COVID-19: 
Research at Forensicare may include all three directorates or be limited to one of:
- Community Forensic Mental Health Service
- Prisons
- Thomas Embling Hospital
| Investigators | Major Aim | External Collaborators |
| Prof Stephane Shepherd Dr Cieran Harries Dist Prof James Ogloff Prof Michele Pathé | The aims of the study are to 1) identify risk factors for youth extremist behaviour, 2) identify mental health concerns of youth at risk for extremist behaviour, and 3) identify risk profiles that differentiate between youth with different levels of extremist behaviour. | Department of Justice & Community Safety Victoria Police |
| Amirtha Lakshman Prof Michael Daffern Dist Prof James Ogloff | To compare the similarities and differences between in-person and tele-service pre-sentence report prepared for the County Court of Victoria and to examine the impact and reliability of tele-service pre-sentence reports on sentencing. | County Court of Victoria |
| Alissa Lever Prof Michael Daffern Dr Kylie Thomson Dr Caleb Lloyd | To explore the perspectives of psychologists in relation to aspects of the therapeutic relationship. | |
| Dr Caroline Lambert Dr Shelley Turner | To better understand the impact and utility on students and staff, of a co-created student, staff and consumer learning space, and an innovative digital product, known as ‘Digital Bytes’ | Tandem Carers |
| Dr Susan Darzins, Lorrae Mynard Danielle Ashley Dr Anna Urbanowicz Shannon Scott Sarah Talbot | To investigate the lived experiences of forensic mental health consumers in accessing and utilising everyday digital technology when transitioning to the community. | Australian Catholic University |
| Dr Trentham Furness A/Prof Rachael Fullam Charlotte Boyce Dist Prof James Ogloff Dr Nikola Djurkovic, Prof Anne Bardoel | To identify the extent to which Forensicare initiatives into cultural reform have affected staff relative to bullying, sexual harassment, and discrimination. | Swinburne University (Swinburne Business School) |
| Prof Ellie Fossey Lorrae Mynard A/Prof Louise Farnworth Brittany McVeagh | To strengthen the occupational therapy practice process and embed a structured approach to occupational formulation and goal setting, to assess the clinical impact of using this approach to occupational formulation and goal setting, and to contribute to the evidence for knowledge-to-practice translation in occupational therapy. | Occupational Therapy Australia
Monash University |
| Dr Trentham Furness, Dist Prof James Ogloff Maicee Harrison Daveena Mawre,Dr Tessa MaguireProf Michael DaffernProf Brian McKenna | To describe the current research environment among forensic mental health settings and investigate clinicians’ research attitudes, skills, knowledge and needs. | Auckland Regional Forensic Psychiatry
Auckland University of Technology |
| Dr Tess Maguire Jo Ryan, Dr Melanie Simmons Anthea Lemphers | To explore the forensic mental health educational needs of mental health nurses who work in area mental health services, who may be required to work with consumers who have forensic mental health needs. | Department of Justice and Community Safety |
| Dr Trentham Furness Daveena Mawren Dr Flora Gilbert Danielle Ashley | To describe the effect of the Allied Health Graduate and Psychology Registrar (AHG&PR) program on clinicians’ attitudes to recovery, resilience, reflective capacity and stress over the course of the program. To describe turnover intention prior to and after completion of the program. To describe program satisfaction and impact from the perspective of key stakeholders. | |
| Dr Ashlee Curtis Prof Peter Enticott Hannah Bereznicki | To identify the neurocognitive functioning related to violent behaviour in persons who use substances by utilising extensive neurocognitive testing. To determine if people who both use substances and who behave violently have a distinct pattern of neurocognitive impairment, beyond that of those who use substances only or who are violent only. | Deakin University |
| Dr Zainab Al-Attar Nadine Salmon Prof Stacie Conchie Dr Jennifer McCarthy | To examine how neurodiverse facets and symptoms relate to extremism vulnerability, risk, resilience, and opportunities for risk management, by analysing data from real cases of individuals with autism and extremism concerns. | University of Central Lancashire
Lancaster University
Victoria University |
| Investigators | Major Aim | External Collaborators |
| Prof Maja Nedeljkovic Prof Michael Daffern Stephanie Fernandez | To explore the phenomenology of aggressive intrusive thoughts and aggressive scripts, in non-clinical, OCD, and forensic samples of individuals. | Swinburne (Centre for Mental Health) |
| Dr Ashley Dunne Dr Janet Ruffles Danielle Ashley Dr Caroline Lambert | To explore the social, clinical, health, and functional needs of Forensicare community accessing consumers from a consumer perspective, as well as a personal and professional informant perspective, and the experiences of transitioning and reintegrating to the community from TEH. | Tandem Carers |
| Dr Marie Henshaw Dist Prof James Ogloff Dr Reneta Slikboer Prof Jonathan Clough | To enhance the efficacy of intervention approaches to child exploitation material offending by developing and piloting an empirically-informed psychoeducation and skills-based group program for child exploitation material-only offenders. | Australian Institute of Criminology |
| Dr Meredith Gray Dr Jennifer McCarthy Prof Michele Pathé | To gain an in depth understanding of the cohort of young people on the autistic spectrum who are referred to FTAC, to identify interventions that have resulted in a reduced concern level for this cohort, and to identify trends in the ideology and exposure to radicalisation and whether this differs between those referred with autism and those without. | |
| Dr Margaret Nixon A/Prof Rachael Fullam Rose Tingate | To investigate factors associated with successful community reintegration among this group in order to add to the small pool of existing research in addition to providing support and evidence for building appropriate and effective support services and pathways out of prison. | |
| Lorrae Mynard Dr Nastaran Doroud | To further develop and facilitate the Picturing My Recovery (PMR) at the Community Forensic Mental Health Service (CFMHS) and evaluate the feasibility and acceptability of the program. | Swinburne (School of Health Science) |
| Investigators | Major Aim | External Collaborators |
| Dr Margaret Nixon A/Prof Stuart Lee Dr Laura Anderson Dr Niki Loft Prof Susan Rossell Han-Mari Cronje | A retrospective audit of patients at the Thomas Embling Hospital to 1) explore the use of cognitive assessments, 2) characterise inpatients’ cognitive impairments, and 3) understand the relationship between cognitive functioning and the risk of aggression and functional skill capacity. | Swinburne University (Centre for Mental Health) |
| Dr Margaret Nixon Han-Marie Cronje Dr Niki Loft | Investigate the efficacy in improving cognition, quality of life and functional capacity, determine whether treatment outcomes can be predicted by baseline cognitive function, and explore the subjective experiences of inpatients partaking in Thinking Minds. | |
| Dr Tess Maguire, Jo Ryan, A/Prof Michael Olasoji, A/Prof Loretta Garvey Prof Georgina Willetts | To explore the Nursing Process and the Clinical Reasoning Cycle to determine which one might be the most suitable as a systemic guide for the provision of patient centred care in a forensic mental health setting. | RMIT University
Federation University
Swinburne School of Health Sciences |
| Prof Michael Daffern Dr Niki Loft Dr Ashley Dunne Monique Sondhu | To explore patient change on measures of violence and aggression after participating in the LMV-E program at THE and to understand if the program is helpful and any barriers and enablers in implementation. | |
| Dr Tess Maguire Jo Ryan Maicee Harrison Prof Brian McKenna | To finalise the Safewards Secure model by engaging with forensic mental health experts to determine appropriate staff and consumer modifiers and finalise the additions to the interventions. | Auckland University of Technology |
| Dr Tess Maguire, Prof Michael Daffern Dr Melanie Simmons | To determine the best way to calculate the average score of the DASA, to identify individuals who have a ‘high DASA average score’, and to examine the influence of intervention on individuals with high DASA average scores when they are in a low risk state. | Department of Justice and Community Safety |
| Dr Tess Maguire Jo Ryan, Daveena Mawren A/Prof Michael Olasoji | To explore the Nurse Unit Manager role within Thomas Embling Hospital to better understand the role, and to elucidate what is needed to support development of this important role. | RMIT University |
| Alison Hansen, Prof Kerry Inder | To identify factors associated with the frequency and duration of seclusion events for women in forensic mental health settings using retrospective and prospective approaches and to explore the experiences and perspectives of women who are subjected to seclusion in forensic mental health settings. | University of Newcastle |
| Dr Margaret Nixon A/Prof Rachael Fullam Dr Niki LofDr Claudia Mulder | To establish the extent of formal personality disorder assessment at the Thomas Embling Hospital, to establish the personality profile of forensic patients, and to examine the inpatient behaviour and violence risk profile of patients in relation to personality pathology. | |
| Dr Margaret Nixon A/Prof Rachael FullamSarah Fritsche Dr Claudia Mulder | To explore inpatient perceptions about the personality disorder assessment process and their experiences of receiving a diagnosis. | |
| Lorrae Mynard Dr Susan Darzins Gabrielle Pitt | To investigate the utility of the HSNA in Thomas Embling Hospital, a forensic mental health setting. | Australian Catholic University |
| Dr David Lien Dr Anthony Hew Dr Jacques Claassen | To investigate the impact of the Seclusion Sprint intervention on seclusion episodes and length of seclusion events in acute inpatient mental health units at the Thomas Embling Hospital. | |
| Dr Shakira Kumar Dr Jacques Claassen Dr Abhilash Balakrishnan Dr Anthony Hew | To identify the prevalence of sedating PRN medication use in a forensic inpatient setting and to explore clinical and demographic factors associated with sedating PRN medication use. | |
| Dr Katherine Moss Dr Jacques Claassen | To understand how forensic hospitals across Australia currently monitor and manage the physical health and activity of forensic patients. To use expert consensus to determine relevant key performance indicators for assessing the physical health and activity of individuals under inpatient forensic psychiatric care. | Queensland Forensic Mental Health Service |
| Dr Tess Maguire Prof Michael Daffern Prof Brian McKenna | To pilot the DASA+APP training and assessment package using EPAs and evaluate the effect on inpatient aggression and restrictive practices and determine if learners confidence to manage aggression increases after training. | Auckland University of Technology |
| Oliver Ardill-Young Mark Surdut Dr Scott Teasdale | To evaluate whether the NutriMental tool is feasible and acceptable to mental health clinicians as a means of routine nutrition screening. | Mindgardens Neuroscience Network |
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