About us

The Caring Futures Institute is dedicated to the study of self- care and caring solutions across the lifespan leading to better lives, better communities, better care, and better systems.

The institute closely collaborates with community, consumers and carers. Its research is aligned with national and international priority areas, whilst responding to the demonstrated areas of importance provided by the not-for-profit, private and government agencies operating in the health and community services sectors, that will have impactful and implementable outcomes.

Embedding an integrated knowledge translation approach to all its activity, the institute brings together researchers, health and welfare service providers, and users of health and community systems to co-design solutions and develop innovative and disruptive solutions with impact.

Key Principles and Values

The Caring Futures Institute is driven to unite research efforts, define new ways of researching, and bring together diverse disciplines to conduct quality research. The Institute strives to:

Re-imagine care and caring
Create a new discourse and raise awareness regarding importance of self-care and caring solutions
Focus on research with impact and policy implications
Acknowledge and promote diversity
Co-design and collaborate with community, consumers, carers, health professionals, service providers, and funders.
Build research capacity

The Caring Futures Institute will:

Measure caring impacts on health outcomes, quality of life and prosperity
Demonstrate how care and caring relationships promote social inclusion
Design solutions readily scaled for national and global translation

Aims

Lead the debate and discourse for care, self-care and caring
Build and sustain a highly competitive research membership generating excellent, innovative research with integrity
Build a diverse research community that promotes and acknowledges diversity in solutions and communities
Maintain relevance and connections through strong and enduring relationships with community, consumers, carers and those providing formal care
Build strong, long-term relationships to underpin a stable financial position for research in care and caring
Enhance research impact and outputs through interdisciplinary and multi-disciplinary research relationships locally and internationally

Governance

The Caring Futures Institute is governed by a Leadership team whose role is to:

Provide leadership to drive research in the Caring Futures Institute
Oversee the strategic management of the Caring Futures Institute to enable high-quality research and growth
Promote the College’s mission of improving lives and empowering communities, enabling better health, and caring in the world through the pursuit of excellence in research and innovation

Current membership of the Leadership Group includes:

Foundation Director
Professor Alison Kitson

Director and Dean of Research (Nursing and Health Sciences)
Professor Raymond Chan

Deputy Directors
Professor Rebecca Golley
Professor Gillian Harvey
Professor Lucy Lewis

Institute Manager
Anthea Schubert

Research Partnerships Development Director
Xing Lee

View our Team

Caring Futures Institute External Strategic Advisory Board

The Caring Futures Institute Leadership team meets three times per year with members of the External Strategic Advisory Board as a skills and end-user based advisory mechanism that provides strategic advice and recommendations to the Institutes leadership.

Current members of the board are:

Adjunct Professor Debra Thoms (Chair), Former Chief Nursing and Midwifery Officer, Current NHMRC Advisory Council Member
Professor Alison Kitson, College of Nursing and Health Sciences Vice Present and Executive Dean and Foundation Director
Professor Raymond Chan, Institute Director and Dean of Research
Katie Billing, Executive Director Consumer and Clinical Partnerships, Commission on Excellence and Innovation in Health (CEIH)
Amanda Clark, Executive Director, Nursing Workforce & Patient Experience, Central Adelaide Local Health Network (CALHN)
Linda Kohlhagen, Executive Director Allied Health & Intermediate Care, Southern Adelaide Local Health Network (SALHN)
Kylie Maslen, Consumer
Julie McCrossin AM, Consumer, Media Expert
Michelle McKay CEO, Adelaide Primary Health Network (APHN)
Dr David Panter, Chief Executive, Minda Incorporated
Mary Patetsos AM, Board Chair, ACH Group; Immediate Past Chair, Federation of Ethnic Communities Councils of Australia (FECCA) Board Chair
Ross Verschoor, Executive Director, Flinders Foundation

Collaborate with us

Health and community care workers, policy and program staff, and members of the community can connect with the Caring Futures Institute in many ways. Our commitment to co-design and aligning with the needs of both the community and those who provide care in all settings, means we value a diverse set of connections.

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Higher Degrees by Research

There are opportunities to undertake research higher degree studies aligned to the ground-breaking Flinders Caring Futures Institute. Whether you want to explore a topic that interests you in depth, create new knowledge, foster collaboration or become an expert in your field, a higher degree by research at Flinders Caring Futures Institute will help you make a difference.

There are PhD opportunities and supervisors within the Caring Futures Institute linked to specific research fields, however we also welcome and encourage your own research project ideas that may not fit into the primary areas of focus.

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Keep up to date with the Caring Futures Institute

Every month, you'll receive newsletters about our exciting research initiatives, new appointments and partnerships, events, success stories, and more.