ACC scholarship: The impact of living rurally on accidents and injuries
General practice registrar Merope Griffin is one of six students to be awarded an ACC postgraduate research scholarship. Her mahi looks at how to reduce injuries and deaths in rural communities.
Working as a general practice registrar rurally, Merope Griffin has seen the negative impact of accidents and injuries in those communities.
Merope has been awarded an ACC postgraduate research scholarship to assist with her research as she works towards a Master of Health Sciences at the University of Otago.
As part of her research, Merope will examine how socioeconomic deprivation, rurality and ethnicity impact injury risk in New Zealand.
Her work as a GP registrar – a qualified doctor training to become a GP through working in a practice – has given her hands-on experience and emphasised the significant burden of accidents and injuries in rural communities.
Using five years of mortality data, her study will analyse how these factors intersect to affect injury-related deaths in people aged under 65, particularly focusing on rural Māori populations.
She aims to identify geographic and demographic patterns in injury occurrence to inform targeted interventions that could reduce preventable deaths and address health inequities. Her work is part of a wider project in the Department of General Practice and Rural Health.
Motivation for helping rural whānau
Merope has worked in the National Health Service (NHS) in the United Kingdom in various hospital jobs, as a rural GP registrar in Greymouth and is currently working in Oxford, a small town serving the farming community of North Canterbury.
“Working rurally, I often see people negatively impacted by accidents and injuries, with loss of quality of life, as well as income,” she says.
“This has served as motivation for this project. I hope doing this research will identify particular areas of risk and therefore eventually help to develop targeted interventions.
“The ACC scholarship will help fund my research and, ultimately, I hope it will help rural communities in Aotearoa.”
Improving wellbeing through ACC scholarships
In addition to funding the research Merope is doing, ACC has also awarded scholarships, ranging from $7,500 to $15,000, to University of Otago students Reghan Laurie and Merrick Rodrigues, Adrian Pretorius (Massey University), Hana Sikma (Auckland University of Technology) and Luke Hollis (Victoria University of Wellington).
The 2024 scholarship has been awarded to master’s students whose studies relate to ACC’s research priorities, says Andy Milne, ACC Deputy Chief Executive of Strategy, Engagement and Prevention.
“These priorities are informed by ACC’s 10-year strategy, Huakina Te Rā,” Andy says.
“We’re committed to addressing complex challenges and understanding emerging trends in injury prevention and sustained recovery.
“The ACC postgraduate scholarship is a fantastic opportunity to fill gaps in our knowledge about these challenges and trends.
“The findings will inform operational and investment decisions and actions.”
ACC’s research priorities for 2025 include: ways to keep people at higher risk of injury safe, how to enable groups who most need additional support to access the ACC scheme, and what helps people to recover well from injury and stay safe from re-injury.
The 2025 scholarships will be available through Te Pōkai Tara Universities New Zealand later in the year.
