About Us_
Clinical Team
Michael Hann
MNutrDiet (USyd) BMedSc (ANU) APD
Accredited Practicing Dietitian
Michael Hann
Consultant Paediatric Dietitian
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Autism, ARFID & PFD in Complex Disability & Medical
Michael has expertise in children who have high severity childhood feeding disorders and nutrition issues that are associated with high complexity presentations of Autism and neurodevelopment.
Michael has previously worked at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital and the former Queensland Royal Children’s Hospital, and as a visiting consultant to hospitals and other health services in more than two dozen countries around the world.
As a Consultant Paediatric Dietitian, Michael is well known for working with kids who have Autism, ARFID and PFD with highly complex “multi-diagnosis” presentations of: Mast Cell Activation Syndrome (MCAS), Dysautonomia, Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS), Hypermobility Spectrum Disorders (HSD), Ehlders Danlos Syndrome (EDS), ME/CFS (chronic fatigue), Long COVID, and Paediatric Acute-onset Neuropsychiatric Disorders (PANDAS and PANS).
Michael Hann, APD
Qualifications
An Accredited Practicing Dietitian (APD), registered with Dietitians Australia (DA) and Medicare. A Masters Degree in Nutrition & Dietetics (MNutrDiet) with Distinctions at the University of Sydney (1995)…, a Bachelor of Medical Science (BMedSc) at the Australian National University (1993) majoring in biochemistry and molecular biology.
For my voluntary work, I also hold professional certificates in Pre-Hospital Trauma Care (PHTC), Tactical Emergency Casualty Care (TECC), Prolonged Casualty Care (PCC), Rescue Trauma & Casualty Care (RTACC), ANZBA Management of Severe Burns, Advanced Life Support (ALS), Advanced First Aid, Advanced Resuscitation & Oxygen Therapy, and Emergency Management of Allergies/Anaphylaxis.
Clinical Expertise
My expertise is in providing advanced medical nutrition for children with severely restrictive feeding, malnutrition and nutrition deficiencies associated with Autism. In particular, I have expertise in Autism, Paediatric Feeding Disorder (PFD), Avoidant/Restrictive Food Intake Disorder (ARFID), gastroenterology, immunology and metabolic disorders.
Clinical Experience
Former clinical experience in major adult and children’s hospitals Eating Disorder Units, including the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital (RPAH) and the former QLD Royal Children’s Hospital (RCH). I have worked in paediatric feeding and eating disorders, gastroenterology and metabolic/genetic disorders. I also work in emergency health as a volunteer community health practitioner and as a trauma care medic for disaster response.
Memberships
A registered dietitian with Dietitians Australia (DA) and a professional member of the ANZ Academy of Eating Disorders (ANZAED). As a volunteer rescue and trauma care medic: Rescue Medics Australia, and the Australian Tactical Medicine Association (ATMA).
Volunteering
Each year, I volunteer hundreds of hours in the community in youth development programs and as a trauma care medic in disaster response, rescue and major incidents.
A Chairman’s Apprentice
Each week I also spend a little time making fine furniture, particularly artisan stools and chairs, handcrafted with speciality timbers. Finding unique collections of wood with beautiful properties is hard work and half the fun. It involves many 4WD adventures up dusty routes and down muddy tracks to access remote private forests, farms, rural timber mills, specialty timber yards and rare timber collectors. My mentor is one of the finest chairmakers in Australia and each week I get to hangout with fantastic group of spirited fine furniture makers.
Family
After working in Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, Chicago, Minneapolis and Singapore for many years, I now live on the Sunshine Coast in Australia, which provides endless opportunities for surfing, swimming, river and hinterland adventures - all of it outdoors in nature, every day. Great for physical and mental health and a wonderful way to establish important life long patterns in our kids.
NDIS Tube Feeding Dietitians.
When children leave hospital with nasogastric feeding tubes (NGTs) or gastronomy feeding devices like a PEG, you can transition your ongoing support to us through the NDIS HENS program.
We provide long-term nutrition support to kids with feeding tubes. We work closely with paediatricians, hospital dietitians and NDIS support coordinators to help make the transition smooth and to ensure we have good monitoring and collaboration mechanisms in place.
Values
Evidence-Based Care
We use the best possible evidence available, we always offer education to our clients on current research and we actively encourage inquiry to build capacity within parents and families so they are empowered to make high quality decisions about their child’s health.
Respectful Dialogue
We value inclusion, diversity and relatedness through the deeply reciprocal nature of dialogue, rather than getting stuck in patterns of indifference or polarisation, avoidance or aggression, shame or blame, resentment or guilt. We make room inside ourselves to hold multiple divergent views for genuine inquiry and reflection.
Connecting Dots
Connecting the dots, building shared understanding and fostering alignment matters. Complex care needs whole-systems thinking and action on many levels, from human health and wellbeing, to integrated care networks, the wider community and the environment in which we live.
Living in Possibility
We live with a commitment to fostering possibility in every situation – with families, clinicians and everyone else. This is particularly important when it feels hardest to be in possibility; when people are sick, tired, stressed, unhelpful or abrasive. We keep mindful through it all and foster the possibility of better relationships and outcomes.
Customer Commitment
We develop relationships that inspire and enable a positive difference in our customers’ lives, whilst striving for clinical excellence in what we do as professionals through research and practice. To us, health is both about the quality of relationship and about our clinical expertise.
Good Citizenship
We provide our services with a commitment to the restorative actions needed within society and for all of nature. We value the expansive interconnected nature of human health, community wellbeing and planetary health. We need healthy ecosystems at local and global levels; all of life depends on a delicate balance of biodiversity and climate.