PAEDIATRICS: (Symposium session) Sleep health care delivery and interventions to families, children and adolescents: How are we doing?
Tracks
Track 4
| Saturday, October 11, 2025 |
| 3:30 PM - 5:00 PM |
| Riverbank 2-3 |
Details
Whilst access, cost and availability are important for achieving good sleep health, interventions must be relevant, effective and appropriate to the client/ patient group. Data shows consistent attrition from some sleep interventions for children, with evidence that families seek help from family, friends and social media rather than sleep health professionals. Why this is the case? This symposium will present evidence, including case studies, confirming help seeking behaviours are strongly influenced by perceptions of whether the treatment aligns with both evidence and parental and cultural considerations. Optimal and targeted sleep heath care delivery embracing lived experience, community needs, preferences and cultural factors, would potentially address these issues.
Speaker
Dr Natalie Gentin
Paediatric Sleep Physician
Sydney Children's Hospital
Putting knowledge into practice with sleep health interventions. Brief overview and case presentations
3:30 PM - 3:50 PMBiography
Dr Natalie Gentin is a Paediatric Sleep and Respiratory Physician. She has worked in the Darwin Respiratory and Sleep Health unit since 2016. She manages respiratory and non respiratory sleep issues in children in the Northern Territory. She is a Staff Specialist at Sydney Children’s Hospital and a Conjoint Lecturer at the University of New South Wales. She has a Masters degree in Sleep Medicine. She is involved in clinical care and research in paediatric sleep medicine.
Levita D'Souza
Senior Lecturer
Monash University
Unintentional bed-sharing and unintended consequences: Parents' experiences with reactive co-sleeping
3:50 PM - 4:10 PMBiography
Levita works in the School of Educational Psychology and Counselling at Monash University. Her research interest are in the area of perinatal and infant mental health, transition to parenthood and infant sleep.
Prof Yaqoot Fatima
Professor of Sleep Health
University of the Sunshine Coast
Sleep health of First Nations children: community led initiatives for culturally appropriate service delivery
4:10 PM - 4:30 PMBiography
Professor Yaqoot Fatima is a social epidemiologist, sleep scientist, and specialist in co-designing First Nations sleep health programs and services. Her research is dedicated to advancing sleep health equity in First Nations communities through multidisciplinary and translational research and co-designed initiatives.
Prof Sarah Blunden
Paediatric Sleep Researcher
Central Queensland University
Listening to parents to improve compliance and sustained engagement with treatment: the need for an Informed Choice Model of Care
4:30 PM - 4:50 PMBiography
A clinical psychologist, Professor Sarah Blunden, has researched paediatric sleep through Central Queensland and Monash Universities for 20 years with over 135 publications, and has treated behavioural sleep problems in her Paediatric Sleep and Psychology Clinic. Her particular research interests include Models of Care, infant sleep interventions, community sleep education and Indigenous sleep health.
She holds board membership of IPSA, is an active member of the ASA and Behavioural Sleep Medicine subcommittee, is a faculty member for World Sleep Academy, and co- chairs the South Australian Government’s independent Child Development Council and it’s Aboriginal Reference Group.
Prof Subash Heraganahally
Director And Head
Royal Darwin Hospital
Chair
Biography
