2022: another successful year for PREMISE
The NHMRC Centre of Research Excellence in Prevention and Early Intervention in Mental Illness and Substance Use (PREMISE) supports prevention and early intervention research and translation programs in mental health and substance use across five Australian universities. As 2022 comes to a close, we look back on how we have supported mental health and substance use prevention and early intervention research and programs over the past 12 months.
Support and funding grants
This year, PREMISE awarded a fifth round of five Career Development Support Grants of up to $5,000 each to support the career development of higher degree research students and early- and mid-career researchers (EMCRs) in areas aligned with the objectives of the Centre.
PREMISE also awarded three Early to Mid-Career Researcher Seed Funding Grants of up to $10,000 each to support innovation, collaboration and to enhance future funding submissions.
PREMISE PhD scholarship students
Lucy Grummitt, PhD candidate
In 2022, PREMISE PhD scholarship student, Lucy Grummitt, published four papers from her PhD research, including a review of the literature which she was invited to lead by the journal Substance Abuse and Rehabilitation. She presented her research at three national and one international conference. She received four awards:
- Professor Helen Herrman Award for Social Mental Health (Society for Mental Health Research)
- NHMRC PREMISE Travel and Career Development Support Grant
- Early Career Travel Award (Society for Prevention Research)
- The Matilda Centre Award for Research Excellence
Lucy was also awarded a Student Co-Chair position for the Trauma and Substance Use Special Interest Group (International Society of Trauma and Stress Studies).
Samantha Lynch, PhD candidate
This year, PREMISE scholarship student, Samantha Lynch shared her research at the Society for Prevention Research (SPR) Conference in Seattle and the VentureLab in Montreal. At the inaugural Matilda Centre Conference, Samantha won the "Best Rapid Talk" for her 3-minute presentation on "personality and the development of psychopathology during adolescence." In 2022, Sam had one paper accepted and another two are currently under review.
PREMISE awarded one new PhD scholarship in 2022. The recipient, Joel Tibbitts, commenced his study of the relationship between financial hardship and mental health in the latter part of the year.
Focus on lived experience
Through our Youth Advisory Board (YAB) and Consumer Research Group, the expertise and experiences of people with lived experience have been central to the success of our work.
PREMISE Youth Advisory Board
The YAB met on four occasions in 2022 and to date have contributed to 36 youth-focused projects. Their leadership and insight have been highly valued by our research teams.
This year has been an exciting time for the YAB, with the launch of the Youth Priorities Project – a study to understand the perspectives of Australian youth on priorities for prevention research in mental health and substance use.
Additionally, the YAB have led presentations at key mental health conferences, and co-designed resources to guide researchers and health clinicians working with young people.
Through the Consumer Research Group, PREMISE has also provided lived experience research partnership grants of up to $10,000. These grants supported Matilda Centre researchers to undertake research in partnership with the Youth Advisory Board, the Matilda Centre Lived Experience Research Network (LEARN), or other lived experience researchers.
Supporting collaboration and translation projects
PREMISE has continued to support several key collaborative initiatives which have provided valuable opportunities for collaboration across institutions and involvement of Associate Investigators:
- Health Economic Modelling Group
- Data Harmonisation Group
- Trajectory, Taxonomy and Typology Group (TTT)
- Australia’s Mental Health Think Tank
There are also several exciting PREMISE supported prevention and early intervention research and translation projects underway at the Matilda Centre and our collaborating institutions. Our six PREMISE early and mid-career researchers, Dr Milena Heinsch at the University of Newcastle, Dr Long Le at Monash University, Dr Yong Yi Lee at Monash University, Dr Jennifer Nicholas at Orygen Centre for Youth Mental Health, Dr Jennifer Debenham at the Matilda Centre, and Associate Professor Matthew Sunderland at the Matilda Centre, continue to each lead innovative research.
We look forward to continuing to support leading prevention and early intervention research and translation programs in mental health and addiction across the University of Sydney, University of New South Wales, University of Melbourne, University of Newcastle, and Monash University in 2023.