CRE in Childhood Adversity and Mental Health — 2019–2023 (archived)

This CRE has been archived.

The Centre of Research Excellence in Childhood Adversity and Mental Health was co-designed to improve children’s mental health through early detection and response to family adversity.

This CRE was a five-year research program (2019- 2023) led by Professor Harriet Hiscock and co-funded by Beyond Blue and the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC).

Visit the CRE website

The Centre of Research Excellence in Childhood Adversity and Mental Health was co-designed to improve children’s mental health through early detection and response to family adversity.

This CRE was a five-year research program (2019- 2023) led by

The Centre of Research Excellence in Childhood Adversity and Mental Health was co-designed to improve children’s mental health through early detection and response to family adversity.

This CRE was a five-year research program (2019- 2023) led by Professor Harriet Hiscock and co-funded by Beyond Blue and the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC).

Visit the CRE website

About the CRE

The Centre of Research Excellence in Childhood Adversity and Mental Health brought together families with lived experience of adversity, practitioners, researchers and policymakers from health, education, social care, and legal sectors to prevent the mental health burden experienced by children and families.

The CRE began by searching the literature to identify practices and programs to prevent adversities and their effects. The CRE then codesigned, implemented, and evaluated two Child and Family Hubs to bring these practices to life.

Child and Family Hubs

The Child and Family Hubs were co‑designed with families and practitioners to create integrated spaces that supported children’s mental wellbeing. They brought together medical, allied health and social care professionals to enable early identification and response to family adversity. This approach improved the detection of preventable challenges affecting children aged newborn to eight and provided families with coordinated, comprehensive support

The Hubs co-locate health, social care and legal practitioners to create a ‘one stop shop’ to better detect and respond to child and family adversity. CRE research teams in VIC and NSW supported Hub practitioners to assist families experiencing adversity. CRE evaluations showed that families attending the Hubs experienced fewer adversities, fewer child mental health problems, warmer parenting and increased support to manage adversities, especially those requiring legal, financial or social supports.

We provided practical, evidence‑based strategies to prevent and mitigate childhood adversity and its mental health impacts by co‑designing, implementing and evaluating integrated Child & Family Hubs and other upstream interventions.

Our approach

Identified evidence‑based interventions to prevent ACEs and reduce their impact on mental health (evidence review and briefs).
Co‑designed and trialled Child & Family Hubs that co‑locate healthcare (medical & allied health) with social care (legal, financial counselling, social prescribers) to create a “one‑stop shop” for families with children aged 0–8.
Evaluated implementation and outcomes using mixed‑methods protocols and pragmatic studies.

Research team

Find more information about the CRE research team.

CRE partners & funding

Funding: NHMRC Centre of Research Excellence (#1153419) and Beyond Blue (2019–2023).
Core partners: Murdoch Children’s Research Institute; the University of Melbourne; Monash University; Sydney Local Health District (Healthy Homes & Neighbourhoods); UNSW; North Western Melbourne Primary Health Network; QLD Government (among others).

Outcomes and impacts