Behavioural Sciences Unit
This page is a research page. For clinical information, please view our Kids Cancer Centre service page on the Sydney Children's Hospitals Network website.
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The Behavioural Sciences Unit is a clinical research arm of the Kids Cancer Centre (KCC) and a part of the University of NSW, School of Paediatrics and Child Health. We are made up of five research groups: Ethics and Genetics, Mental Health, Health Behaviours, Family Systems and Relationships and, Patient Education and Cognition.
Objectives
Our aim is to lead research that enables health professionals and hospital systems to better support children with cancer and their families from diagnosis through to survivorship or bereavement.
Impact
- We conduct trials for novel online interventions developed to improve the quality of life for young cancer survivors (Recapture Life) and their parents (Cascade).
- We work with one of the largest cohorts of childhood cancer survivors in the Southern Hemisphere to assess interventions to reduce the burden of illness on young people.
- We created an Australian-first eHealth program to improve fruit and vegetable intake of cancer young survivors.
- We developed a world-first decision aid for improving decision making for parents of children requiring nutrition support in hospital.
- We were one of the first researchers worldwide to examine sibling wellbeing from their own perspective and compare siblings’ psychosocial outcomes across chronic illnesses.