Associate Professor Lexine Stapinski and her PhD student Eliza-Rose Gordon will lead a study to address the significant issue of climate distress by providing the first longitudinal evidence on its antecedents and identifying those most at risk.

The grant will support the recruitment and reimbursement of participants who are experiencing climate change distress for semi-structured interviews and a longitudinal survey. This research will begin to fill a major gap in the climate change and mental health literature, where no evaluated interventions currently exist.

Dr Lily Davidson will conduct a pilot study with some of Australia's most-followed 'mental health content creators' to understand the feasibility of developing an online training about evidence-based mental health content dissemination, designed for mental health content creators.

The grant will fund online surveys and interviews with influential mental health content creators, to ascertain their perspectives and suggestions about increasing evidence-based mental health content dissemination on social media, by working with mental health content creators directly.

Dr Fotini Vasilopoulos will build on the impact of the 123play pilot study by developing a play-based toolkit to enhance early educator’s skills in supporting children’s mental wellbeing. The grant will support Fotini to engage a research assistant to produce an evidence-based toolkit, leveraging pretend play to improve mental health outcomes in children, and will support future funding applications and international collaborations.

The grant will also support Fotini to travel to the World Forum Foundation conference in Malaysia to disseminate the toolkit. 

This project will support the Matilda Centre’s Group of Lived Experience Engagement (GLEE) to address priority needs identified by Lived Experience in reseARch Network (LEARN) members and Matilda Staff to further imbed inclusive research practices into Matilda Centre and PREMISE research.

The grant will foster ongoing partnerships with people with living and lived experience through shared training, community building, and priority setting opportunities. The grant will also allow GLEE to conduct a follow-up survey (12-months after initial) of Lived Experience in reseARch Network members and Matilda staff to understand research experiences and identify pathways for capacity-building and collaboration.

The Climate Change, Place, and Mental Health Incubator explores how built environments interact with climate change to affect mental health in metropolitan Australia, integrating lived experience expertise throughout the research.

This grant will support the incubator to further embed Lived Experience Advisory Group members as co-researchers, working alongside the traditional research team to co-plan, co-design and co-deliver all stages of the project. 

The MRFF funded project, titled "No More Victims" will rigorously evaluate a novel prevention program aimed at reducing harmful attitudes and preventing intimate partner and sexual violence among Australian secondary school students.

This grant will support consultations with young men (18-24 years) with lived experience of gender-based violence perpetration via justice facilities and men’s advocacy groups and employ a Research Assistant with Lived Experience of domestic violence to work on the project. 

Dr Bridie Osman will collaborate with Professor Claudio. R. Nigg and his Health Behaviour Change Research Working group at the University of Bern to undertake cross-country comparative analysis on adolescent health and wellbeing data and learn innovative multiple health behaviour change (MHBC) techniques.

Additionally, Bridie will convene a working group with this team to co-design a primary school MHBC intervention, enhancing her leadership skills and fostering new international collaborations.

Dr Steph Kershaw will present her novel findings on media reporting and stigma at the College on Problems of Drug Dependence (CPDD) in New Orleans and will visit several research centres, including Harvard University, Boston University, to develop collaborations focused on reducing stigma associated with drug-related deaths.

The funding will also support Steph to collaborate with Mindframe to develop media guidelines for safe, accurate and non-stigmatising public discourse and reporting of drug-related deaths particularly towards methamphetamine and other stimulant drugs.  

Jayden Sercombe will undertake a four-week research exchange at Columbia University, New York to collaborate with Professor Katherine Keyes and Professor Madelyn Gould.

This visit will present opportunities to analyse relationships between suicidality and substance use, gain expertise in evaluating crisis support lines, and advance his career in suicide prevention.

Dr Lily Davidson will present on the Preparation phase of the ‘Health4Life Parents and Teens’ Multiphase Optimisation Strategy Trial at the International Congress of Behavioural Medicine (Vienna, Austria) and the European Health Psychology Society Conference (Groningen, Netherlands).

Additionally, she will visit several e-health-focussed research centres in Europe to network and plan collaborations, including working with Professor Ina Koning at VU University Amsterdam.