A The Kids Research Institute Australia child health researcher who has devoted her career to finding better ways to support some of Australia’s most vulnerable young people is among four nominees for Western Australia’s 2022 Young Australian of the Year.
Dr Hayley Passmore was part of The Kids Research Institute Australia’s ground-breaking Banksia Hill Detention Centre Project, which identified the prevalence of neurodisability among young people in the justice system.
In response, she pioneered and delivered Reframe Training – an evidence-based intervention that helps the justice workforce better understand neurodisability and work with those affected by it.
More than 400 justice and community services employees have completed the training so far. Reframe has also led to fundamental changes across WA’s youth justice system and sparked interest from local, national and international government departments. Dr Passmore has already delivered the training to justice professionals in the Northern Territory, and plans to visit South Australia and Queensland in 2022 following training requests from their youth justice agencies.
Dr Passmore has also secured funding to deliver the project to regional areas of WA, including the training of all police officers in the Kimberley region, and has been regularly training and presenting to state community organisations and service-providers across the state.
Dr Passmore was awarded a Churchill Fellowship in 2020 in recognition of her achievements, which will enable her to learn from international youth justice approaches and share that knowledge locally.
She is one of 16 WA residents – four in each category – named today as nominees for Western Australia Local Hero, Young Australia, Senior Australian or Australian of the Year. They are among 129 people being recognised across all states and territories as part of the Australian of the Year program, which began in 1960.
The four award recipients from Western Australia will be announced at a special ceremony on Thursday, 4 November. They will then join the other state and territory recipients as finalists for the national awards announcement on 25 January 2022.
For more information on the Australian of the Year Awards visit www.australianoftheyear.org.au.