Tracey Oorschot

Name: Tracey Oorschot
Degree: Doctor of Philosophy – Public Health
Principal supervisor: Distinguished Professor Jon Adams

My key research interests include complementary medicine, integrative health care, chronic disease, health care policy and practice. My research project is focused on diabetes self-management in adult Australian women with Type 2 diabetes and a mental health co-morbidity (anxiety or depression), examining conventional or complementary medicine health care use and adoption of healthy behaviours.

There are few Australian Universities that research complementary medicine or integrative health care. UTS hosts the Australian Research Centre in Complementary and Integrative Medicine which is why I chose UTS to complete my PhD.  Australian Research Collective in Complementary and Integrative Medicine (ARCCIM) also takes a public health approach to this field of research, which up until my conversation with my now primary supervisor, was a perspective that I did not think anyone else shared.

This project is the first step in what I hope will flow into subsequent research projects that has a core purpose of comprehensively understanding the self-management practices of women with type 2 diabetes and either anxiety or depression. Whilst it is known that a co-morbid mental health condition increases the risk of poorer health outcomes, research that investigates if a mental health co-morbidity influences health care choice is currently lacking. This leads to another core aim of the project which is to provide comprehensive information for key stakeholders that contribute to decision making processes concerning health care policy and practice. 

As primary health care is a key interface for chronic diseases like diabetes, increasing research is currently evaluating how primary care might be re-designed to improve chronic disease management, and population health outcomes. Complementary medicine use is typically excluded from this process, and few studies have explored both conventional and complementary health care use patterns of people with diabetes. The results of this project will provide insights as to whether or not there might be a role for complementary medicine practitioners or integrative health care models (provision of conventional and/or complementary medicine treatment) as part of any primary care re-design.

I actually searched worldwide on the internet to find research centres that aligned with my research interests.  After discovering ARCCIM, I emailed Distinguished Professor Jon Adams to discuss my research interests. That led to a face-to-face meeting at UTS with Professor Adams and as they say “the rest is history”. I applied for entry into the Public Health Doctoral Programme shortly after that.

Don’t be afraid to reach out to any prospective supervisor to discuss your research and career interests.  Once admitted, apply that same principle to reach out to other HDR students throughout your research journey.  Research is a roller coaster ride, so having a range of supports in place makes a difference.

I can’t narrow down the most valuable aspect of my research student experience at the Faculty of Health at UTS to one!  The two aspects that I have found most helpful are the additional programmes provided by the Faculty of Health, such as research development workshops and student research conferences and the collegiate atmosphere created by the other Faculty of Health research students.  We help each other out. In fact, the addition of online networking due to COVID-19 has made this easier since we live in various parts of Australia.

Learn more about studying a Doctor of Philosophy