The Matilda Centre Research and Strategy team bridges the gap between policy-makers and the world-class evidence generated by our researchers, clinical, youth and lived experience partners, ensuring a direct pathway for translating mental health and substance use research into practice.

We lead the Centre’s successful partnership with the Australian Government Department of Health in delivering important national Drug and Alcohol Program initiatives for communities, health workers, school communities, families, and young people and those with lived experience of mental health and substance use problems.

We actively seek, and provide support for, opportunities for the Matilda Centre to contribute to government consultations and inquiries, facilitating evidence-based contributions to mental health and substance use policy and reform.

The Matilda Centre and the PREMISE Next Generation Centre of Research Excellence are committed to working in partnership with young people and people with lived and living experience so that consumer voices are at the core of our research and translation activities.

We engage and partner with people with lived experience of mental health and/or substance use concerns, including young people (16-25 years) through our highly successful Youth Advisory Board (YAB), Youth Engagement Network (YEN), the Group for Lived Experience Engagement (GLEE) and the Lived Experience in Research Network (LEARN).

By prioritising and embedding the voices and work of those with lived experience, we build capacity for meaningful co-design and co-production to improve the relevance, quality, and impact of our research.

Australia has one of the highest rates of crystal methamphetamine (ice) use worldwide, harms associated with use are significant and less than a third of those who use crystal methamphetamine receive treatment.

Funded by the Australian Government Department of Health and Aged Care, Cracks in the Ice is a national e-health initiative developed in response to the harms associated with methamphetamine use.

Cracks in the Ice provides evidence-based information, programs and resources to improve knowledge, reduce stigma and increase access to care for people who use crystal methamphetamine, families, health workers and communities.

This initiative also provides culturally appropriate resources for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and communities.

Digital health approaches have significant potential to address existing service gaps in our healthcare systems. These approaches provide opportunities for individualised interventions to be provided efficiently to a large number of people, including those who are geographically isolated, at a time and place of their choice.

Despite good evidence for program effectiveness, digital health services in Australia exist largely independently of traditional healthcare service settings, with evidence suggesting mental health providers underutilise digital health systems in their practice and that adoption of, and adherence to, digital health interventions is often low.

Our program aims identify and understand the most effective ways digital technologies can be leveraged to reduce chronic disease risk and improve people’s mental health, with a specific focus on adolescents and young people, people experiencing mental health and substance use problems and strategies to increase uptake and engagement with digital health approaches.

One-in-two young people have experienced traumas, such as serious accidents, natural disasters, physical or sexual abuse. These experiences can significantly increase the risk for developing mental health and substance use disorders later in life. It is imperative we address the detrimental impacts of trauma to prevent mental ill-health, substance use and related harms. 

Our program of research utilises epidemiological, longitudinal and clinical trial data to understand and address the mental health impacts of trauma in youth.

In collaboration with youth and lived experience experts, our multidisciplinary projects span early education, primary and secondary schools, clinical services and criminal justice settings to develop, evaluate and disseminate innovative prevention and early intervention approaches.