Partner in focus: Dr Moira Junge, CEO, Sleep Health Foundation

We spoke with Dr Moira Junge, CEO, Sleep Health Foundation, who explains the Foundation’s vision and recent innovations.

What is the vision of the Sleep Health Foundation?

Our vision is that all Australians gain an understanding of the importance of sleep and how to improve it at an individual, community and work-place level. We want the general public to have access to free, evidence-based resources and information about sleep. We want to help improve lives through better sleep. We focus on all people, of all ages and whether they have a sleep disorder or not, but we have a particular focus on those having challenges with their sleep. At the core of the Sleep Health Foundation is a deep understanding of the need to be guided by those with lived and living experience of inadequate sleep.

Can you explain one of your organisation's recent innovations?

A recent innovation that has just been launched is our Sleep Spotlight (Symptom Checker). We are trialling the use of the Sleep Spotlight online tool to help identify sleep disorders. This research project is being conducted by Flinders University in conjunction with the Sleep Health Foundation. The Sleep Spotlight tool checks for common sleep disorders and will provide the individual with a personalised report with recommendations regarding their sleep health. Not only will it help someone better understand their sleep and more accurately identify the specific sleep problem they are experiencing, but it will help them to be able to better navigate our website and be directed to the most relevant information. This is a research project that was made possible by a grant from the American Academy of Sleep Medicine Foundation. We are very much looking forward to improving the peoples experience of searching for accurate and tailored information about their own sleep concerns.

What is your focus for the next 12 months?

In the next 12 months we’re very keen to amplify the lived-experience voices. We have a group of committed people living with sleep disorders advising us, they are our Lived Experience Advisory Partners (LEAP). We would also hope to have our website incorporating the sleep symptom-checker and that it is fully embedded at the front end of our website (Sleep Spotlight). We also are very keen to increase our advocacy efforts to the federal government in terms of following up on the 11 recommendations that were made just before COVID-19 era.

What is it about the partnership with Healthdirect Australia that is most valuable to you?

The reach and the reputation of Healthdirect is an asset to our mission. We have been a partner of Healthdirect for over 10 years and we are proud to be associated with the nation’s leading evidence-based official source of health information. Both of our organisations share the same values in that the provision of free, independent, evidence-based up-to-date information is at the core of our mission. We know that sleep is still under-valued, under-researched and not well understood in the community so we remain committed to raising awareness and providing information. We couldn’t do it without the important partnerships we have such as with Healthdirect Australia. We know the value of collaboration and partnerships and are very grateful for the one we have with Healthdirect Australia.