Our analysis focuses on adults only. An important next step will be to explore the impact of cold homes on the mental health of children. It is likely that children, particularly older children, experience many of the same impacts as adults, study children in their own right.
The research presented in this blog post is based on Amy and Emma’s recent publication which can be viewed online.
Amy Clair is a researcher in the Australian russia rcs data Centre for Housing Research, University of Adelaide, and research associate of the ESRC Centre on Micro-Social Change, University of Essex. A quantitative social policy researcher, her work focuses on the impact of policy on health and well-being, with an emphasis on housing and child well-being. Recent work has explored the impact of cold homes on mental health, changes to the Local Housing Allowance, and the implications of the COVID-19 pandemic for social policy.
Emma Baker is Professor of Housing Research at the University of Adelaide and Deputy Director of the NHMRC Centre for Research Excellence in Healthy Housing. Her work examines the health and human impacts of housing and location in urban and regional environments, producing academic, as well as policy-relevant research. Driving this work is a conceptual focus on housing and location as a social determinant of health and an interest in analyses that utilise longitudinal, spatial and administrative big data. Recent academic and policy publications include commissioned policy background papers for the planning and housing strategies of South Australia, the construction of the third in a series of publicly accessible national housing conditions datasets, an analysis of the effects of cold housing on individual health, and papers analysing the influence of multiple housing problems on health and wellbeing.