LEADING THE WAY TO MENTALLY HEALTHIER SCHOOLS: THE NEXT FRONTIER Thursday 26 August 2021

Presented by the Black Dog Institute in partnership with the Australian Psychological Society

Program

AEST Session Topic/Speaker

09.30 Welcome (5 mins)

Acknowledgement of Country Leilani Darwin, Director, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Strategy, Black Dog Institute

Welcome - Conference Convenors: Professor Jennie Hudson, Director of Research, Professor of Clinical Psychology, Black Dog Institute

Ross Whitfeld, Convenor, Psychologists in Schools Interest Group, Australian Psychological Society

09.35 Keynote (30mins) Q&A (10 mins)

Recent policy initiatives, including prevention, for our children’s mental health

Professor Helen Christensen AO, Chief Scientist, Black Dog Institute

10:15 Quick break (5 min)

10.20 Keynote (30mins) Q&A (10 mins)

Anxiety: Tackling the biggest issue facing schools

Professor Jennie Hudson, Director of Research, Professor of Clinical Psychology, Black Dog Institute

11.00 Morning tea break (15 min)

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Session Symposia Stream 1 Symposia Stream 2

11.15 20 mins Understanding the role of primary school staff in supporting childhood anxiety Dr Sally Fitzpatrick, Program Manager and Clinical Psychologist, Everymind

Smooth Sailing – Improving help-seeking for mental health among secondary students

Dr Bridianne O’Dea, Senior Research Fellow, Black Dog Institute

11.35 20 mins Evidence for the effectiveness of preventing depression and anxiety at school and an update on the Future Proofing Study Dr Aliza Werner-Seidler, Scientia Senior Lecturer and Clinical Psychologist, Black Dog Institute

Detecting and managing eating disorders in the classroom

Emma Bryant, Research Officer, InsideOut Institute, University of Sydney

Dr Sarah Maguire, Director, InsideOut Institute, University of Sydney

11.55 20 mins PRAX: Supporting children with poor reading and anxiety

Dr Deanna Francis, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Macquarie University Centre for Reading, Macquarie University

Tracking stress, depression and anxiety across the final year of secondary school: a longitudinal study

Professor Viviana Wuthrich, Professor of Clinical Psychology, Centre for Emotional Health, Macquarie University

12.15 20 mins Mental health symptoms in Australian children and adolescents during the initial stages of COVID-19

Dr Gemma Sicouri, Senior Research Associate and Clinical Psychologist, Black Dog Institute

Implementation of digital mental health programs in schools

Dr Joanne Beames, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Clinical Psychologist, Black Dog Institute

12.35 Lunch Break (40 min)

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13.15 Keynote (30mins) Q&A (10 mins)

The Health4life Initiative: An innovative digital approach to health and well-being for secondary school students.

Professor Maree Teesson AC, Director, The Matilda Centre for Research in Mental Health and Substance Use, University of Sydney

13.55 Quick Break (5 min)

Session Lightning Stream 1 Lightning Stream 2

14:00 10 mins Prevention is better than cure: Accelerating implementation of effective mental health prevention in childhood

Rachel Baffsky, PhD Candidate, Black Dog Institute

Break

14:10 10 mins Boarding and day students: sleep and psychological distress

Alex Reardon, Psychology (Honours) student, University of South Australia

Climate Schools: Internet- based prevention of substance use, anxiety and depression for secondary school students

Dr Lauren Gardner, Research Fellow, The Matilda Centre for Research in Mental Health and Substance Use, University of Sydney

14:20 10 mins Measuring psychological distress in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people

Maddison O'Gradey-Lee, PhD Candidate, Black Dog Institute and UNSW Sydney

A Peer-Support mental health mobile application for adolescents: Development of the Mind your Mate Program

Ainsley Furneaux-Bate, Research Coordinator, The Matilda Centre for Research in Mental Health and Substance Use, University of Sydney

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14:30 10 mins Co-development and pilot of a culturally inclusive school- based substance use prevention program

Amanda Baumgart, Research Assistant, The Matilda Centre for Research in Mental Health and Substance Use, University of Sydney

Efficacy of a brief intervention for reducing alcohol use, anxiety and depression among secondary school students: the personality-targeted preventure program

Dr Erin Kelly, Research Fellow, The Matilda Centre for Research in Mental Health and Substance Use, University of Sydney

14:40 10 mins Birdie’s tree: disaster risk reduction in early childhood education

Dr Sharleen Keleher, PhD Candidate, Casual Academic at CQ University; Researcher, Children's Health Queensland Hospital and Health Service

Living life to the full: Catholic Education Western Australia strategic wellbeing framework

Laura Allison, Team Leader, Psychology, Safety and Wellbeing, Catholic Education Western Australia; PhD student, University of Melbourne

14.50 Break (10 mins)

15.00 Panel & Q&A (25 mins)

With long waiting lists for access to psychological support and a growing youth mental health crisis, what should schools prioritise? What resources, interventions and activities at a school level can make the biggest positive impact on youth mental health?

Chair: Professor Jennie Hudson, Director of Research, Professor of Clinical Psychology, Black Dog Institute

Panel Members:

Professor Helen Christensen AO, Chief Scientist, Black Dog Institute

Professor Maree Teesson AC, Director, The Matilda Centre for Research in Mental Health and Substance Use, University of Sydney

Ross Whitfeld, Convenor, Psychologists in Schools Interest Group, Australian Psychological Society

Leilani Darwin, Director, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Strategy, Black Dog Institute

Michael Cummings, Operation Manager for headspace, New Horizons

15.25 Close (5 mins)

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Convenors & Keynote Speaker Bios

Professor Jennie Hudson

Director of Research, Professor of Clinical Psychology, Black Dog

Institute

As a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia, Jennie has made distinguished contributions to understanding the factors that contribute to young people’s mental health. She has worked to improve the services available to young people experiencing anxiety and depression through the development and validation of innovative, accessible interventions.

Before starting at the Black Dog Institute, she was the Director of the Centre for Emotional Health at Macquarie University and was awarded an ARC Future Fellowship, and a Visiting Fellowship at the University of Oxford. Her key research areas are in youth mental health, digital mental health, research translation and Implementation.

Ross Whitfeld

Convenor, Psychologists in Schools Interest Group,

Australian Psychological Society

Ross is a psychologist and teacher with a deep commitment to working with schools across the spectrum of suburban, rural and international schools, in Government, Catholic and Independent settings from pre-school to year 12. He has also worked at UTS lecturing in communications.

Ross has held a range of roles in education including 20 years of school counselling. He is currently working as the Assistant Principal – Wellbeing at The Beach School, a school for students with behavioural and emotional disorders. Ross is the Convenor of the APS Psychologists in Schools Interest Group, is on the APS Disaster Response Network and is facilitator on the NSW DET Trauma-informed Practice for Improved Learning and Wellbeing program, having completed the TIP Advanced Leadership Course.

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Professor Helen Christensen AO

Chief Scientist, Black Dog Institute

Helen is Chief Scientist at the Black Dog Institute and a Professor of Mental Health at UNSW Sydney. She is Chief Investigator for the Centre of Research Excellence in Suicide Prevention (CRESP), National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Elizabeth Blackman Fellow in Public Health, and previously one of only two NHMRC John Cade Research Fellows. She is also on the Million Minds panel, a government initiative that has brought together the most distinguished academics and mental health professionals to reduce the prevalence of mental illness and suicide.

She is a leading expert on using technology to deliver evidence-based interventions for the prevention and treatment of depression, anxiety, suicide, and self-harm. Her research also encompasses prevention of mental health problems in young people through school-based research programs. These programs are aimed at prevention of depression and suicide risk through eMental Health interventions.

Professor Maree Teesson AC

Director, The Matilda Centre for Research in Mental Health and Substance Use, University of

Sydney

Maree is the Director of the Matilda Centre, Director of the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Centre of Research Excellence in Prevention and Early Intervention in Mental Illness and Substance Use, and an NHMRC Principal Research Fellow at the University of Sydney.

She is a National Mental Health Commissioner, an Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences Fellow, a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Social Sciences and a member of the National Health and Medical Research Council.

Maree has made a major contribution to Australia’s health and medical research effort in the field of mental health and substance use. In particular, she is known nationally and internationally for her research on the comorbidity between mental health and substance use disorders.

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Symposia Speaker Bios: Stream 1

Dr Sally Fitzpatrick

Program Manager and Clinical

psychologist, Everymind

Sally is a Program Manager at Everymind. She is passionate about understanding the factors that contribute to the mental health and wellbeing of all Australians. Her research is focussed on translating this knowledge into accessible evidence-based programs for children experiencing anxiety and victimisation, carers, early childhood educators and teachers.

Dr Fitzpatrick is also a Clinical Psychologist with more than ten years of experience working in both university and private practice clinics, with a focus on the treatment of anxiety and bullying in youth.

Dr Aliza Werner-Seidler

Scientia Senior Lecturer and Clinical Psychologist, Black Dog

Institute

Aliza is a Scientia Senior Lecturer, NHMRC Emerging Leader Investigator and Clinical Psychologist at the Black Dog Institute.

Her research program focuses on the prevention and treatment of depression and anxiety in young people, drawing from the areas of clinical psychology, population mental health and psychiatry. Specifically, she investigates how evidence-based prevention programs can be delivered at scale to young people through the school system and the community, and the role of technology to support the delivery of these interventions. She also has an interest in the contribution of poor sleep to mental health problems.

She is currently leading the Future Proofing Study, the largest prevention trial globally, which investigates the large-scale delivery of digital programs to prevent student depression across 200 Australian schools.

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Dr Deanna Francis

Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Macquarie University Centre for Reading, Macquarie University

Deanna is a postdoctoral research fellow in the Department of Cognitive Science at Macquarie University. She also holds a clinical role at the Children’s Hospital at Westmead as a neuropsychology registrar.

Her research and clinical interests intersect, with a particular focus on understanding and supporting children with neurodevelopmental disorders. Her current research program investigates the association between reading difficulties and anxiety in children, as well as developing and evaluating an intervention to support children with these comorbid problems. The goal of her current research program is to reduce the incidence of poor reading and anxiety in children.

Dr Gemma Sicouri

Senior Research Associate and Clinical Psychologist, Black Dog

Institute

Gemma's research program focuses on understanding and treating anxiety and related disorders in children and young people. Specifically, she investigates the cognitive and familial processes that underpin youth mental health disorders and uses this understanding to improve and develop evidence-based psychological treatments. She has recently led the Co-SPACE Australia study, a large longitudinal study tracking the mental health of children and adolescents during COVID-19.

Prior to joining the Black Dog Institute, she held a Research Fellowship at the Centre for Emotional Health at Macquarie University.

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Symposia Speaker Bios: Stream 2

Dr Bridianne O’Dea

Senior Research Fellow, Black Dog Institute

Bridianne is a Senior Research Fellow and NHMRC MRFF Investigator based at the Black Dog Institute. She currently leads a comprehensive and rigorous program of research to identify and address treatment gaps in mental health service provision using new and novel internet solutions.

Bridianne's research is focused on creating highly accessible treatments and service models that proactively reach out directly to young people, rather than wait for them to act. Her vision is to ensure that all young Australians have access to timely, appropriate and effective mental healthcare. O’Dea’s research integrates the disciplines of public health, psychological science, and software development to design and test internet solutions that are effective, scalable, and low-cost but also engaging and translational.

Emma Bryant

Research Officer, InsideOut Institute, University of Sydney

Emma is a research officer and PhD candidate at InsideOut Institute for Eating Disorders, University of Sydney. She holds a Bachelor of Psychological Science, a Bachelor of Medical Science (Hons I), and has previously worked with the Children’s Cancer Institute, Black Dog Institute, Western Sydney Local Health District, and the NSW Mental Health Commission.

Emma’s research focuses on understanding chronicity in Anorexia Nervosa, developing novel treatments for this illness group and using her research to inform necessary systemic change.

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Dr Sarah Maguire

Director, InsideOut Institute, University of Sydney

Sarah is a clinical psychologist, researcher, educator and policy maker with 20 years’ experience in the field of eating disorders. She has worked in hospital and community settings and is a board-approved supervisor of clinical teams and trainees.

She is a senior adviser to NSW Ministry of Health and her Institute leads the implementation of NSW Health Policy as it relates to eating disorders, including large scale health system reform under the NSW Service Plan for Eating Disorders 2021-2025. She sits on national level committees for health service reform including the Medicare working group for eating disorders, and is Chief Investigator on research projects totalling more than $5 million.

Professor Viviana Wuthrich

Professor of Clinical Psychology, Centre for Emotional Health,

Macquarie University

Viviana is a Professor of Clinical Psychology, Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF) Emerging Leadership Fellow (2021-2025), Director of the Centre for Ageing, Cognition & Wellbeing, and Executive member of the Centre for Emotional Health at Macquarie University. She is a registered clinical psychologist with significant expertise in the understanding and treatment of mental health in youth and older adults.

She has developed psychosocial interventions and evaluated the efficacy, effectiveness and implementation success of these in clinical trials. Professor Wuthrich developed the Study without Stress program for managing senior school academic stress and is a co- author of Cool Kids.

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Dr Joanne Beames

Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Clinical Psychologist, Black Dog

Institute

Joanne is a scientist-practitioner, with her clinical psychology background facilitating translational research that has impact for young people and education staff.

She is currently leading and contributing to novel research projects that intersect within the school environment. One key theme focuses on the implementation of evidence-based e-health technology in schools to prevent anxiety and depression in young people.

Her work aims to understand and improve the implementation of these technologies at scale within the school environment. Another key theme focuses on the mental health and wellbeing of school teachers, with an overarching goal of designing, developing, and testing a scalable program to address their needs and preferences.

Lightning Speaker Bios: Stream 1

Rachel Baffsky

PhD Candidate, Black Dog Institute

Rachel is a PhD Candidate at the Black Dog Institute. Her PhD is focused on the co-design and trial of strategies to improve the implementation of the evidence-based mental health prevention program, the PAX Good Behaviour Game, in New South Wales primary schools. It is being funded by a scholarship from the Wellbeing Health & Youth Centre of Research Excellence in Adolescent Health, funded by the NHMRC (APP1134894). Since 2018, she has worked as a Research Assistant applying implementation science and mixed methods research to improve the quality of community-based programs targeting the health and wellbeing of young people who experience disadvantage.

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Alex Reardon

Psychology (Honours) student,

University of South Australia

Alex is a Psychology (Honours) student at the University of South Australia, with an interest in young people’s mental health and sleep.

Alex is also a boarding-house supervisor at an Adelaide co-educational school and is passionate about using research to improve young people’s lives. His current project, supervised by Professor Kurt Lushington and Dr Alex Agostini, uses mixed-methodology to explore both statistical differences between boarders and day- students’ sleep and psychological distress, and contextualises boarders’ experiences in their own words. Alex hopes to pursue both academic and clinical practice pathways in the future.

Maddison O’Gradey-Lee

PhD Candidate, Black Dog Institute and UNSW Sydney

Maddison is currently completing the combined PhD/Clinical Psychology Master’s degree at UNSW Sydney and the Black Dog Institute.

Her PhD research focuses on investigating life interference from symptoms of anxiety and depression in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people. Her work aims to improve the measure of mental ill-health for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people

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Amanda Baumgart

Research Assistant, The Matilda Centre for Research in Mental

Health and Substance Use, University of Sydney

Amanda is a Research Assistant involved in the trial of the culturally-inclusive school-based program Strong & Deadly Futures aimed at Year 8 students, which has been co-developed with Aboriginal, Torres Strait Islander and non-Indigenous students, and is designed to increase wellbeing and prevent alcohol and drug use.

She also has experience with patient-reported outcomes measures and has a strong interest in involving those with lived experience across all stages of the research process.

Dr Sharleen Keleher

PhD Candidate, Casual Academic at CQUniversity; Project Officer

QCPIMH, Queensland Health

Sharleen is a PhD candidate and academic at CQUniversity. Her PhD research has focused on how early childhood educators can support infants and young children process the emotional impacts of environmental disaster.

Sharleen is currently working with the Queensland Centre for Perinatal Health revising the Birdie's Tree early childhood curriculum.

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Lightning Speaker Bios: Stream 2

Dr Lauren Gardner

Research Fellow, The Matilda Centre for Research in Mental

Health and Substance Use, University of Sydney

Lauren is a Research Fellow at the Matilda Centre at the University of Sydney. Her research focus is on developing, evaluating and taking to scale preventive eHealth interventions for secondary school students. She is coordinating the Health4Life Initiative, a large (71 schools, >6,600 students) multi-site randomised controlled trial (RCT) evaluating the first eHealth program to simultaneously target the 'Big 6' lifestyle risk behaviours: physical inactivity, poor diet, recreational screen time, poor sleep, alcohol use and smoking.

She also leads the Climate Schools Upscale project which involves facilitating the translation of the effective substance use prevention and wellbeing programs, both nationally and internationally.

Ainsley Furneaux-Bate

Research Coordinator, The Matilda

Centre for Research in Mental Health and Substance Use,

University of Sydney

Ainsley is a Research Coordinator at the Matilda Centre for Research in Mental Health and Substance Use at the University of Sydney. She is currently serving as Trial Coordinator of the Mind your Mate Study, a peer-support smartphone app for mental health and substance use prevention in young people. She is passionate about social justice, providing evidence-based prevention initiatives to young people and addressing the stigma associated with mood and substance use disorders. Ainsley received her BPsych (Hons 1) from the University of Sydney and has extensive experience with clinical and long-term research trials.

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Dr Erin Kelly

Research Fellow, The Matilda Centre for Research in Mental

Health and Substance Use, University of Sydney

Erin is a Research Fellow at The Matilda Centre for Research in Mental Health and Substance Use at the University of Sydney. Erin is leading a program of research in the translation of brief intervention in schools for the prevention of substance use and mental disorders.

Erin completed her PhD on bullying at UNSW Sydney in 2018. She has published over 20 papers on substance use and mental health, with particular interest in adolescents, comorbidity and bullying intervention. Erin is also a practicing clinical psychologist, currently working in private practice.

Laura Allison

Team Leader, Psychology, Safety and Wellbeing, Catholic Education

Western Australia; PhD student, University of Melbourne

Laura is a registered psychologist currently employed as the Team Leader of the Psychology, Safety and Wellbeing Team for Catholic Education Western Australia, where she oversees matters relating to attendance, behaviour, child safety, mental health, wellbeing, learning difficulties and crisis response. She was honoured in 2015 to be the recipient of the WA School Psychologist of the Year Award. Laura is currently in the final year of her PhD with the University of Melbourne, researching wellbeing systems within schools, and has developed the Flourishing Classroom System Observation Framework as part of this research.

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Panel Members Bios

Leilani Darwin

Director, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Strategy,

Black Dog Institute

Leilani is an Aboriginal woman who has been touched on a personal level many times by suicide and mental illness. She is a Quandamooka woman, whose ancestral home is Stradbroke Island. Through her own lived experience and work within the sector, Leilani is a powerful advocate for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander led, culturally informed practices within mainstream services.

In addition to leading the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Strategy at the Black Dog Institute, Leilani sits on several working committees and advisory boards at the national and state level where she advocates for greater inclusion of those with lived experience alongside the need for cultural leadership, self-determination and culturally safe services and policy reform for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

Michael Cummings

Operation Manager for headspace,

New Horizons

Michael is the Operations Manager for the headspace and clinical team at New Horizons. He has held a range of roles working within youth health in both government and non-government settings over the last 15 years. Before working with headspace, Michael was the manager of Youth Health Services in Western Sydney Local Health District working with marginalised, disadvantaged and at-risk young people across Western Sydney. He has a keen interest in early intervention, meaningful youth participation and improving access to services and support for vulnerable groups of young people.

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