AADDM is delighted that Dr Jane Tracy has accepted the nomination for the Bob Davis Award for 2022. Below is the award citation, read by Ms Tahli Hind, 3DN Staff member with lived experience of intellectual disability and cerebral palsy.
I am pleased to read the citation for Dr Jane Tracy.
Jane is the recipient of the Bob Davis Award for 2022.
Jane is from Melbourne and trained as a doctor and worked as a GP for a few years.
Her son was born was cerebral palsy and intellectual disability. She learned a lot about disability from her son and saw some of the difficulties that people with disability face in getting good healthcare.
Jane decided to work to improve the healthcare of people with disability and started working with children and adults with disabilities and their families and carers in clinics at Monash Medical Centre and Monash University.
Part of Jane’s work was teaching medical students and doctors. She had learnt a lot from her son and from other people with disability and their families, and from other doctors working with other people with disability. She was glad to have the opportunity to share what she had learnt with students and doctors.
Jane believes that it is important that medical students and doctors – and in fact all health professionals – learn from people with lived experience of disability. She has shared her own experience and that of her son, and she has worked with many adults with disability in teaching sessions with medical students. The students really value these sessions and always give great feedback.
Jane and the doctors she worked with wanted all the hundreds of students and doctors they teach to have the chance to learn from people with disability, but it’s not always possible to have people join the teaching sessions. They decided to work with people with disability to make videos that could be used in teaching. Jane and her colleagues made many videos and have used them in teaching for more than 15 years.
Over the years, Jane has taught thousands of medical students and doctors, dental students and dentists, allied health professionals and practitioners, student teachers and teachers. She has also run groups for people working in early intervention, adolescent health and aged care. She has also spoken to many groups of people with disability and their families and carers. All the time, her main focus is to improve the healthcare and health of people with disability.
All through Jane’s career she has been a strong advocate for the rights of people with disability to have good healthcare so we can all have the best health possible. Good health means good mental health as well as good physical health. Good health is one of the building blocks of a good life.
Jane has been an amazing, inspirational Doctor. We want to thank her for her passion for teaching which has inspired a generation of doctors to do it better for people with disability. We want to thank her for her unwavering advocacy and leadership in developing better health services and supports for people with intellectual and developmental disability.
Jane you are an amazing, generous, humble, and highly worthy recipient of the Bob Davis Award.
We would now like to ask you to give the 2022 Bob David Award Address.
For more information on the Bob Davis Award, please click here.