Elise Davis

Within the area of child mental health and wellbeing, Elise leads two main programs of research. The first concerns the promotion of children’s mental health and much of this research is focused on building the capacity of child care educators to promote children’s wellbeing and prevent mental illness. Elise leads the Research Network of the International Family Day Care Organisation.

Elise’s second research area is disability and the measurement and promotion of children’s quality of life. Much of this research has been focused on developing new instruments to measure the quality of life of children and adolescents with cerebral palsy. Elise, along with a team of researchers and clinicians from the Royal Children’s Hospital have developed and validated a new quality of life instrument for children and adolescents with cerebral palsy. These instruments are extremely sought after, and currently being used in over 70 studies and being translated into over 11 different languages.

She was involved in the development of the Victorian Survey of Child Health and Wellbeing and has significant expertise in child health indicators and measurement issues. Elise is now working on two new projects to inform the rollout of the National Disability Insurance Scheme.