, 61 (5):586 -592. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30221759/
profile updated: 03/09/2023