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Children Of The Lucky Country Case Study

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Australia, a nation known as “The Lucky Country”, has an excellent award winning democratic society with a booming economy. It is a land with unique fauna, climate, great golden beaches and natural resources. Despite increasing economic prosperity and technological advancement, many Australian children are not benefiting from the progress. In fact, for some the reality is an actual decline in the vital areas of health, education and opportunity. Although, the trends in infections, survival at birth and in infancy, accidents and deaths in the primary school years, death rates from severe diseases such as cancers, and overall life expectancy have all improved. However, the levels of many problems affecting children and young people are worryingly high and appear to be increasing. Therefore, while death rates have fallen, proportions of children and youth with complex diseases such as asthma, diabetes, overweight and obesity, intellectual disabilities and particularly psychological problems such as depression, suicide and eating disorders have increased. Similar is the trend in premature births and physical disabilities such as cerebral palsy. Such concerns about children and young people in the lucky country were raised by the Australian of the Year 2003, Fiona Stanley and inspired her to write the book, Children of the Lucky Country? Fiona Juliet Stanley is Founding Director of the Telethon Institute for Child Health Research in Perth, Western Australia, Inaugural Chief Executive Officer of the Australian Research Alliance for children and youth, and Professor of Paediatrics, University of Western Australia. She is one of Australia’s best-regarded paediatricians and epidemiologists and a major force behind improving health conditions in Australia’s Aboriginal populations. Fiona Stanley was born in 1946 in New South Wales and moved to Perth, Western Australia with her family in 1956. Her interest in Science and Medicine developed throughout her childhood and her father, who was one of the world’s first virologists and worked on the polio vaccine in the 1950s, heavily influenced her. Dr. Stanley completed her medical degree at the University of Western Australia in 1970. During her studies, she

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