Early intervention in psychological distress

High levels of psychological distress are a major concern for many people today and appear to be increasing. Psychological distress is both a risk factor for and an indicator of mental health problems and mental disorder. Within a population health approach, effective early intervention is essential for people experiencing high levels of psychological distress, who are at high risk of developing ongoing mental health problems and disorders that can have a major negative impact on all aspects of their lives. Early intervention is about reorienting mental health services and developing innovative interventions to enable people to access effective interventions as early as possible when they are experiencing psychological distress.

The Early intervention in psychological distress (EIPD) research group has a particular focus on young people in adolescence and early adulthood because it is at these stages of life that high levels of psychological distress become common and when mental health problems first start to emerge. Finding effective ways to intervene early for young people is critical to prevent deterioration of mental health and to support vulnerable young people to transition effectively into positive and productive adulthood.

We also undertake research into understanding and reducing the impact of the many risk factors for psychological distress, to intervene even earlier in the development of mental ill health.

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People

Name	Discipline	Research interests
Dr Judy Buchholz	Psychology	Characterising vulnerabilities to the development of mental health disorders, e.g., PTSD, Anxiety Examining the contributions of pain, sleep disturbance and trauma to mental health recovery Evaluating measures and techniques to assist mental health recovery
Dr Dean Buckmaster	Psychology	Implementation and evaluation of early intervention for vulnerable client populations at risk of developing moderate to severe psychological disorders - Borderline Personality Disorder early intervention DBT Program Innovative adaptations of evidence-based practice Client and clinical experiences of participating in comprehensive treatment programs. Innovative clinical training practice
Dr Dimity Crisp	Psychology	Help-seeking for mental health problems. Student mental health. Self-care for mental health professionals. Program evaluation for early intervention and prevention of mental health issues.
Assoc Prof Amanda George	Psychology	Social anxiety Drinking motives Risk-taking among young adults Impulsivity
Assoc Prof Phil Kavanagh	Psychology	Evolutionary psychological models of psychopathology Life history theory The Dark Triad (narcissism, Machiavellianism, psychopathy) Intersections between evolutionary psychology, personality psychology, and clinical psychology
Dr Vivienne Lewis	Psychology	Body image and wellbeing Disordered eating Eating disorders
Dr Kelly Mazzer	Psychology	Young people’s mental health Mental health promotion, prevention and early intervention Help-seeking for mental health problems Impacts of technology use, on sleep and menta health Health services research Perinatal mental health Teachers for mental health
Dr James Neill	Psychology	Positive psychology, including psychological resilience, stress, and coping Experiential group-based personal and social development interventions Evaluation of community mental health literacy programs
Prof Debra Rickwood	Psychology	Help-seeking for mental health problems Service and program evaluation in mental health Early intervention services in youth mental health Digital interventions for mental health problems Promotion, prevention and early intervention for mental health
Dr Clare Watsford	Psychology	Program evaluation of innovative psychological services and programs for at risk young people, including the BPD Mood Regulation program and a youth step up step down residential program Examining factors affecting perinatal mental health and optimising psychological wellbeing for mothers as well as attachment with their children Help-seeking factors in promoting accessing psychological support for young people

Projects

Name	Contact	Description
Building a Lifeline for the future: Expectations, innovations, outcomes	Prof Debra Rickwood, Dr Kelly Mazzer	NHMRC Partnership Grant Lifeline is Australia’s only national 24-hour crisis service, and received 988,270 phone calls in 2016. It provides immediate, universally accessible and free support for suicidal persons and persons in a state of emotional crisis. It is a central component of the mental health and social care systems and relied upon as the out-of-hours community ‘safety net’. Lifeline has moved into the digital age and offers crisis support via online chat and soon via SMS text messaging. Yet, despite increasingly widespread reliance on Lifeline, no research has identified the types of help-seekers that such crisis services are expected to support nor the outcomes expected to be achieved; there is currently no way to identify different help-seeker types or determine their outcomes; and it is unknown whether the Lifeline model of practice is effective for the expanding range of help-seekers and the model is untested for the newer modalities of online chat and SMS text. This research partnership will address these critical evidence gaps by: 1) identifying the types of help-seekers that Lifeline is expected to support and the outcomes expected to be achieved according help-seekers and the Australian community, health and social care systems, by undertaking representative surveys of Lifeline stakeholders and interviews with help-seekers; 2) developing reliable and innovative ways to measure actual help-seeker types and their outcomes across different modalities (phone, chat, text) by undertaking a Delphi expert consensus process and designing automated artificial intelligence algorithms; and 3) determining whether fidelity to the current practice model achieves appropriate outcomes for all help-seeker types and across all modalities by using the measurement innovations to undertake a comparative outcome analysis. The research will yield insights critical to Lifeline’s future capacity and effectiveness for Australians, and advance knowledge for crisis support services worldwide.
WOKE project - Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT) for emerging adults pilot program	Dr Dean Buckmaster, Prof Debra Rickwood, Dr Clare Watsford	Capital Health Network Grant Development and evaluation of an early intervention DBT skills program to address psychological distress in adolescents and young adults. This project aims to develop, implement and evaluate an innovative program that addresses the need for more effective early interventions and services for people with Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) in the ACT. The program will focus on mood regulation for emerging adults (aged 15-21 years) at risk of BPD.
Disordered eating risk factors and perceptions of care	Dr Vivienne Lewis, Michelle Minehan	Disordered eating in children and adolescents is a risk factor for eating disorders, severe menta health disorders with high mortality rates. Eating disorders are complex to treat and many health professionals have negative perceptions of and feel out of their depth in treating people with these conditions. Investigating barriers to treatment and service for parents, sufferers and health professionals is important in order to enhance care and effectiveness of treatment.
Life history strategies of clinicians	Assoc Prof Phil Kavanagh	This research project aims to the concept that there is a discrepancy in life history strategies between those who make diagnoses and those who receive them.
Developing and testing evolutionary models of psychopathology	Assoc Prof Phil Kavanagh	Multiple projects examining evolutionary models (including life history theory) of psychopathology.

HDR students

Name	Project description
Christina Ambrosi	Tuning into Kids for co-parents (Primary supervisor Phil Kavanagh – through UniSA)
Joshua Bishop	LGB cultural competence in the clinical setting: Implications for seeking help (Primary supervisor Dimity Crisp)
Anna Brichacek	Body image flexibility as a protective factor for youth: Lived experiences and relationships with eating (Primary supervisor James Neill)
Karyne Framond	Metastereotypes as mediator to the effect of group identification on support for intergroup aggression (Primary supervisor Phil Kavanagh – through UniSA)
Danielle Hopkins	The use and acceptability of AI in psychological therapies and crisis counselling services (Primary supervisor Debra Rickwood)
Bianca Kahl	A life history explanation of developmental psychopathology (Primary supervisor Phil Kavanagh – through UniSA)
Ben Kwan	Development and implementation of a brief outcome measure in youth mental health settings (Primary supervisor Debra Rickwood)
Camilla Mead	The role of online activities in mothers’ beliefs, experiences and mental health (Primary supervisor Dimity Crisp)
Marion Snowdon	Crisis support services and outcomes for help-seekers (Primary supervisor Debra Rickwood)