Dr Rachel Skoss

Senior Research Fellow
PhD, M Eval, PostGradDipSci, BSc

Email: rachel.skoss@nd.edu.au
Google scholar: Publications

  • Biography

    Rachel is a passionate advocate about improving health and wellbeing outcomes of people experiencing adversity, including those with disability, and their families. Her focus is on human service delivery, in particular the interface between the disability sector and mainstream services in the health, mental health, and education sectors, taking a health literacy approach to ensure that the services are responsive to the varied needs of the population they serve. Rachel uses mixed methodologies in applied research and evaluation to improve policy and practice. Her expertise is in systems change, developing mechanisms and processes that assist policy makers, decision makers, and service providers in making best practice decisions that are supported and informed by evidence, together with building capacity in front line service personnel, families, and people with lived experience for more effective engagement.

    As well as engaging with people with lived experience and other key stakeholders to ensure she’s asking the right questions, Rachel’s approach to translation includes taking on various roles in systemic advocacy, and carer and consumer representation on advisory/working groups in the health, mental health, and disability sectors to understand the bigger picture. She contributes to the national health and disability reforms via national stakeholder groups and has held governance roles in the disability sector.

  • Teaching Areas

    Rachel's role is research intensive. However, she has previously taught research methods, and given numerous guest lectures related to intellectual disability health and health literacy.

  • Books

    • Skoss, R. (2022). Health Care For People Who Need Extra Support: A health literacy guide to support the health of people with a cognitive impairment or intellectual disability. Fremantle: Institute for Health Research, University of Notre Dame Australia.

  • Book Chapters

    • Skoss R. Navigating 'the system' to find supports and services for people with developmental disability: How can research help make this a better journey? In: Ellis, K., Garland-Thomson, R., Kent, M., & Robertson, R. eds. Manifestos for the Future of Critical Disability Studies. Volume 1 1st ed; Routledge; 2018:52-64. doi:10.4324/9781351053341

  • Journal Articles and Proceedings

    • Skoss, R., Chivers, P., Arendts, G., Bulsara, C., Vithiatharan, R., Codde, J. What supports are people with intellectual disability provided to access health care: a case study. British Journal of Learning Disabilities Special Issue – Health Inequalities, 2024; 1-13
    • Wolff, B., Rosa, VF., Roberts, R., Skoss, R., Magiati, I. & Glasson, EJ. (2024). Stability and change in self-reported risk and resilience factors associated with mental health of siblings of individuals

  • Conference Papers

    • Skoss, R. (2024). Beyond the Easy Read - supporting people with intellectual disabilities to be partners in their healthcare journey. International Conference on Integrated Care. Belfast, UK.
    • Skoss, R. et al. (2024). Bridging the health/social care divide: integrated care from the perspective of disability providers. International Conference on Integrated Care. Belfast, UK.

  • Community engagement

    Rachel ensures that community engagement is embedded in all her research and translation. Her collaborative approach to research means that it is undertaken in partnership with both the service system (in the health, mental health, disability and education sectors), and those with lived experience of both providing and receiving services.

  • Awards

    Women's Health Research Translation Network Emerging Leader Fellowship, 2024.