Our research at the 2024 Australasian Society for Behavioural Health and Medicine Scientific Conference
by Dr Elizabeth Holmes-Truscott
This month, members of the ACBRD team went to Adelaide to take part in the 2024 Australasian Society for Behavioural Health and Medicine Scientific Conference.
This conference features the latest health psychology and behavioural science research from around Australia and New Zealand. Researchers from other countries also take part. Presentations focus on the psychosocial aspects of living with health conditions (e.g. cancer, diabetes, obesity). There is also a strong focus on health promotion more broadly. Taking part is an opportunity for our team to learn new insights and to share our research. This year, we shared our research on the need to understand and address diabetes stigma.
On Thursday, Dr Eloise Litterbach presented findings from our study on the social experiences of 20 women with gestational diabetes. We worked closely with community to develop and refine a new tool to assess stigma among this group. Eloise will be presenting more study findings at Psychosocial Aspects of Diabetes conference in April (Wurzburg, Germany).
On Thursday, we attended an inspiring presentation by a long-term friend of the ACBRD, Prof Molly Byrne. Molly is Director of the Health Behavioural Change Research Group (University of Galway, Ireland). The aim of Molly’s research is to improve health through evidence-based behaviour change interventions. Molly’s talk emphasised the benefits of genuine community involvement in research, as well as the need for novel approaches to answer complex questions. We were privileged to have Molly visit the ACBRD the following week.
On Friday morning, we were proud to speak in an invited symposium about the Pledge to end diabetes stigma. I shared the findings from the international consensus that has informed the Pledge. Eloise spoke about sources of stigma and the power of changing our language. Dr Anna Serlachius shared her research on self-compassion. She talked about ways we can better support those affected by diabetes stigma. Alison Robinson, who lives with type 1 diabetes, spoke about why the Pledge is so important to her and to other people living with diabetes.
This symposium was an opportunity to share the Pledge with researchers and clinicians working outside diabetes. If we don’t have diabetes ourselves, most of us know someone with diabetes. We can all play our part to bring an end to diabetes stigma and discrimination. We encouraged attendees to show their support and take the Pledge.
It was fantastic to catch up with so many people working to improve health through behavioural science. We are already looking forward next year’s meeting in Gold Coast!
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