About the MhhP Showcase
The University of ÃØÃÜÖ±²¥ is committed to advancing mental health harm prevention for young people in the ÃØÃÜÖ±²¥ region and beyond. Our showcase focuses on addressing the unique mental health challenges faced by young individuals, using evidence-based strategies alongside community collaboration.
Key components of the showcase include:
Research, Technology, and Innovation: Highlighting cutting-edge research conducted by our mental health experts, including investigating risk factors, intervention strategies, and various prevention programs. We also explore the use of digital tools and platforms to deliver mental health interventions and support, making care more accessible and scalable.
Community Engagement: Highlighting partnerships with healthcare providers, and community organisations to create supportive environments and promote mental wellbeing among young people.
Education and Awareness: Emphasising interventions that increase mental health literacy, build resilience, reduce stigma, and encourage help-seeking behavior among young people.
Policy and Advocacy: Discussing efforts to influence mental health policies and advocate for resources and services tailored to the needs of the youth population in ÃØÃÜÖ±²¥ and surrounding regions.
Through these efforts, the University of ÃØÃÜÖ±²¥ aims to create a comprehensive framework for preventing mental health harm and fostering resilience among young people in the region.
Register now
The Mental health harm Prevention (MhhP) Showcase will take place on
November 18th 2024 at University of ÃØÃÜÖ±²¥â€™s Ann Harding Conference Centre.
The focus will be preventing harm to young people’s mental health in the ÃØÃÜÖ±²¥ region.
We look forward to welcoming you!
Nearest parking
Casual parking is available near the Ann Harding Conference Centre (Building 24 on the map).
Speakers
Amanda George
Amanda George
Amanda George is an Associate Professor and psychological scientist in the Discipline of Psychology at UC. Amanda’s research focuses on risk-taking behaviours among young adults, notably risky driving and drinking practices. Her research expertise includes impulsivity, social anxiety and motives, and she examines modifiable psychological factors to reduce harm.
Abstract: Problematic Smartphone Use Among Young Adults
Smartphones are now considered an essential tool for life. They provide access to a diverse range of features well beyond standard calling and messaging, including the internet, social media, video games, shopping, and navigation. While there are benefits to smartphone use, for some people their use can become excessive or uncontrolled and it may result in harm or functional impairment. When this occurs, it is termed problematic smartphone use (PSU). This presentation will discuss symptoms of PSU, consequences, causes, and interventions, including the important role of motives. Implications for helping young adults understand and manage PSU will be considered.
Annaleise Naylor
Annaleise Naylor
Annaleise (she/her) is a PhD candidate with the University of ÃØÃÜÖ±²¥ Research Institute for Sport and Exercise (UCRISE). She is also an active member of the University of ÃØÃÜÖ±²¥â€™s, discipline of Psychology, working as an associate lecturer and research assistant. Annaleise completed her undergraduate psychology studies at the Australian Catholic University before moving to ÃØÃÜÖ±²¥ to complete her honours and PhD studies. Annaleise’s primary research focuses on physical activity, physical literacy and mental health. Her research spans both clinical and non-clinical populations. Across her numerous roles, Annaleise has published four peer-reviewed academic papers, presenting her findings locally and internationally. She has also published government-commissioned reports for both the WOKE program and the Australian Institute of Sport. Annaleise’s passion and drive for her research draw on lived experience and a desire for an active and healthier population.
Abstract: Physical Activity, Physical Literacy, and Mental Health
In this session, we will explore the links between mental health and physical activity such as exercise and sport, and the emerging role of 'physical literacy' in facilitating this important link. The link between physical activity and mental health is well established, with both aerobic and strength training showing strong benefits for mental health. Physical literacy captures lifelong learnings that eventuate from (and feed into) movement and physical activity.
Physical literacy comprises ongoing, combined/integrated acquisition of physical, psychological, cognitive, and social capabilities through movement. Experts believe physical literacy is vital in helping us lead healthy and fulfilling lives through movement and physical activity. Research at UC has both refined the concept of physical literacy, as well as exploring how it is taught in schools and the impacts it can have in children. Recently, we have been exploring how physical literacy—built during childhood and adolescence—links with physical activity habits and mental health in adult populations.
Anton Fichtenmaier
Anton Fichtenmaier
Anton Fichtenmaier is a PhD candidate (Clinical Psychology) at the University of ÃØÃÜÖ±²¥. Anton’s primary research interest is the comorbidity of social anxiety with substance use behaviours, particularly the relationships of social anxiety and impulsivity with alcohol use/associated consequences. Anton also has a broad interest in psychology’s clinical applications.
Beau Mostyn Sullivan
Beau Mostyn Sullivan
Beau Mostyn Sullivan is a PhD candidate (Clinical Psychology) at the University of ÃØÃÜÖ±²¥ (UC). His research interests include aetiological mechanisms underlying problematic technology use, particularly personality traits, psychopathology, and motives. He also has an interest in risk-taking behaviours and impulsivity.
Abstract: Problematic Smartphone Use Among Young Adults
Smartphones are now considered an essential tool for life. They provide access to a diverse range of features well beyond standard calling and messaging, including the internet, social media, video games, shopping, and navigation. While there are benefits to smartphone use, for some people their use can become excessive or uncontrolled and it may result in harm or functional impairment. When this occurs, it is termed problematic smartphone use (PSU). This presentation will discuss symptoms of PSU, consequences, causes, and interventions, including the important role of motives. Implications for helping young adults understand and manage PSU will be considered.
Caroline Ng
Caroline Ng Tseung-Wong
Caroline Ng Tseung-Wong is a Senior Lecturer in the Discipline of Psychology at UC. Caroline’s research interests include bicultural identities, intergroup relations and well-being. Her latest research focusses on migrants’ acculturation and alcohol use and attitudes.
Abstract: Migrant Youth’s Drinking Attitudes and Acculturation: Drinking to Fit In?
In Australia, drinking alcohol is often viewed as a cultural norm. Among young Australian adults (aged 18-24 years), alcohol use is one of the major causes of burden of disease in males and the third leading cause in females (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, 2021). Whilst alcohol and other drugs (AOD) feature in the lives of many Australian young adults, little is known about the attitudes and behaviours of immigrant youth (Culturally and Linguistically Diverse) in Australia. This presentation will discuss alcohol use of CaLD youth in terms of frequency, motives for drinking, and the role of acculturation in migrant youth’s drinking attitudes and use.
Chloe Bosworth
Chloe Bosworth
Chloe Bosworth is a Clinical Psychology PhD candidate at the University of ÃØÃÜÖ±²¥. Her research interests include accessible and evidence-based care for people with severe mental illness, and her PhD examines the role of caregivers in psychotherapy for youth with borderline personality disorder. In her clinical work as a provisional psychologist, Chloe has experience working across a range of public mental health settings and enjoys promoting a person-centered, collaborative approach to working with people and families experiencing mental health concerns. Chloe enjoys being engaged with an applied-research approach and is interested in bridging the gap between evidence and clinical practice.
Abstract: Woke Early-Intervention DBT: Current Findings & Future Opportunities
The University of ÃØÃÜÖ±²¥â€™s early intervention DBT program offers a unique and innovative group program to young people who are experiencing complex mental health problems, including emotional dysregulation, impulsivity, interpersonal challenges, and suicidality. We will discuss the key benefits found so far. Research collected demonstrates the significant benefits not only for young people, but for their parents who are involved and integrated within the program.
Moreover, the program provides a highly supportive learning environment to clinical psychology master’s students. Additionally, we will discuss future opportunities and visions for the future of the program. For example, including graduate, consumer-led groups, potential collaboration, and psychoeducation from other allied health students, including exercise and dietitians.
Dean Buckmaster
Dean Buckmaster
Dean Buckmaster is a Clinical Psychologist and Senior Lecturer at the University of ÃØÃÜÖ±²¥. His background is in the adaptation, leadership, and delivery of effective evidence-based psychological interventions for youth experiencing complex emotional and social problems. In his work as a Clinical Psychologist Dean has led the design and implementation of Dialectical Behaviour Therapy programs for youth in public child and Adolescents Mental Health Services, private practice, and currently, the UC WOKE early intervention program. Dean is passionate about providing young people with access to effective early intervention, innovating and developing effective youth-oriented treatment strategies, and training future psychologists wanting to make an impact in this area.
Abstract: Woke Early-Intervention DBT: Current Findings & Future Opportunities
The University of ÃØÃÜÖ±²¥â€™s early intervention DBT program offers a unique and innovative group program to young people who are experiencing complex mental health problems, including emotional dysregulation, impulsivity, interpersonal challenges, and suicidality. We will discuss the key benefits found so far. Research collected demonstrates the significant benefits not only for young people, but for their parents who are involved and integrated within the program.
Moreover, the program provides a highly supportive learning environment to clinical psychology master’s students. Additionally, we will discuss future opportunities and visions for the future of the program. For example, including graduate, consumer-led groups, potential collaboration, and psychoeducation from other allied health students, including exercise and dietitians.
Debra Rickwood
Debra Rickwood
Distinguished Professor Debra Rickwood is a distinguished expert in youth mental health at the University of ÃØÃÜÖ±²¥. Her research delves into young people's help-seeking behaviours, mental health service usage, and experiences, emphasising program evaluation and outcome measurement. She focuses on integrated youth services, aiming to enhance early intervention and preventive strategies to support youth mental health. Her work significantly contributes to understanding how young people engage with mental health services, providing insights to develop more accessible, effective, and youth-centred mental health programs.
Dimity Crisp
Dimity Crisp
Dr Crisp is a Senior Lecturer in Psychology, and lead researcher in the MhhP team. Her research focuses on community mental health and wellbeing, with specific focus on youth and student mental health, and the mental health of allied health professionals and clinical trainees.
Abstract: Risk Factors for Adolescent Mental Health: A Look at the Headspace National Youth Mental Health Survey
The National Youth Mental Health Survey, an initiative of headspace, the National Youth Mental Health Foundation, provides a snapshot of mental health and wellbeing of Australia’s youth. The 2022 survey captured experiences of mental health and wellbeing, social media use and cyberbullying, help-seeking behaviours, and mental health service use. Here we examine the experiences of young people aged 12-17 years from around Australia and identify risk factors for distress.
Léan O’Brien
Léan O’Brien
Léan O’Brien is an environmental and social researcher and a Senior Lecturer in Psychology at the University of ÃØÃÜÖ±²¥. Her research is concerned with both individual and planetary wellbeing. She has led multidisciplinary work examining how extreme environmental conditions affect mental health and wellbeing, and recently supervised Clinical PhD research on the conceptualization and correlates of eco-anxiety. She also examines how factors like nature connectedness, norms, strivings, and utopian thinking can predict pro-environmental behaviour. Léan seeks to draw on diverse perspectives to develop ways to promote healthy and environmentally sustainable lifestyles.
Abstract:
Ecological crises are among the most serious issues affecting contemporary society. Understandably, many people around the world report that they feel anxious and worried about ecological crises, a phenomenon commonly referred to as ‘eco-anxiety’. As ecological conditions further deteriorate, more and more people are expected to experience eco-anxiety. This means that we need to better understand the phenomenon, including its qualities and characteristics, who experiences it, and the role it plays in shaping people’s mental health and wellbeing, and pro-environmental behaviour. Our research provides insight into these questions. Over a series of studies, we investigated people’s experiences of eco-anxiety, finding eco-anxiety affects mood, behaviour and relationships. We will introduce a tool we developed to measure the different facets of eco-anxiety, including affective and behavioural symptoms, persistent thoughts, and anxiety about personally impacting the planet. We will also review some of the key findings from our work exploring how people’s levels of eco-anxiety relate to their experiences with environmental problems, mental health symptoms and pro-environmental behaviour. Together, this work contributes to our understanding of eco-anxiety and how it affects the Australian community.
Kelly Mazzer
Kelly Mazzer
Dr Kelly Mazzer is a Senior Research Fellow in Psychology at the Faculty of Health, University of ÃØÃÜÖ±²¥. Her role has included working on two consecutive NHMRC partnership projects with a focus on outcome measurement for digital services. Dr Mazzer has a PhD in Clinical Psychology from the University of ÃØÃÜÖ±²¥ and completed a post-doctoral fellowship at the Centre for Health and Medical Psychology (CHAMP) at Örebro University, Sweden. She is also an AHPRA registered psychologist. Her primary areas of research include youth mental health, mental health services, outcome measurement, crisis support, community sport, promotion of mental wellbeing, prevention and early intervention of mental illness and technology use.
Phoebe Joshua
Phoebe Joshua
Phoebe is a Clinical Psychology PhD candidate at the University of ÃØÃÜÖ±²¥. She is passionate about improving the range of appropriate and targeted therapies in emerging eating disorders to reduce the long-term impact of these disorders on young people and their families.
Phoebe’s PhD research intends to improve treatments for eating disorders by addressing early maladaptive schemas, temperament patterns, and the impact of upbringing. She has collaborated with experts in the field to design a schema therapy treatment program for adults with eating disorders. This program is targeted to temperament and perceived parenting experience and is currently being implemented across Australia and the United Kingdom. In the future, she intends to adapt this program for early intervention in adolescents and young adults with eating disorders who haven’t responded to traditional treatment. Along with other psychologists and researchers in the field, she is attempting to make schema therapy more accessible to psychologists (and thus clients) as a treatment for eating disorders.
Presentation Title: The Role of Adverse Childhood Experiences in the Development of Disordered Eating. Prevention and Intervention.
The role of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) in the development of eating disorders (EDs) has been well evidenced. Although most EDs develop in adolescence and early adulthood, many first-line treatments for this population do not provide sufficient or sustained levels of recovery. It is proposed that fewer EDs would become chronic if alternative treatments, such as schema therapy, were provided earlier in the disorder progression.
Recent research has identified a sequential model in young adults where perceived maladaptive parenting styles predict the presence of certain temperament factors, then predicting higher maladaptive schema and consequently, a higher likelihood of developing an ED. This presentation will explore the patterns of perceived parenting style, temperament, and early maladaptive schemas found in young adults with an ED, with a particular focus on differences across genders and disorder types. Ways for clinicians to identify presentations that may benefit from treatments addressing ACEs will be discussed.
Richard Keegan
Richard Keegan
Richard is a psychologist - registered in the UK (HCPC) and Australia (AHPRA) – and Professor in Sport and Exercise Psychology at the University of ÃØÃÜÖ±²¥ (UC). He was also the inaugural UC 2023 High Performance Sports Fellow. Richard has worked with athletes across a wide range of levels (from beginners to world champions), and in a range of sports (from athletics and snow-sports to para-sport motorsport and officiating). Richard completed his MSc and PhD at Loughborough University, and before that, a degree in Psychology at the University of Bristol. His research focuses on four key areas: motivational processes in sport and exercise; physical literacy; applied sport psychology practice; and readiness monitoring. He has published over 90 peer reviewed academic papers, 3 books and 20 book chapters, as well as reports for State and Federal Governments. Research informs his psychological practice and, of course, permeates into his university teaching. In his spare time he enjoys bushwalking, strength-training, and walking his dog, Banjo.
Abstract: Physical Activity, Physical Literacy, and Mental Health
In this session, we will explore the links between mental health and physical activity such as exercise and sport, and the emerging role of 'physical literacy' in facilitating this important link. The link between physical activity and mental health is well established, with both aerobic and strength training showing strong benefits for mental health. Physical literacy captures lifelong learnings that eventuate from (and feed into) movement and physical activity. Physical literacy comprises ongoing, combined/integrated acquisition of physical, psychological, cognitive, and social capabilities through movement. Experts believe physical literacy is vital in helping us lead healthy and fulfilling lives through movement and physical activity.
Research at UC has both refined the concept of physical literacy, as well as exploring how it is taught in schools and the impacts it can have in children. Recently, we have been exploring how physical literacy—built during childhood and adolescence—links with physical activity habits and mental health in adult populations.
Teaghan Hogg
Teaghan Hogg
Teaghan Hogg is a Clinical Psychology PhD candidate at the University of ÃØÃÜÖ±²¥. She is passionate about protecting the planet and supporting people. Her research investigates the psychological repercussions of interwoven ecological crises, with a focus on defining and measuring ‘climate anxiety’ and ‘eco-anxiety’. Her research examines how people’s experiences of eco-anxiety are shaped, and the role eco-anxiety plays in mental wellbeing and engagement with pro-environmental behaviour. Teaghan is also a generally registered psychologist and enjoys working therapeutically with clients, supporting them to learn and use a diverse range of skills to manage mental health difficulties, and ultimately flourish. Teaghan has worked in various roles in the discipline of psychology at the University of ÃØÃÜÖ±²¥, including as a research assistant and an associate lecturer.
Abstract: Understanding the psychological repercussions of ecological crises
Ecological crises are among the most serious issues affecting contemporary society. Understandably, many people around the world report that they feel anxious and worried about ecological crises, a phenomenon commonly referred to as ‘eco-anxiety’. As ecological conditions further deteriorate, more and more people are expected to experience eco-anxiety. This means that we need to better understand the phenomenon, including its qualities and characteristics, who experiences it, and the role it plays in shaping people’s mental health and wellbeing, and pro-environmental behaviour. Our research provides insight into these questions. Over a series of studies, we investigated people’s experiences of eco-anxiety, finding eco-anxiety affects mood, behaviour and relationships. We will introduce a tool we developed to measure the different facets of eco-anxiety, including affective and behavioural symptoms, persistent thoughts, and anxiety about personally impacting the planet. We will also review some of the key findings from our work exploring how people’s levels of eco-anxiety relate to their experiences with environmental problems, mental health symptoms and pro-environmental behaviour. Together, this work contributes to our understanding of eco-anxiety and how it affects the Australian community.
Showcase agenda
INTRODUCTORY SESSION | |
---|---|
10.00 am - 10.10 am | Opening remarks |
10.10 am - 10.30 am | Welcome to UC |
10.30 am - 10.45 am | Introduction to Mental health harm Prevention (MhhP) |
SESSION 1: UNIVERSAL RISKS | |
10.45 am - 11.15 am | Eco-anxiety - Dr Léan O’Brien |
11.15 am - 11.45 am | Smartphone use - Assoc Prof. Amanda George, Beau Mostyn Sullivan (HDR) |
11.45 am - 12.15 pm | Big Morning Tea |
SESSION 2: SELECTIVE RISKS | |
12.15 pm - 12.30 pm | Driving behaviours (e-scooters) - Assoc Prof. Amanda George |
12.30 pm - 12.45 pm | Drinking behaviours - Dr Caroline Ng |
12.45 pm - 1.00 pm | Physical activity and sport - Prof Richard Keegan |
1.00 pm - 1.15 pm | Eating behaviour - Phoebe Joshua (HDR) |
1.15 pm - 1.30 pm | Adolescent mental health - Dr Dimity Crisp, Distinguished Prof Debra Rickwood |
1.30pm - 2.30 pm | Lunch |
SESSION 3: EARLY INTERVENTION | |
2.30 pm - 3.00 pm | WOKE Early-Intervention DBT: Current Findings & Future Opportunities- Dr Clare Watsford, Chloe Bosworth (HDR) |
3.00 pm - 3.30 pm | Early online support (YOCOM) - Dr Kelly Mazzer, Sonia Curll |
3.30 pm - 3.45 pm | Tea Break |
SESSION 4: FUTURE DIRECTIONS | |
3.45 pm - 4.30 pm | Future research needs in ACT region - panel discussion |
4.30 pm - 4.45 pm | Closing remarks |
4.45 pm - 5.00 pm | Drinks and Networking |