Ms Lorelle Holland

Lecturer

School of Nursing, Midwifery and Social Work
Faculty of Health and Behavioural Sciences

Lecturer

School of Nursing, Midwifery and Social Work
Faculty of Health and Behavioural Sciences

Higher Degree by Research Scholar

Faculty of Medicine

Higher Degree By Research Scho

Faculty of Medicine

Affiliate of UQ Poche Centre for In

UQ Poche Centre for Indigenous Health
Faculty of Health and Behavioural Sciences
lorelle.holland@uq.edu.au
+61 7 334 67003

Overview

Lorelle Holland is a proud Mandandanji woman, who grew up on Turrbal Country with her four sisters and parents. Lorelle is a dedicated and passionate Registered Nurse who has worked for over three decades in the health care industry in varied clinical, management, education, and research roles. Lorelle's clinical nursing career highlight was working as a Remote Area Nurse in the Northern Territory with Aboriginal peoples. In Lorelle's appointment as Associate Lecturer in Nursing and Affiliate Associate Lecturer in the Poche Centre for Indigenous Health she hopes to inspire the next generation of nurse clinicians and researchers to ensure the delivery of competent, compassionate, and culturally respectful nursing practice.

Lorelle is a recent alumnus of UQ, graduating from a Master Degree in Public Health in the field of Indigenous Health in July 2020. Lorelle's proudest academic career highlight thus far was receiving the 'Postgraduate Coursework Academic Excellence Award' from Professor Bronwyn Fredericks (Pro-Vice-Chancellor, Indigenous Engagement) and Professor Tracey Bunda (Academic Director, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies Unit) UQ.

Lorelle's personal standpoint as an Aboriginal woman, extensive nursing experience and public health studies allows a broad perspective of the interacting complexities of our environment, health systems, benefits of cohesive interdisciplinary contributions, social determinants of health and the need to decolonise interventions. The rightful platform of decolonising interventions is embedded and validated within the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP). The UNDRIP empowers Indigenous peoples to socially transform their own lives within their own knowledges, strengths, and sovereignty that upholds community led and self-determining strategies to enact required national and global changes to ensure equal education, health, economic, and political outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

Lorelle is enrolled in PhD studies in the School of Public Health in the Medicine Faculty and hopes to explore critical race theory and complex health needs concerning the disproportionate rates of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander youth in detention who are removed from their families during critical periods of child development. Additionally, Lorelle's research will utilise a transformative epistemology and decolonising methodologies that centres youth and their communities to reflexively co-design culturally appropriate holistic assessment and diversionary pathways to counter youth detention practices.

Research Interests

  • Decolonising Approaches for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children with Complex Health Needs Exposed to the Youth Justice System in Australia: Reducing Incarceration and Recidivism Rates
    Rationale and Impact of Research: It is a significant public health and socio-political issue that existing judicial processes fail to recognise complex health needs of alleged young offenders. Research is urgently needed to address complex needs, racialised incarceration practices, punitive punishment,and social control over the lives of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children. The negative impact of incarcerating a child from the age of ten may result in lifetime harm, missed opportunity, and a possible future trajectory of adult imprisonment

Research Impacts

It is a significant public health and socio-political issue that existing judicial processes fail to recognise complex health needs of alleged young offenders. Research is urgently needed to address complex needs, racialised incarceration practices, punitive punishment, and social control over the lives of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children. Emerging research points to the disproportionate representation and criminalisation of children with complex needs including neurodevelopmental and mental disorders, alcohol and substance misuse, trauma, homelessness, and social disadvantage. These factors with persistent structural racism increase the risk of criminality and subsequent incarceration of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children The negative impact of incarcerating a child from the age of ten may result in lifetime harm, missed opportunity, and a possible future trajectory of adult imprisonment.

Qualifications

  • The Poche Centre for Indigenous health, The Poche Centre for Indigenous health
  • Masters (Coursework) of Public Health, The University of Queensland
  • Bachelor, University of Southern Queensland

Publications

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Grants

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Publications

Journal Article

Conference Publication

Other Outputs

Grants (Administered at UQ)