I am a Mununjali Bundjalung woman from southeast Queensland, an Associate Research Fellow with Deakin Rural Health and a PhD student with Deakin University.. My PhD will focus on ‘Promoting Healthy Eating and Active Play from the Start of Life for Victorian Aboriginal Families and is being conducted in partnership with the Victorian Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation.’ My role at Deakin Rural Health involves being a joint investigator on various research projects within southwest Victoria.

I have recently been involved with several research projects that have focused on improving the health and wellbeing of Aboriginal people in southwest Victoria. These projects have covered topics including delivery of telehealth during COVID-19 to Aboriginal people in southwest Victoria, mobile primary health care for Indigenous populations and cognitive behaviour therapy and Indigenous practices of mindfulness.

I enjoy being part of and contributing towards the improvement of better health and nutrition for infants and their care giver. I believe this to be vitally important to a good start in an infant’s life, setting them up for the best possible future. This is why the INFANT project is so important, being part of a team of like-minded people is very rewarding.

My hope is that the health and wellbeing of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander infants and children improves and gets stronger. They are our future and will be passing on knowledge themselves, so we need to ensure now that they are given the best possible start to life.

Learn more about Fiona Mitchell below:

Journal article: Mobile primary health care clinics for Indigenous populations in Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United States: a systematic scoping review

Journal article: Towards the development of a wellbeing model for aboriginal and Torres Strait islander peoples living with chronic disease

LinkedIn Profile: Fiona Mitchell