Associate Professor Alan Clough is an Epidemiologist with a track record over the last two decades in designing, implementing and evaluating community-based interventions to reduce the disastrous effects of substance misuse in remote Indigenous communities, primarily in tropical northern Australia.  Research in remote community populations is widely recognised as being amongst the most difficult. 

In an unusual career path, he has worked at the community level managing alcohol issues in restricted areas in remote Indigenous communities in the Northern Territory.  In his public health practice he has acted as a Member of the NT Licensing Commission (appointed by the Minister) and has heard and determined applications for restricted area declarations supported by alcohol management plans in several NT localities giving him a unique researcher's perspective on the regulatory environment.

Alan is principally recognised in Australia and internationally for his work in the difficult and often neglected area of substance misuse in remote community populations. As well as a rapidly-expanding research career, his CV describes a background in applied community development and advocacy including at the Local Government level. This experience underpins his long commitment to making positive changes at the population level.  Much of his research and practice is intervention research. It has led to positive change in situations where substance misuse has been highly problematic, e.g. reducing cannabis use, reducing petrol sniffing, kava abuse, managing alcohol and investigating ways to reduce the harms from alcohol abuse, smoking cannabis and tobacco in rural and remote populations. In public health generally there is a dearth of intervention research which seeks to document change in populations and which fosters change while the research is occurring.

Experience

• 2012 to present - Program Grants Review Panel - Additional Expert, National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia
• 2012 to present - Member - Grant Review Panel 6A - Project Grants, National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia
• 2012 to present - Member, Health Research Council of New Zeland, Public Health Science Assessing Committee
• 2012 to present - Chair - Early Career Fellowship Review Panel, National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia
• 2012 to present - Invited participant - Alcohol Data Workshop, NHMRC Prevention and Community Health Committee
• 2011 to present - Chair - Early Career Fellowship Review Panel, National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia
• 2010 to present - Research Fellow, The Cairns Institute (Cairns Qld)
• 2007 to present - Member - Grant Review Panel - NHMRC_GRP5A, National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia
• 2006 to present - Associate Professor, School of Public Health, Tropical Medicine and Rehabilitation Services, James Cook University (Cairns Qld)
• 2011 to 2014 - Associate Professor, Sansom Institute, Division of Health Sciences, University of South Australia (Honorary) (South Australia)
• 2007 to 2010 - Principal Research Fellow, Menzies School of Health Research (Honorary)
• 2006 to 2009 - Associate Professor, Faculty of Medicine, University of Sydney (Honorary) (Sydney NSW)
• 2005 to 2008 - National Healht and Medical Research Council - Postdoctoral Fellow, James Cook University
• 2005 to 2007 - Senior Lecturer, School of Population, University of Queensland (Honorary) (Queensland)

Research Disciplines

• Public Health and Health Services (1117)
• Psychology (1701)

Socio-Economic Objectives

• Indigenous Health (9203)
• Public Health (9204)

Awards

• 2011 - Finalist, Queensland Reconciliation Awards, Queensland Police Service and James Cook University for ‘Weed-it-Out’ project.
• 2011 - Australian Crime and Violence Prevention Award, Partnered Project, Queensland Police Service ‘Weed-it-Out’ and James Cook University ‘Cape York Cannabis Project’. 2011

Fellowships

• 2010 - Research Fellow - Cairns Insitute - James Cook University
• 2013 to 2016 - Career Development Award Fellowship, National Health and Medical Research Council
• 2006 to 2008 - Early Career Fellowship, National Health and Medical Research Council

These are the most recent publications associated with this author. To see a detailed profile of all publications stored at JCU, visit ResearchOnline@JCU. Hover over Altmetrics badges to see social impact.

Journal Articles

• Bird K, Fitts M and Clough A (2016) Alcohol management plans in Indigenous communities in Queensland (Australia) may have unintended implications for the care of children. Health & Justice, 4 (8). pp. 1-7
• Clough A, Margolis S, Miller A, Shakeshaft A, Doran C, McDermott R, Sanson-Fisher R, Towle S, Martin D, Ypinazar V, Robertson J, Fitts M, Bird K, Honorato B and West C (2016) Alcohol control policies in Indigenous communities: a qualitative study of the perceptions of their effectiveness among service providers, stakeholders and community leaders in Queensland (Australia). International Journal of Drug Policy, 36. pp. 67-75
• Fitts M, Palk G, Lennon A and Clough A (in press) The characteristics of young Indigenous drink drivers in Queensland, Australia. Traffic Injury Prevention,
• Gould G, Stevenson L, Cadet-James Y and Clough A (in press) Cultural challenges when developing anti-tobacco messages for Indigenous Australians. Health Promotion International,
• Gould G, Watt K, West R, Cadet-James Y and Clough A (2016) Can smoking initiation contexts predict how adult Aboriginal smokers assess their smoking risks? A cross-sectional study using the 'Smoking Risk Assessment Target'. BMJ Open, 6 (7).
• Gould G, Cadet-James Y and Clough A (in press) Getting over the shock: taking action on Indigenous maternal smoking. Australian Journal of Primary Health, 22.
• Honorato B, Caltabiano N and Clough A (2016) From trauma to incarceration: exploring the trajectory in a qualitative study in male prison inmates from north Queensland, Australia. Health & Justice, 4 (3). pp. 1-10
• Stevens B, Watt K, Brimbecombe J, Clough A, Judd J and Lindsay D (in press) The role of seasonality on the diet and household food security of pregnant women living in rural Bangladesh: a cross-sectional study. Public Health Nutrition,
• Stevens B, Clough A, Brimbecombe J, Watt K and Judd J (2016) The use of a modified version of Photovoice to identify maternal dietary consumption enablers and barriers in northern Bangladesh. International Journal of Food, Nutrition and Public Health, 8 (1). pp. 1-19
• Usher K, Woods C, Lynch P, Pointing B, Budden L, Barker R, Catchpoole J and Clough A (in press) Is population flow an unintended consequence of alcohol management plans? Journal of Clinical Nursing,
• Clough A and Bird K (2015) The implementation and development of complex alcohol control policies in indigenous communities in Queensland (Australia). International Journal of Drug Policy, 26 (4). pp. 345-351
• Fitts M, West C, Robertson J, Robertson K, Roberts N, Honorato B and Clough A (2015) The NHMRC Road Map 'benchmark' principles: a formal evaluation process is needed to improve their application. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health, 39 (4). pp. 305-308

More

ResearchOnline@JCU stores 121+ research outputs authored by A/Prof Alan Clough from 1995 onwards.

Current and recent Research Funding to JCU is shown by funding source and project.

Advisory Accreditation: I can be on your Advisory Panel as a Primary or Secondary Advisor.

These Higher Degree Research projects are either current or by students who have completed their studies within the past 5 years at JCU. Linked titles show theses available within ResearchOnline@JCU.

Current

• Psychologists' Engagement with Clients Regarding Alcohol Use: Understanding the Role of Personal Consumption, Knowledge and Attitudes. (PhD, Secondary Advisor)
• The Role of Traditional Food and Lifestyle Interventions in Reducing Modifiable Chronic Disease Risk Factors in Australian Indigenous Communities. (PhD, Secondary Advisor)
• Patient Safety: Risk Management of Paramedic Initiated Non-Transport Cases. (Masters, Primary Advisor)
• Evidence-to-Action to Reduce Impacts of Criminalisation in Communities with Alcohol Management Plans (AMPS): Effective Policies and Programs need Sound Evidence for Considered Decisions (PhD, Primary Advisor)
• Health Status, Health Events, and Health Care Participation of Amateur Performing Artists in Regional Queensland (Mackay) (PhD, Primary Advisor)
• Smoke-free Homes in Far North Queensland : Informing and Developing Research Interventions (PhD, Primary Advisor)
• Reducing Assaults in the Cairns Night Time Economy Using Realist Evaluation: A Focus on Closed Circut Television (CCTV). (PhD, Secondary Advisor)
• Impact of a physical activity program on 'walking and moving about' for individuals with Machado Joseph Disease (MJD) living in the Top End of Australia (PhD, Secondary Advisor)
• Chronic Hepatitis B: Raising Awareness and Enabling Health-Protective Action in the North Queensland Among Community Focusing on GP Involvement and Antenatal Care (PhD, Secondary Advisor)
• From hospital to home: understanding the lived experience of traumatic brain injury in remote Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander populations and the implications for transition support (PhD, Secondary Advisor)
• Maternal Nutrition and Its Role in the Development of the Child in Bangladesh (PhD, Secondary Advisor)
• Implementing Large Scale, Community-Level Intervention Studies in Remote Indigenous Communities: A Realist Evaluation of the 'Cape York Cannabis Project'. (PhD, Primary Advisor)
• Exploring Protective Factors for Violent Offending and Incarceration of Indigenous Adults in Far North Queensland. (PhD, Primary Advisor)
• Illicit Drug Monitoring System in Regional Queensland (PhD, Primary Advisor)

Completed

• The health worker smoking study: Indigenous health workers' personal use of tobacco and its impact on their ability to provide smoking cessation interventions (2015, Masters, Primary Advisor)
• Improving the Prevention, Diagnosis and Management of Acute Rheumatic Fever and Rheumatic Heart Disease in Aboriginal Australian and Torres Strait Islander Populations (2015, PhD, Associate Advisor)
• Making salient messages for Indigenous tobacco control (2015, PhD, Primary Advisor)
• Bouncers, brutes and brawn: are bouncers being discriminated against in news reports? a critical discourse analysis (2015, PhD, Secondary Advisor)
• A grounded theory of program transfer: how an Aboriginal empowerment initiative became "bigger than a program" (2013, PhD, Associate Advisor)

The map shows research collaborations by institution from the past 7 years.
Note: Map points are indicative of the countries or states that institutions are associated with.