Associate Professor Anna Olsen
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About
Associate Professor Olsen teaches in Social Foundations of Medicine at the ANU Medical School. Her interdisciplinary program of research combines practical and critical approaches to public health, with a particular interest in marginalised populations and qualitative methodologies. Current research includes: pill testing; opioid overdose prevention; methamphetamine use; drug use and motherhood; domestic and family violence; Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health; and ethical practice in social research. She values collaborative approaches to research and has extensive experience working with government and community on evaluation and research projects. Associate Professor Olsen teaches and supervises post-graduate students across anthropology, medicine, public health and psychology.
Affiliations
Research interests
- Sociological Methodology And Research Methods
- Social And Cultural Anthropology
- Social Program Evaluation
- Public Health And Health Services
- Aboriginal And Torres Strait Islander Health
- Infectious Diseases
- Gender Specific Studies
Researcher's projects
- Evaluation of Australia's first Pill Testing trial
- Overdose prevention and take-home naloxone
- Methamphetamine use among long term opioid users
- Governing parental drug use
- Ethical practice and legal requirements in social research
- Responses to family and domestic violence
- Wellbeing in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities
- Policy responses to parents who use drugs
- Medical school student attitudes to people who use drugs
Current student projects
Potenial PhD Projects
- Opioid overdose and naloxone
- Older people's opioid use
- Women, motherhood and drug use
- Australian researchers' understanding of ethical practice as it relates to criminal activity and the law
- Hepatitis C treatment experience and access for people who inject drugs
- Family violence and Indigenous communitites
- Family violence, alcohol and drug use
Potenial MPH and Honours Projects
- Pharmacists provision of harm reduction service to people who use illicit drugs. A thematic analysis (qualitative) of interviews with pharmacists about their supply of opioid overdose prevention drugs.
- Australian researchers' understanding of ethical practice as it relates to criminal activity and the law. A (qualitative) review of the literature and/or analysis of interviews with researchers.
- Stigma, motherhood and drug use. A (qualitative) framing analysis of media representations of women who use drugs and who are mothers.
Projects
- Drug checking, Principal investigator
- Medical student attitudes to people who use drugs, Principal investigator
- The Relations Study: Women who use drugs and their children within the health and welfare system, Principal investigator
- Developing Transdisciplinary Health Humanities Education at ANU, Co-investigator
- Empowered to talk about body image in chronic illness: A pilot study to identify health professional training needs, Co-investigator
- Evaluation of Alternative Commissioning Pilots for remote and First Nations communities, Co-investigator
Teaching information
Master of Culture, Health and Medicine course
Location
Medical School, Room 1.05, Florey Building, 54 Mills Road, Acton ACT 2601