true

Biography

As a natural extension of the development at the University of Newcastle of 'boyswork' a new area of gender-related practice linking social and physical health and education, Richard Fletcher, began to incorporate fathers into the program development model at the Family Action Centre which was focused on working with established services to help them include 'marginalised' groups into the normal service delivery. This approach, focusing on service providers rather than on the clients as 'the problem' had been successfully introduced into the Men's Health arena through the presentations and role of Richard Fletcher at national conferences and as advisor to state and federal government departments. In the case of fathers the Bernard van Leer Foundation agreed to fund a significant project, The Engaging Fathers Project, over five years to develop effective models of father engagement among services addressing the needs of children 0-8. This project led to research reports, resources and training for service staff in all states and territories. Change at the national level was achieved due to several initiatives: the Engaging Fathers Project was funded to conduct a review of fatherhood research in Australia (a recommendation from this review was to have a national Practitioners Forum to draw together examples of capacity building to involve fathers); Richard Fletcher had that key role incorporating fathers into the discussion at the Parenting in Australia national workshop hosted by FACSIA; Richard Fletcher and Judi Geggie presented invited seminars in Canberra to FACSIA staff; the Father Inclusive Practice Forum was subsequently funded. These activities resulted in changes to FACSIA management (funded programs are now required to report separately on the involvement of mothers and fathers - an important first step to addressing the lack of fathers involvement). State government departments and NGOs (for example Karitane) have begun to review their policies and standard practices to identify avenues for fathers involvement.

The Google Scholar search engine was used to determine how many people have cited Richard's work. A Google Scholar search using the search terms Richard Fletcher Australia found a total of seven publications, with a total of 44 citations. The publication with the most citations (25 citations) was:

Boys in Schools: Addressing the Real Issues Behaviour, Values and Relationships:

R Browne, R Fletcher, Finch Publishing 1995 cited by 25 people.

Another Google Scholar search using the search terms Richard Fletcher Family Action Centre found a total of 19 publications, with a total of 24 citations. The publication with the most citations was the book Fatherhood: Legal, Biological and Social Definitions, with 5 citations.

An ordinary Google search under Richard Fletcher Australia produced 11 results. An ordinary Google search under Richard Fletcher Family Action Centre produced 44 results.

Qualifications

• PhD (Paediatrics), University of Newcastle, 2008
• Bachelor of Science, University of Sydney
• Diploma in Education, University of Sydney
• Master of Medical Science, University of Newcastle, 1998
• Graduate Diploma in Health Social Science, University of Newcastle, 1994

---

Research

Research keywords

• Father-infant attachment
• Fathers
• Indigenous fatherhood
• Parenting
• Postnatal depression fathers
• Separated parents and child development

Research expertise

Designed and conducted research into fathers' role in families across diverse settings such as separated parents, new fathers, antenatal support, rough and tumble play with children, fathers using the web. Also research into practitioners' role in promoting father-infant and father-child contact for the benefit of the whole family.

Fields of Research

Description (Code)	%
Social Work Not Elsewhere Classified(160799)	60
Psychology Not Elsewhere Classified(170199)	40

Centres and Groups

Centre

• Family Action Centre

Memberships

Committee/Associations (relevant to research).

• Editor - Australian Fatherhood Research Network

Appointments

Consultant for FACS Department of Family and Community Services (Australia) 01/01/2002 - 01/06/2003

Invitations

Connecting The Dots: fathers, boys, families and strengths Working with Fathers: Achieving Positive Outcomes for Children conference Children North East, United Kingdom (Keynote Speaker)	2004
Families: Myths, Dreams and Realities The National Association of Childbirth Educators (NACE, Australia (Keynote Speaker)	2003
Web-based information for new fathers Second Biennial Parenting Conference , Australia (Paper Presented at conference)	2006
What we know about fathers National Strategic Conference on Fatherhood, Australia (Paper presented at Conference)	2003
Beyond Dear Parents& making the invisible fathers visible Reconceptualizing Early Childhood Education Conference on Research, Theory and Practice, Norway (Paper presented at conference)	2004
The missing father in everyday healthcare Best Practice for Better Health! 6th UIHPE European Conference on Effectiveness and Quality of Health Promotion, Sweden (Paper presented at conference)	2005
Father-Infant Attachment Australian Association for Infant Mental Health , Australia (Presented paper at conference)	2005
The Psychosocial Assessment of Fathers Antenatally World Association for Infant Mental Health, France (Presented paper at conference)	2006

---

Teaching

Teaching keywords

• Father inclusive practice
• Fathers mental health

Teaching expertise

Designed and delivered courses and seminars on Health Research, Boys development, Engaging Fathers in Human Services, Separated Fathers, Fathers and Postnatal Depression to undergraduate and postgraduate level and to professionals in health, education and welfare.