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Research

This project explores the mental health and support needs of Australians with complex experiences of gender-affirmation.

Research

Rainbow Knowledge: Broome & Kununurra is a First Nations led research project that aims to explore the perspectives, social emotional wellbeing (SEWB) and mental health experiences of Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer or Questioning, Asexual (LGBTQA+) or other sexually

Research

Some studies indicate siblings of transgender (trans) and gender diverse young people often experience negative mental health impacts such as anxiety and depression due to complicated familial, individual and social factors associated with having a trans sibling.

Research

The Youth Safe Haven Project will co-design a youth-specific Safe Haven Café within the Peel Health Hub to serve as an alternative to the emergency department for young people at risk of suicide.

Research

Perceived stigma and self-stigma negatively affect identity-related, psychological and functional outcomes among stigmatised populations. There is limited research exploring the impact of stigma among young people at ultra-high risk (UHR) for psychosis. We investigated the association of perceived stigma and self-stigma with these outcomes in young people at UHR.

Research

Mainstream Australian mental health services are failing Aboriginal young people. Despite investing resources, improvements in well-being have not materialised. Culturally and age appropriate ways of working are needed to improve service access and responsiveness. This Aboriginal-led study brings Aboriginal Elders, young people and youth mental health service staff together to build relationships to co-design service models and evaluation tools.

Research

Unmet language and literacy needs are common among young people who are involved with youth justice systems. However, there is limited research regarding the functional text-level language skills of this population with regard to narrative macrostructure (story grammar) and microstructure (semantics and syntax) elements. In this study, we examined macrostructure and microstructure elements in the oral and written narrative texts of 24 adolescent students of a youth detention centre. The students, who were aged 14- to 17- years, were all speakers of Standard Australian English, and 11 (46%) students met criteria for language disorder (LD).

Research

The impact of colonisation, genocide, and continuing discriminatory policies have created a context for ongoing disadvantage, trauma, and high rates of mental health issues for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people.

Research

To improve early intervention and personalise treatment for individuals early on the psychosis continuum, a greater understanding of symptom dynamics is required. We address this by identifying and evaluating the movement between empirically derived attenuated psychotic symptomatic substates-clusters of symptoms that occur within individuals over time.

Research

Promoting psychological well-being and preventing distress among pregnant women is an important public health goal. In addition to adversely impacting the mother's health and well-being, psychological distress in pregnancy increases the risk of poor pregnancy outcomes, compromises infant socioemotional development and bonding, and heightens maternal and child vulnerability in the postpartum period. Mindfulness and compassion-based interventions show potential for prevention and early intervention for perinatal distress.