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This paper explores the key principles of economic development in a pandemic. It does so by drawing on the lessons learned through the economic response to the COVID-19 pandemic in the Australian city of Melbourne. Melburnians experienced 263 days largely confined to their homes, one of the longest lockdown periods in the world, resulting in deserted city streets and a devastated central city economy. The experience forced the City of Melbourne to adopt a range of unique and innovative responses, first to keep businesses afloat during lockdown, and then to reactivate the city. Melbourne did this while keeping a focus on longer-term economic development. This somewhat unique experience makes Melbourne a useful case study informing best-practice economic development in a pandemic. Key lessons emerging from Melbourne's experience include the need to respond and iterate rapidly, the importance of collaboration with stakeholders and other tiers of government, and the need to maintain a focus on multiple time horizons, even in the midst of the crisis. These insights are potentially transferrable to economic development responses to other crises, including those catalysed by climate change. © 2023, Henry Stewart Publications. All rights reserved.
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A body of empirical literature exists which sets out how the accommodation industry performs across a range of locations. However, research on tourism regions in terms of its accommodation industry remains underdeveloped, especially in the Covid-19 pandemic when tourism faced unprecedented adversity and need to find a way to move forward. In an attempt to address this and take the Australian accommodation industry as a case study, this paper sought to investigate the efficiency of Australian tourism regions in the accommodation industry for the period of 2014/15–2017/18. The findings clearly showed that Australian tourism regions had seen significant growth in terms of their efficiency in the accommodation industry over the surveyed period. The Australian commercial large cities, namely Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, and the Goal Coast, represent perhaps the best example, having obtained a higher efficiency than all other tourism regions. Exogenous factors, such as the occupancy rate, the average daily rate, the number of international visitors and the number of domestic visitors overnight were identified as influencing the technical efficiency score of tourism regions, with policy formulation and implementation identified as being key to improving the efficiency of the accommodation industry at the regional level for a post-Covid-19 period. [ FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of International Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Administration is the property of Taylor & Francis Ltd and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full . (Copyright applies to all s.)
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COVID-19 has generated many problems and some opportunities in the housing market. The potential role of privately-owned short-term lets meeting specialist family violence crisis accommodation demand is one such opportunity. This paper engages with an important and increasing practice in the Australian context, of the utilisation of private housing stock as a component part of a public housing crisis response system, in this case explored in relation to domestic and family violence. In seeking to gain insights into the feasibility of this practice, this article will first frame mixed public/private accommodation provision as potentially overlapping relations between a thin territory of insufficient crisis infrastructure and a thick territory of commodified short-term let infrastructure. Second, this paper situates the potential of this intersection of mixed private/public responses in terms of riskscapes by unpacking how risk is perceived within these contested territories. The findings highlight tensions between both real and perceived understandings of safety, housing, wellbeing, economic and political risks. While there was some support for utilising short-term lets for crisis accommodation, barriers were revealed to adding thickness to the crisis accommodation space. Given increasing homelessness in Australia, diversifying crisis models could offer increased violence-prevention infrastructure to support women.
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What this paper adds: * This case study demonstrated that facilitating ongoing education opportunities that draw on the expertise of local palliative care champions or internal specialists can enhance care provision. * Nurse care managers believe the value of generalist services, particularly home care services, in the generalist-specialist palliative care partnership, needs to be understood and respected. * Tailored investment in home care to provide a general palliative approach would be beneficial given the unique challenges of this mobile workforce. Keywords: Palliative care;home care services;Education, Nursing;qualitative research;Nurse Practitioner BACKGROUND Palliative care focuses on improving the quality of life of people affected by life-threatening illnesses, including the prevention and relief of suffering through identification, assessment and treatment.1 This care extends to family members, and encompasses physical, psychological, social and spiritual support. Home nursing and care organisations are key providers of community-based palliative care, with staff often the linchpin, in supporting palliative clients, organising and providing care, coordinating the input of other professionals and of specialist equipment.5 Previous research has identified the difficulties faced by home care nurses in meeting their clients' palliative care needs, such as symptom management and communication, as well as requirements for further training to enhance their knowledge and confidence of caring for palliative clients.5-7 In this context, generalist palliative care is delivered by health and care professionals with broad clinical responsibilities who provide primary, ongoing care;and have established relationships with the person and their care community.2 This is distinct from specialist palliative care services which support complex needs through multidisciplinary teams with specialised palliative care training. FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION Thematic analysis identified the following overarching themes: 1) targeted education increased staff knowledge and confidence, but more is needed;2) collaborative teamwork with effective communication and information sharing underpins a successful generalist-specialist partnership;3) the home care setting is unique and requires accessible systems and processes.
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On 4 July 2020, in response to a developing 'second wave' of COVID-19 cases, Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews announced that a hard lockdown would be immediately implemented in nine public housing towers in Melbourne, Australia. Approximately 500 police were dispatched to implement this lockdown, with residents prevented from leaving their buildings. Over the next fortnight, young residents in these towers, often from socially- and economically-marginalised communities, emerged as advocates for their fellow tenants, using various social media platforms to broadcast their experiences. In this article, we analyse social media posts published by 28 social media users throughout June and July of 2020, which reported on the experiences of people living within the public housing towers during the hard lockdown. We draw on the concept of territorial stigmatisation tounderstand and frame how a traditionally stigmatised physical space is reclaimed via a digital medium. We explore the potential for young people to use social media to challenge territorial stigmatisation and construct alternate representations of place and community. [ FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Journal of Youth Studies is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full . (Copyright applies to all s.)
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Psychological resilience of residents is an important but often neglected component of community and urban resilience. This study explores what neighborhood environment features contribute to better psychological resilience. Using a survey conducted in Greater Melbourne during a COVID-19 pandemic lockdown, we examined the role of the neighborhood physical and social environments in mitigating the psychological shock of the pandemic. Overall, we found that suburban residents are more resilient in mental health than those in the inner city. In particular, the mental health of residents living in middle-density suburbs is least likely to be severely impacted. We further found that neighborhood walkability, vegetation cover, and social cohesion all contribute to better psychological resilience. Walkability and social cohesion influence psychological resilience indirectly through affecting the perceived risks of COVID-19 infection and satisfaction with neighborhood during the lockdown, whereas neighborhood greenery has a direct and beneficial effect on psychological resilience. These findings imply that planning interventions to improve neighborhood walkability and greenness, and foster social cohesion may help improve the psychological resilience of local residents, and hence promote urban resilience. These findings also support middle-density development, which promotes walkability and proximity to nature, as well as a close-knit community. © 2023 Elsevier B.V.
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Keywords: Australia;COVID-19;hospitals;nurses;midwives;mental health OBJECTIVE At the time the study was conducted (May-August 2020), most of the published peer-reviewed evidence about the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on nurses and midwives was from countries with high numbers of COVID-19 cases and deaths, such as China,1-2 and the United Kingdom (UK).3 Australia has recorded relatively low numbers of COVID-19 cases and deaths in comparison to other countries.4 Although evidence is starting to emerge about the impact of the COVID-ig pandemic on Australian nurses' and midwives' psychological wellbeing and their work and personal lives, most studies have been conducted in a single setting,5 or have included nurses and midwives as part of a broader investigation of healthcare workers in general.6,7 Recent reviews about the prevalence of psychological distress among nurses during the COVID-19 pandemic have identified few studies that have been conducted in more than one setting and none of these were from Australia.8,9 Understanding the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on nurses and midwives is important in planning appropriate support services, ensuring nurses and midwives can provide high quality patient care, and optimising their psychological wellbeing.10 The aim of this study was to investigate the psychosocial effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on nurses and midwives working in Melbourne, Australia, specifically psychological distress, self-reported concerns, and perceived impact on their work and personal lives. During previous outbreaks of infectious diseases such as Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (MERS-CoV) and H1N1 influenza, healthcare workers reported concerns about their own and family members' health.17"21 A recent Australian study conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic found that most of the hospital clinical staff surveyed were also concerned about their own health and infecting their families, friends and colleagues.22 Further research is required to identify other concerns nurses and midwives may have experienced during the pandemic or are specific to COVID-ig as well as the effects of the pandemic on their personal and work lives and psychological wellbeing. Services in private hospitals are paid for directly by patients or their health insurer.23 Nurses and midwives were recruited from four major metropolitan health services in Melbourne, the capital city of the State of Victoria, Australia;three are public health services which provide acute tertiary services, subacute care, specialist clinics and community health services. Sociodemographic and employment characteristics: sex, age, country of birth, professional role (e.g. nurse, midwife), living with school-aged children (yes/no), employment status (full time/part time/casual),years of clinical experience and years employed at health
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The global pandemic and consequent lockdowns have provoked an evacuation of workplaces and urban centres. For society to continue to function, there has been a massive movement towards home working enabled by Teams and Zoom. This has ramifications on not just our lives but also digital infrastructure, commerce and entertainment, as well as a myriad of other dynamics, all of which has totally reconfigured our lifestyles and health in recent years. Stephen Glackin, Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Urban Transitions at Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne, and Guest-Editor Marcus White, discuss this spatial revolution. Copyright © 2023 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
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In response to the COVID 19 pandemic in 2020, the government of the Australian state of Victoria implemented short term travel restrictions in the city of Melbourne that resulted in an approximate halving of road traffic volume. The Victoria Division of the Australian Acoustical Society took the opportunity to monitor outdoor noise at twenty-six sites during this time. Due to a prohibition on non-essential travel, the sites were mainly at individuals' home addresses. Monitoring was repeated at two of the sites following a return to near-normal traffic volumes. This paper presents the results of this monitoring work and compares the noise levels during "lockdown" versus "normal". Copyright© (2021) by Australian Acoustical Society. All rights reserved.
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This paper uses spatial statistical techniques to reflect on geographies of COVID-19 infections in metropolitan Melbourne. We argue that the evolution of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has become widespread since early 2020 in Melbourne, typically proceeds through multiple built environment attributes - diversity, destination accessibility, distance to transit, design, and density. The spread of the contagion is institutionalised within local communities and postcodes, and reshapes movement practices, discourses, and structures of administrative politics. We demonstrate how a focus on spatial patterns of the built environment can inform scholarship on the spread of infections associated with COVID-19 pandemic and geographies of infections more broadly, by highlighting the consistency of built environment influences on COVID-19 infections across three waves of outbreaks. A focus on the built environment influence seeks to enact visions of the future as new variants emerge, illustrating the importance of understanding geographies of infections as global cities adapt to 'COVID-normal' living. We argue that understanding geographies of infections within cities could be a springboard for pursuing sustainable urban development via inclusive compact, mixed-use development and safe public transport.
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Music therapy has long been considered an integral part of cancer care for adults and children, offering supportive care from the time of diagnosis, through treatment and into survivorship and end-of-life-care. Since 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic has irrevocably changed the way music therapy services are conceptualised and provided in two cancer hospitals in Melbourne, Australia. A cancer diagnosis can mean many visits to hospital or healthcare facilities for diagnostic procedures such as scans;treatments and therapies including surgery, chemotherapy, radiotherapy, clinical trials, and transplants;monitoring and review by a multidisciplinary team;as well as access to psychological and other support services for patients and their carers and families (Jazieh et al., 2021). Since 2020, people living with cancer have become one of the largest healthcare cohorts to face significant impacts from the COVID-19 pandemic (Williamson et al., 2020). Practically, these changes included: reconfiguring of cancer services to reduce the numbers of people attending hospitals;patients attending hospital alone whenever possible;wearing of personal protective equipment (PPE) including facemasks for all clinical interactions;social distancing from patients;and transferring face-to-face care to telehealth and online platforms. Each centre is funded through the Victorian public health system and philanthropy, and offers a wide range of speciality and state-of-the-art services incorporating cancer care, research, clinical trials, and wellness and supportive care programs.
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The research focuses on the topical problem of the pension system development. The role of digitalization in economic development is revealed. The development of the digital economy and information space imposes new requirements on the level of transparency, accessibility and simplicity of the tax system. The study identifies the main problems of the development of the Russian Federation pension system. In the modern world, risks affecting the national pension system stability are exacerbated by the impact of global trends, problems and threats. COVID-19 has hit hard labor markets and pension mechanisms around the world. The essence of the risks for functioning of the pension system is revealed. In order to generalize the risks, affecting the Russian pension system, a route map of risks has been drawn up. A comparative assessment of the pension systems of Russia and the OECD countries performance was carried out. The analysis of the Melbourne Mercer Global Pension Index (MMGI) 2019 was made. In the course of the comparative analysis of MMGI and the author’s research, the most effective national pension systems were identified. The directions of the entire pension system digital matrix formation and introduction of a digital platform, open and accessible, convenient and understandable for all its participants, have been substantiated. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.
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• Average weekly WFH frequency may rise from 0.69 (pre-COVID) to 1.29 (post-COVID). • Theory of Planned Behaviour used to examine intention to increase WFH post-COVID. • Intention influenced by subjective norms and perceived behavioural control. • Job type;access to tech, materials;employer and family support key determinants. • Determinants differ based on pre-COVID WFH experience and work location. COVID related lockdowns have forced many workers around the world into work from home (WFH) arrangements. While the proportion of people who work from home has typically been very low (4.5% in Melbourne in 2016), it is worth considering how trends might change once the world emerges out of COVID lockdowns. This paper aims to examine (1) the long-term impacts of COVID on WFH and (2) the psycho-social factors which will impact workers' intention to increase WFH post-COVID. The paper uses the Theory of Planned Behaviour as a lens to examine these psycho-social determinants. The study uses the survey responses of 1,364 workers which were collected in June-August 2020 as part of a larger survey (n = 2,158), which aimed to capture a representative population of Greater Melbourne. Quasi-longitudinal investigation of self-reported WFH frequency revealed that WFH as a share of average weekday employment increased 310% during COVID lockdown. In the longer term, when COVID is no longer an issue, WFH can be expected to be 75% higher than pre-COVID levels. Structural Equation Modelling was applied to the Theory of Planned Behaviour to understand motivators for and barriers to increasing WFH post-COVID. Perceived Behavioural Control (e.g. job type, technology, access to materials) and Subjective Norms (e.g. employer and family support) will be crucial determinants of the intention to work from home post-COVID. Attitudes regarding WFH will only have a weak impact on future intention to work from home, a finding which contrasts with previous research. [ FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Transportation Research Part A: Policy & Practice is the property of Pergamon Press - An Imprint of Elsevier Science and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full . (Copyright applies to all s.)
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The COVID-19 pandemic caused the closures of live music venues in Melbourne, Australia between March and November 2020. During this period, punk band Clowns and metal band Ocean Grove used the social media platform Instagram to engage their audiences and maintain their standing within their scene despite not being able to engage in regular activities such as live performance. This Riff analyses the strategies used by the bands, including fan engagement and dialogue, nostalgia for pre-pandemic times, and promotion and fundraising. When used in combination, these categories enabled the bands to solicit conversation from their fans, foster unity by reminiscing about previous successes, and promote merchandise and support organizations which mitigated the loss of income across the industry. © Equinox Publishing Ltd 2021
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The COVID-19 pandemic not only has created a global health crisis but also has dramatic effects on the environment. To fight the spread of Coronavirus, governments imposed social distancing policies, which caused negative and positive impacts on the environment. Victoria, the second-most populated state in Australia, was hit by two waves of COVID-19. During the second wave of the pandemic, Victoria, especially Melbourne, experienced one of the most stringent and longest lockdowns globally. In this study, the changes in mobility trends, traffic, air pollution, noise pollution, and waste generation during the first and second waves of COVID-19 in Victoria are evaluated and compared. It was observed that the pandemic had both positive and negative impacts on the environment. During the second wave of the pandemic in Victoria, the mobility trends of public transport hubs, retail and recreation venues, and workplaces experienced a significant drop in movements at respective values of 85%, 83%, and 76% compared to the period of 5 weeks from 3 January to 6 February 2020. PM2.5 levels were lower by 23% at Alphington and 24% at Footscray from 16 March to 1 May 2020 compared with the average PM2.5 levels in the past 4 years. It was estimated that the respective daily generations of used face masks during the first wave and second wave of the pandemic in Victoria were approximately 104 and 160 tons.