Roslyn Von Senden and Dr Daniel Sullivan: Let’s Yarn About Sleep

Seminar Overview

Let’s Yarn About Sleep program is transforming the way the sleep health needs of First Nations peoples are assessed and addressed. The program innovation lies in building local capacity, privileging First Nations voices, empowering end-users, integrating two-world views, interdisciplinary expertise, and diverse research methodologies. These efforts resulted in the UQ-led delivery of Australia’s first Indigenous Sleep Coach training, research roles for community members, and integration of sleep health programs in remote schools and health services. This seminar will offer information on program journey, methodology and outcomes.

Speakers

Roslyn Von Senden, Let's Yarn About Sleep Senior Project Officer:  Roslyn Von Senden is a Kalkatungu/Kalkadoon woman from Mount Isa, North-West Queensland and has Gangalidda, Garawa connections across Burketown in the Gulf of Carpentaria, Queensland with ancestral ties and connections. Roslyn is the Co-ordinator of Australia's first sleep health program for First Nation’s youth at the UQ Poche Centre for Indigenous Health - Lets Yarn About Sleep program - based in Mount Isa. 
Roslyn is a teacher, leader, nurturer and carer of children, families and community. She has worked in various roles nationally, state-wide and locally, where she has advised on systems and designed and presented professional development programs. Roslyn is an advocate on human rights, social justice and the welfare and rights of children and Aboriginal peoples.

She is a qualified Early Childhood educator with more than 29 years in Early Childhood Education and Care across Australia and has worked with and in Aboriginal Community Services Sector and Social Services across the State of Queensland for over 30 years.  Ros was the first Aboriginal woman Employed as a Manager at the Queensland Council of Social Service, where she led the Indigenous Professional Support Unit team to deliver across 76 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Communities across Queensland and became the National Spokesperson for the National Indigenous Professional Support Units for two years. Roslyn developed an innovative, visual strategic plan using Aboriginal metaphor, involved in Action Research and Evaluation project with SNAICC. 

Currently, Roslyn is appointed on the Queensland Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Education and Training Advisory Committee and the National Redress Scheme - Community Engagement Officer, providing support to people who have experienced institutional child sexual abuse recommended by the Royal Commission into Institutional Response. She is employed at Mount Isa Institute of TAFE - Teacher Children's Services, teaching Certificate 3 and Diploma of Children Services, with specific focus on regional childcare and remote centres.She is a member of the Kalkadoon Tribal Council as a Cultural Coordinator, leading women's community groups and liaison regarding protected sites.

Dr Daniel Sullivan, Let's Yarn About Sleep Research Fellow: Dr Dan Sullivan is a psychologist and research fellow at the UQ Poche Centre for Indigenous Health, working on the Let’s Yarn About Sleep (LYAS) project, led by A/Prof Yaqoot Fatima. Dan’s clinical and research expertise is in the area of psychological and behavioural approaches to sleep, particularly in the relationship between sleep problems and headaches.

Prior to joining the Poche Centre, he was a postdoctoral fellow and then research psychologist at UQ’s Centre for Children’s Health Research, where he worked on projects in child psychiatry and paediatric sleep medicine. Dan completed his PhD in clinical psychology at Griffith University, and MSc in sleep medicine at the University of Sydney. In addition to his research appointment, he maintains a part-time clinical role as a sleep psychologist in a multidisciplinary hospital sleep centre.