Past Research

Unlike many nurses I know, I did not always want to be a nurse growing up. However, when my son was born, we spent a significant amount of time in hospitals. Throughout this time the interactions and experiences with the nurses at different health facilities sparked something in me. These nurses had mine and my son’s best interest at heart, advocating for us and making what was a very scary time in my life, a little bit easier. I knew then that I wanted to be that person for someone, to make the scary moment in their life a little bit easier.

As a mature age nursing student, my path to becoming a nurse hasn’t followed the “traditional” trajectory. I’m a wife and mother of three children who all attend Sale Catholic schools and are heavily involved in local sports teams. I was raised in Heyfield, went to school here, married a local boy and am delighted to be doing my Graduate Nursing Year in 2022 at Central Gippsland Health, Sale. Growing up in a small country town, I now have the privilege to give back to those in their time of need through our wider regional health care system. I was guided by many community and likeminded residents through my educational, sporting avenues and being a member of our small community that I am now seeing those faces again. This time the life circle is evolving, and it is my pleasure to have the opportunity to return the kindness, love and support that was shown to me growing up.

Caroline Donovan is a Clinical Psychologist and Professor within the School of Applied Psychology and the Centre for Mental Health at Griffith University. She has received over $9 million worth of funding throughout her career and has published 13 book chapters and 95 peer reviewed journal articles. She is an Associate Editor of Anxiety, Stress and Coping, and is currently on the Editorial Boards of Child Psychiatry and Human Development and Australian Psychologist.

Govind is a clinical psychologist and senior academic at the University of Southern Queensland and a member of the Manna Institute (Regional Mental Health Research and Training Institute). He has over 15 years of experience in child and youth mental health services in both private and public settings. Govind’s research focuses on improving equity and access to mental healthcare for priority groups of children, youth and their families.

Dr Talia Carl is an early-career researcher and Lecturer at the School of Psychology, University of Sydney. Her doctoral research involved experimental and longitudinal studies examining the relationship between moral development, parenting and context on children’s lie telling and problem behaviours. She has also managed a number of large-scale clinical trials evaluating the efficacy of interventions for children’s mental health. Her research aims to understand the factors that impact child emotional and behavioural problems, and treatment response, in order to facilitate the development and implementation of interventions. She is also passionate about increasing access to evidence-based interventions to improve the mental health and wellbeing of all Australian children.

Professor Jennie Hudson is the Deputy Director and Director of Research at the Black Dog Institute and is a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences of Australia. Jennie’s research focuses on understanding the factors that contribute to children’s mental health and working to improve the services available to children experiencing anxiety and other related disorders. Jennie has authored over 200 publications in the field of child mental health.

Dr Lara Farrell is a Clinical Psychologist and Professor within the School of Applied Psychology, and Deputy Director of the Centre for Mental Health, Griffith University, Gold Coast Campus. Dr Farrell conducts clinical research in the field of childhood anxiety and obsessive-compulsive spectrum disorders. Her work has involved numerous highly cited clinical trials for child anxiety/phobias and OCD, including group treatments, intensive treatments, digital and virtual reality interventions, and novel pharmacological augmentation of CBT.

Dr Sophie Li is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow and Clinical Psychologist at the Black Dog Institute, University of New South Wales. Her research and clinical expertise are in youth depression, anxiety and sleep disturbance and the development and evaluation of digital mental health interventions.

She currently leads a program of research examining digital technology as an emotion regulation strategy and its role in youth depression, anxiety, and sleep disturbance.

Dr Lucy Tully is a Senior Lecturer and Senior Supervising Psychologist in the School of Psychology at the University of Sydney. She has over 20 years of clinical and research experience, with expertise in child mental health, father engagement, and evidence-based parenting and family interventions. She also she works clinically as a psychologist delivering evidence-based intervention to families of children with emotional and behavioural problems at the Child Behaviour Research Clinic (CBRC) at the University of Sydney.

Professor Alison Calear is an NHMRC Emerging Leadership Fellow and Co-Head of the Centre for Mental Health Research at the Australian National University. Her research is focused on youth mental health, eHealth and the prevention and early intervention of anxiety, depression, and suicide. She is also interested in the promotion of help-seeking behaviour and the role of literacy and stigma in the help-seeking process.

Most recently, her research has focused on suicide prevention in secondary schools and the development of an online resource to support parents to better recognise and respond to psychological distress or suicide risk in their child.