Available PhD projects

Project type: PhD Scholarship

Supervisor: A/Prof Shalini Arunogiri

Area: Co-occurring mental illness and addiction, integrated care

Research Group: The Hamilton Centre, Turning Point (Richmond) and Eastern Health Clinical School (Monash University)

Mental illness and substance use disorders frequently co-occur, with international studies suggesting that up to 50% of individuals experiencing mental illness also face challenges with substance use. Despite this high prevalence, integrated care delivery remains a significant challenge within mental health services. The impact of substance use on mental health outcomes, including increased suicide risk, frequent hospital readmissions, and poorer recovery trajectories, is often underrecognised and inadequately captured in service and system-level data.

This project will examine the integration of care for co-occurring mental illness and addiction within Victorian mental health services. The research will focus on:

• Quality and safety factors in integrated care delivery;
• Pathways of care and service navigation;
• System-level factors impacting treatment accessibility and effectiveness;
• Implementation strategies for improved integrated care.

The project has a strong implementation focus, aiming to directly inform and advance approaches to integrated care within Victoria and nationally.

The student will be co-supervised by Prof Katherine Mills at The Matilda Centre for Research in Mental Health and Substance Use at the University of Sydney. The Matilda Centre is a multidisciplinary research centre committed to improving the health and wellbeing of people affected by co-occurring substance use and mental disorders. Prof Mills’ work focuses on improving our understanding of the relationship between mental health and substance use disorders, evaluating innovative treatment approaches, and improving the translation of research into practice.

This PhD program is open to domestic students only, and is suited to applicants with a background in mental health, public health, or related discipline. Experience as a practising clinician and/or lived experience of mental illness or substance use—either as a consumer or carer—is desirable, but not essential. This is a full-time opportunity, however flexibility can be provided to candidates balancing work and carer responsibilities.

Project type: PhD

Supervisor: Dr Bosco Rowland

Area: Development and prevention, mental health, adolescent

Research Group: Clinical and Social Research, Turning Point (Richmond) and Eastern Health Clinical School (Monash University)

The prevalence of problem behaviours (drug, alcohol and antisocial behaviour) and mental health disorders rapidly increases during adolescence before peaking in early adulthood. With approximately 25% of the world’s population comprising adolescents (1.9 billion persons), and the prevalence of these behaviours currently at pandemic levels, understanding how to prevent these issues from developing in adolescence is critical to international global health.

 This project will build on the ideas and concepts from Positive Youth Development (PYD) literature and classical Greek philosophy (Eudaimonia), which argue that civic and social engagement can be used to develop important social and emotional competencies. These competencies help adolescents to negotiate critical risk factors that emerge in the adolescent years to prevent the development of problem behaviours and poor mental health.

 This project will use Australian, US (Washington) and other national, international longitudinal studies, and administrative data sets, to examine the mechanisms and processes of key social and emotional core competencies that can be cultivated in schools, communities and homes to prevent problem behaviour and mental ill-health.

It is expected the project will lead to the development of systemic and targeted interventions to improve local and global health.

This project will be supervised by Dr Bosco Rowland, a Senior Research Fellow at Monash University and a Statistician at Turning Point. His work has predominantly focused on designing and evaluating health behaviour interventions, randomised control trials and longitudinal studies. As a registered psychologist, he has focused primarily on the behaviours of alcohol consumption, smoking, illicit drug use, mental health, and healthy eating.