Julian Trollor: Inaugural Director of the National Centre of Excellence in Intellectual Disability Health

Julian says it is an ‘enormous privilege’ to take on the role as the inaugural director.

“Of course, the role isn't about a person,” he adds, “It's about a very important task: the task of leading a team. A team that's really quite different in the way we think and operate to ensure that Australians with intellectual disability are able to access health care which meets their needs.”

Julian highlights some of the key priorities for the Centre, including:

Driving systemic change in the health care landscape, developing new ways of working in health services systems with new models of care.
Developing an important resource and knowledge exchange hub.
Understanding gaps in research capacity so we can build the next generation of researchers.
Harnessing the power of big data to understand better what reforms need to occur in health care.

Julian also highlights two founding values to make sure the Centre succeeds in its mission:

Ensuring that people with intellectual disability are involved in co-leadership in every aspect of the Centre.
Establishing a cultural model of inclusion for First Nations people to draw on the enormous strengths of First Nations cultures.

Find out more

Share online

View transcript

It's an enormous privilege to take on the role as the inaugural Director of the new National Centre of Excellence in Intellectual Disability Health.

Of course, the role isn't about a person: it's about a very important task, the task of leading a team, a team that's really quite different in the way we think and operate to ensure that Australians with intellectual disability are able to access health care which meets their needs.

I'm excited about establishing our operations team to ensure that the work occurs smoothly and is well supported. But I'm especially excited about the work of the National Centre

We’ll be establishing teams to drive change – systemic change – in the health care landscape.

We’ll be ensuring that we develop new ways of working in health services systems with new models of care.

We'll be developing an important resource and knowledge exchange hub to allow people with intellectual disability, families, disability and health professionals access tools that help them navigate health journeys better.

And we’ll be understanding better the gaps in our research capacity so we can build the next generation of researchers, and to harness the power of big data to understand better what reforms need to occur in health care.

A really important part of the work of the Centre is to ensure that people with intellectual disability are involved in co-leadership of the Centre and in every aspect of the Centre operations. This means that their views are incorporated in all aspects of the work of the Centre.

It's also really exciting to establish a cultural model of inclusion for First Nations people that ensures that throughout all of the work, we are embedding this cultural model and drawing on the enormous strengths of First Nations cultures to ensure that we're able to improve health systems in a way that's fit for all.

So I'm super excited to take on this role, and I'm enormously grateful for the privilege.