Rate My Professor Sarah Perkes

Dr Sarah Perkes is a Lecturer in Occupational Therapy in the School of Health Sciences within the College of Health, Medicine and Wellbeing at the University of Newcastle, Australia. With more than 12 years of experience as an Occupational Therapist, she continues to work at Awabakal Aboriginal Medical Service while teaching courses such as OCCT4170 Promoting Health and Wellbeing in Occupational Therapy Practice since January 2024. Her academic background includes a Doctor of Philosophy from Flinders University in 2023, a Master of Public Health from the University of New South Wales in 2018, and a Bachelor of Applied Science with Honours in Occupational Therapy from the University of Western Sydney.

Perkes' PhD research centered on the co-design and pilot testing of a mobile health program for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women caring for young children. Her research interests include Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health, health equity, occupational therapy, and public health. Since starting her PhD in 2017, she has secured four grants totaling $57,053, including as lead investigator the NSW Health Agency for Clinical Innovation Grant ($29,959.43) in 2019 for developing a mobile health app for Aboriginal women and children from birth to five years, incorporating smoking cessation; the Ian O’Rourke Scholarship in Patient Safety ($9,594) in 2019, funding a two-week research visit to the National Institute for Health Innovation in Auckland, New Zealand; the Greaves Family Postgraduate Scholarship ($12,500) in 2019; and the Mid North Coast Local Health District Innovation Challenge ($5,000) in 2018, which her team won. She also completed the ON Prime program powered by CSIRO in June 2018. Key publications feature Perkes SJ, Huntriss B, Skinner N, Leece B, Dobson R, Mattes J, Hall K, Bonevski B (2023) 'Evaluation of an mHealth Intervention (Growin' Up Healthy Jarjums) Designed With and for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Mothers: Engagement and Acceptability Study' in JMIR Pediatrics and Parenting; Perkes SJ, Bonevski B, Hall K, Mattes J, Chamberlain C, Bennett J, Whittaker R, Palazzi K, Lambkin D, Kennedy M (2023) 'Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Women's Access to and Interest in mHealth: National Web-based Cross-sectional Survey' in Journal of Medical Internet Research; Perkes SJ, Huntriss B, Skinner N, Leece B, Dobson R, Mattes J, Hall K, Bonevski B (2022) 'Development of a Maternal and Child mHealth Intervention With Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Mothers: Co-design Approach' in JMIR Formative Research; Perkes S, Bonevski B, Mattes J, Hall K, Gould GS (2020) 'Respiratory, birth and health economic measures for use with Indigenous Australian infants in a research trial: a modified Delphi with an Indigenous panel' in BMC Pediatrics; and Perkes SJ, Bowman J, Penkala S (2014) 'Psychological therapies for the management of co-morbid depression following a spinal cord injury: a systematic review' in Journal of Health Psychology.