What is your current role?
I am a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow within the Ethics and Genetics team of the Behavioural Sciences Unit. I am currently working on projects examining the psychosocial impact of childhood chronic illness on families.

What are the ‘best’ parts of your current role?
It is has been so inspiring and enjoyable to be part of a team of such talented researchers. I think the best part of the role is knowing that the research we complete will actually translate to improvements in quality of life for children with chronic illnesses and their families.

Please describe your education and training.
I completed my PhD in psychology in 2017 at Monash University. My PhD examined adolescent nonsuicidal self-injury and recovery from the perspectives of adolescents, parents and schools. I also worked with researchers at Cornell University and the University of Leuven to compare recovery from self-injury among Australian, Belgian and American young people.

After my PhD I worked at Rape and Domestic Violence Services, a non-profit which provides specialised, trauma-informed counselling to survivors of sexual and family violence and child abuse. In this role I worked on several research projects, including one which examined the emotional toll that working in the field of family violence has on service providers, known as vicarious traumatisation.

What are the most challenging parts of your current role?
In my role I have had to learn more about childhood chronic illness and genetic testing which has been challenging but mostly fascinating.

Where do you see yourself in five years’ time?
I’d like to still be working in the field of child and family health and wellbeing and conducting translational research to improve health outcomes for families.

What advice would you have for someone wanting to follow a similar path in terms of their study/career? 
Be open to new opportunities and challenges – when I was completing my PhD I didn’t think I would end up working in a medical setting but now I couldn’t imagine being anywhere else!

The Behavioural Sciences Unit is Proudly Supported by the Kids with Cancer Foundation.

Eden Robertson, PhD candidate at the Behavioural Sciences Unit, along with national and international collaborators, has recently published a systematic review in Patient Education and Counseling that aims to answer this question.   

Clinical trials are designed to test the safety and efficacy of new diagnostic tests or treatments. While they are necessary to improve outcomes childhood cancer, many families find deciding whether to enrol in a clinical trial difficult.

Shared decision-making is perhaps the most ethical approach for clinical trial enrolment decisions considering that usually there is no single ‘correct’ decision. In childhood cancer, shared decision-making is typically between parents and healthcare professionals. In some cases it can also extend to include the patient.

As no interventions have yet been formally evaluated to determine how best to facilitate shared decision-making in paediatric oncology clinical trials, we undertook a systematic review to identify any recommendations published in the literature.

We reviewed 924 articles to reveal 17 studies that recommended at least one strategy to facilitate shared decision-making in paediatric oncology clinical trials.

Our results highlight that:

• decision-making about clinical trials is a process, not just a single decision;
• each family (and family-member) has personal preferences for how much they want to be involved in  decisions and how much information they receive, and that this can change over time;
• information needs to be clear and jargon-free;
• healthcare professionals should encourage parents and young patients to ask questions;  and
• families need more support to help them make decisions that best align with their values.

This review has led to the development of ‘Delta’, a decision aid for families who are considering enrolling in a clinical trial. You can read more about the Delta study here. You can also access the published systematic review here. 

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pec.2018.02.001

The Behavioural Sciences Unit is Proudly Supported by the Kids with Cancer Foundation.