PRIMARY CARE: (Symposium session) Implementation in action! Translating sleep health care to thousands of Australian primary care clinicians
Tracks
Track 2
| Saturday, October 11, 2025 |
| 3:30 PM - 5:00 PM |
| Hall M |
Details
Primary care is at the centre of sleep health care in Australia. Over the last three years, two major ASA grant programs have used implementation science concepts to provide evidence-based sleep education to over 22,000 Australian primary care clinicians. This has been possible through collaboration between hundreds of passionate and dedicated ASA members and the strong support of our primary care partner organisations.
Hear the program managers and key partners discuss how strong collaborative relationships between ASA community and professional primary care organisations have delivered game-changing transformation across clinical practice for GPs, psychologists, nurses and pharmacists. Thanks to the dedicated members of the ASA, the impressive achievements of these implementation programs have made significant progress in realising one of the key recommendations of the 2019 report of the Parliamentary Inquiry into Sleep Health Awareness in Australia.
Speaker
Mrs Olga Papadopoulos
Head Of Education Training And Assessments
Australian Psychological Society
Collaboration is Key: Perspectives from the Australian Psychological Society on sleep education activities
3:30 PM - 3:40 PMBiography
Olga Papadopoulos is the Head of Education, Training and Assessment at the Australian Psychological Society, where she leads national initiatives to support education, competency-based assessment, and workforce development across the psychology profession. She has played a key role in shaping pathways driving quality assurance in training and assessment. Olga is passionate about strengthening the psychology workforce through evidence-informed, nationally consistent approaches that meet the evolving needs of the profession.
Dr Alexander Sweetman
Senior Program Manager
Australasian Sleep Association
Implementation and outcomes of a national psychologist sleep education program
3:40 PM - 3:50 PMBiography
Dr Alexander Sweetman is a Senior Program Manager and chair of the Behavioural Management of Sleep Disorders education subcommittee at the Australasian Sleep Association. His research interests include insomnia, comorbid insomnia and sleep apnoea, cognitive behavioural therapy for insomnia, preventive sleep health, and implementation science.
Ms Stacey Putland
Project Manager
Australasian Sleep Association
Tailoring sleep health education for pharmacists, a collaborative development approach
3:50 PM - 4:00 PMBiography
Stacey is a credentialled pharmacist and project manager with the Australasian Sleep Association leading the Quality Use of Medicines for Insomnia and Sleep Health (QUMISH) grant program. She has 10 years’ experience across a diverse range of pharmacy settings including community pharmacy, hospital pharmacy, aged care and university-based training. She is passionate about the role that pharmacists can play in facilitating evidenced-based non-pharmacological approaches to insomnia, pain and psychological distress, to support quality use of medicines in the community and residential aged care.
Chris Braithwaite
Project Manager
Pharmaceutical Society of Australia
Reaching pharmacists across the country through partnership delivery
4:00 PM - 4:10 PMBiography
Chris has experience in community pharmacy, as a credentialed pharmacist, delivering Quality Use of Medicines activities to remote Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community health clinics and worked as an ACCHO pharmacist for 6 years in Coffs Harbour.
Chris is now a Project Manager for the PSA, delivering a number of projects including within the quality use of medicines sector.
Marcia Balzer
CEO
Australasian Sleep Association
Q&A and panel interview and audience discussion: With all presenters and panelists Bianca Cannon and Bandana Saini
4:10 PM - 5:00 PMBiography
Dr Bianca Cannon
Lecturer
University of Sydney
Panelist
4:10 PM - 5:00 PMBiography
Dr Bianca Cannon is a practising GP with a clinical interest in insomnia management. She is a lecturer with the University of Sydney and is currently researching GP guided digital CBTi. Bianca is co-chair of the Primary Care Council of the ASA and a member of the GP Education Subcommittee.
Prof Bandana Saini
Academic
University of Sydney
Panelist
4:10 PM - 5:00 PMBiography
Prof Bandana Saini is an academic at the Sydney Pharmacy School, University of Sydney, and Research Lead at the Woolcock Institute of Medical Research, Sydney. She is an academic pharmacist working on health services implementation research in community pharmacies for respiratory and sleep health interventions.
Marcia Balzer
CEO
Australasian Sleep Association
Chair
Biography
