- Rural and remote psychology competencies

- Competencies for visiting (FIFO/DIDO) mental health workforce

- Competencies for inpatient mental health psychology 

- Public perceptions of psychology

- Interdisciplinary collaboration and health professional education

- Youth mental health and wellbeing, including evaluation of group therapy programs for self-harming and suicidal youth

- Rural and remote mental health, including rural community members' experiences of mental health helpseeking and intervention

- Mental health and wellbeing of medical families/spouses

Current PhD opportunity: 

Professor Anna Chur-Hansen and I are seeking a suitable applicant for a PhD project focusing on rural and remote psychology education and training across Australia.

Rural and remote communities across Australia face substantial and persistent challenges in accessing psychological services, and the training pipeline that produces psychologists and other mental health care practitioners for these communities remains poorly understood. The project will investigate the rural pipeline in psychology education and training, with a national focus and in the context of recruitment of and working with other allied health and medical practitioners. Medicine has long recognised the importance of rural background and rural training exposure in producing practitioners who go on to work in rural areas. This project is an opportunity to explore equivalent factors in psychology. The project will include the experiences of rural-background students studying psychology, the barriers and facilitators along the training pathway, and how rural and remote practice is currently embedded in psychology training programs across Australia. The relationship between psychologists and their training and other health professionals, will also be explored, to inform best practice as well as to identify common barriers. This is qualitative or mixed methods research with direct relevance to workforce policy and service access. This builds on an established program of research into rural and remote psychology practice and supervision, including work on fly-in fly-out psychologists, provisional psychologist supervision in rural contexts, and visiting workforces. This project has the potential to meaningfully inform how psychology trains its workforce for rural and remote Australia, how psychologists work with and alongside other professionals, and to contribute to addressing longstanding inequities in access to psychological services for rural communities

Current Masters (Research) opportunity: 

Professor Anna Chur-Hansen and I are seeking a suitable applicant for a Masters by Research project focusing on rural palliative care needs.

This Masters by Research project focuses on investigating best practice to support rural South Australians in accessing end-of-life (EOL) care that reflects their values and preferences. It places patients, families, and carers at the heart of the research to understand palliative care needs, priorities, and experiences that influence EOL decisions in rural communities, and to equip individuals with the knowledge and skills to make informed choices. The project is part of the Palliative Care Research Collaboration (PCRC), a five-year statewide initiative funded by The Hospital Research Foundation Group – Palliative Care. The project strives to ensure all South Australians can live well for as long as possible. You will gain expertise in qualitative research methods, rural palliative care needs, and palliative care systems and practices.