7 research outputs found
Making it work: a workforce guide for disability service providers
This guide provides strategies for disability service providers to draw upon when creating and sustaining a workforce of support workers to meet the aims of DisabilityCare Australia and implement the National Disability Insurance Scheme Act 2013. In particular, the Guide is designed to assist providers develop a workforce strategy that will enable support workers to:
i) support the independence and social and economic participation of people with disability
ii) provide reasonable and necessary supports, and
iii) enable people with disability to exercise choice and control in the pursuit of their goals and the planning and delivery of their supports.
The essence of DisabilityCare Australia is to be supportive, responsive, flexible and creative. This Guide offers a wealth of ideas and practical suggestions without being prescriptive. It includes ideas relating directly to support workers as well as to their interactions with service users and their employing service provider, and there are varying cost implications. The Guide does not attempt to provide one integrated workforce management strategy. Instead, it is intended
that providers will take away ideas to develop their own unique workforce strategy relevant to their environment and provider type. The aim of this guide is to contribute to the development of enthusiastic, competent and satisfied workers who will embrace the aims of DisabilityCare Australia and provide excellent support to people with disability.
The Guide is organised around the following themes:
Communication
Organisational culture, values and expectations
Recruitment
Flexible, responsive and creative work
Training, mentoring and support
Recognition and incentives
Career Pathways
Authors: Dr Carmel Laragy, RMIT University Associate Professor Paul Ramcharan, RMIT University Associate Professor Karen Fisher, Social Policy Research Centre, University of NSW Karen McCraw, CEO, Karden Disability Support Foundation Robbi Williams, CEO, Purple Orange (Julia Farr Foundation
Confocal SERS Mapping of Glycan Expression for the Identification of Cancerous Cells
Lectin-functionalized
silver nanoparticles have been successfully
designed for use as molecular imaging agents to investigate carbohydrate–lectin
interactions at the surface of mammalian cells, using surface-enhanced
Raman scattering (SERS). Carbohydrate-lectin interactions are key
to many cellular processes and are responsible for controlling an
array of cellular interactions. In this study, lectin-functionalized
silver nanoparticles were used to detect the expression of carbohydrate
species at the cellular interface. The carbohydrate–lectin
interactions were demonstrated using three different lectin species
for three distinct cell types. Due to the known difference between
the expressions of glycans in cancerous versus noncancerous cells
of the same origin, this approach has been expanded to study both
cancerous and noncancerous prostate cells. This has been achieved
via confocal SERS mapping of the expression of the key glycan, sialic
acid, on the surface of each of these cell types. In achieving such
discrimination, a novel method has been created by which glycan expression
can be reproducibly monitored. Comparative studies were performed
using both fluorescence and SERS. SERS provided an increased discrimination
over fluorescence when analyzing cell subsets to discriminate between
cancerous and noncancerous cells. The success of this method means
that it could be used to complement the current gold standard histopathological
techniques
Confocal SERS mapping of glycan expression for the identification of cancerous cells
Lectin-functionalized silver nanoparticles have been successfully designed for use as molecular imaging agents to investigate carbohydrate-lectin interactions at the surface of mammalian cells, using surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS). Carbohydrate-lectin interactions are key to many cellular processes and are responsible for controlling an array of cellular interactions. In this study, lectin-functionalized silver nanoparticles were used to detect the expression of carbohydrate species at the cellular interface. The carbohydrate-lectin interactions were demonstrated using three different lectin species for three distinct cell types. Due to the known difference between the expressions of glycans in cancerous versus noncancerous cells of the same origin, this approach has been expanded to study both cancerous and noncancerous prostate cells. This has been achieved via confocal SERS mapping of the expression of the key glycan, sialic acid, on the surface of each of these cell types. In achieving such discrimination, a novel method has been created by which glycan expression can be reproducibly monitored. Comparative studies were performed using both fluorescence and SERS. SERS provided an increased discrimination over fluorescence when analyzing cell subsets to discriminate between cancerous and noncancerous cells. The success of this method means that it could be used to complement the current gold standard histopathological techniques