
Design for Care
Designing better work for the Healthcare and Social Assistance (H&SA) industry
About us
Design for Care is a research project aimed at developing and assessing work design interventions to create mentally healthy work in the NSW healthcare and social assistance (H&SA) industry. The project is led by Professor Sharon Parker at Curtin University’s Centre for Transformative Work Design, with Professors Anya Johnson & Helena Nguyen at the University of Sydney, and Professor Alex Collie at Monash University. The project is supported by a team of research and professional staff across the three universities, and is funded by icare NSW.
We collaborate with multiple organisations in the aged care, disability care, and out-of-home care sectors to co-create mentally healthy workplaces. Together, we're working to understand how work design can be leveraged as an intervention to prevent psychological injury (e.g., burnout).

Our approach

We focus on prevention and sustainability
The Design for Care Program seeks to prevent psychological injury by identifying SMART work design opportunities and challenges in collaboration with individuals, teams, and team leaders in the Health Care and Social Assistance industry.
Sustainability is about building the work design capabilities in individuals, teams, team leaders, and organisations to continue to co-create mentally healthy workplaces.
Design for Care Showcase: A Journey to SMARTer Workplaces in the H&SA Industry
Wednesday 30 April 2025 | Novotel Sydney Parramatta
Designing work to better support mental health and well-being in the H&SA industry
Our Design for Care Showcase brings together researchers, industry professionals, and organisational leaders to share
our key findings, preview new resources and take away
actionable strategies to improve work design and employee well-being in the Healthcare and Social Assistance (H&SA) industry.

NEW RESEARCH REPORT

Unpacking the Enablers and Hindrances on the PARRTH to SMART Work Design
This report unpacks the enablers and barriers to change across partner organisations in the Healthcare and Social Assistance (H&SA) industry. It identifies factors at multiple levels: organisational, leadership, group, and individual, and provides examples of activities and actions for organisations that can help address challenges at each level.
SMART animations
Design for Care - SMART
Tolerable - SMART Design for Care Animation Explainer


Tolerable - SMART Design for Care Animation Explainer

Mastery - SMART Design for Care Animation Explainer

Agency - SMART Design for Care Animation Explainer

Relational - SMART Design for Care Animation Explainer
Event recording
Event photo highlights

The PARRTH process


The PARRTH process involves:
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Preparing an organisation for change;
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Assessing work design and well-being;
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Reflecting with the organisation staff and management about the assessment results;
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Redesigning work and/or organisational processes where appropriate and feasible;
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Tracking the effect of the redesign; and
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Habituating the change into the daily functioning of the organisation.
Helping care workers
Design for Care research project will produce work design strategies to aim to prevent psychological injury amongst care workers
including but not limited to:
Project team
Project leads

Professor Sharon K. Parker
CURTIN UNIVERSITY


Professor Anya Johnson
UNIVERSITY OF SYDNEY


Professor Helena Nguyen
UNIVERSITY OF SYDNEY


Professor Alex Collie
MONASH UNIVERSITY

Project members

Lucinda Iles
CURTIN UNIVERSITY


Cheryl Yam
CURTIN UNIVERSITY


Michael Chapman
CURTIN UNIVERSITY


Jie Yi Tang
CURTIN UNIVERSITY


Mina Askovic
UNIVERSITY OF SYDNEY


Connie Deng
UNIVERSITY OF SYDNEY


Jannecke Berecki-Gisolf
MONASH UNIVERSITY


Meredith Carr
CURTIN UNIVERSITY


Monica Trezise
CURTIN UNIVERSITY


Anu Jolly
UNIVERSITY OF WESTERN AUSTRALIA


Arian Kunzelmann
EDITH COWAN UNIVERSITY


Nate Zettna
UNIVERSITY OF SYDNEY
