In celebration of International Day of People with Disability (IDPwD), Healthy Trajectories hosted Grand Rounds at the Royal Children’s Hospital, Melbourne, in December 2024.

This year’s theme for IDPwD was “Amplifying the leadership of persons with disabilities for an inclusive and sustainable future”, and the Grand Round was suitably titled Celebrating International Day of People with Disability: Partnering in research.

Healthy Trajectories was proud to share what we and others around the Melbourne Children’s have been doing to authentically involve young people growing up with a disability, and their families, as partners in research, in line with our vision for an inclusive Australia.

This included presentations from an amazing group of speakers:

• Prof. Christine Imms, Apex Chair of Neurodevelopment and Disability and Director of Healthy Trajectories
• Rohan Symonds, Lived Experience Consultant
• Dr Anthea Skinner, Australian Research Council Industry Fellow and Senior Lecturer in Disability Creative Performance at Victorian College of the Arts
• Jacinta Pennacchia, Speech Pathologist and PhD candidate at the University of Melbourne
• Rigan Tytherleigh, Research and Program Evaluation Data Manager, Genomics in Society, Murdoch Children’s Research Institute/Melbourne Genomics Health Alliance; Honorary (Fellow), Department of Paediatrics; The University of Melbourne
• Erin Crellin, PhD candidate, Department of Paediatrics, University of Melbourne; Genomics in Society, MCRI
• Sevastine Katsakis, Consumer Engagement Officer at Healthy Trajectories

The speakers presented on a variety of topics:

• Spectrum of participation
  
• Consumers with disabilities  
• Communication and consent in research
• Accessibility in research
• Guidelines for engaging with young people in research (PDF)

We would like to thank all of our speakers for their wonderful, engaging presentations, and thank our partners at Melbourne Children’s as well as all the attendees on the day – it was a brilliant celebration!