MENTAL WELLBEING IN RURAL AND REGIONAL COMMUNITIES DEALING WITH ENVIRONMENTAL CHALLENGES LIKE FIRE, FLOODS AND DROUGHT
With
Suzie Cosh, Associate Professor in Clinical Psychology,
The University of New England, New South Wales, Australia
RESEARCHER PROFILE
Filmed in Armidale, New South Wales, Australia | June 2025
Associate Professor Suzie Cosh is a psychologist and clinical researcher. Her work focuses on the intersection of climate change and mental health and she currently leads a body of work that focuses on supporting small rural communities to recover from and prepare for extreme weather events such as bushfires, floods and droughts.
In 2024, she received $6 million in funding from the Australian Government’s Medical Research Futures Fund and the National Health and Medical Research Council to trial novel interventions to protect mental health and wellbeing in diverse rural Australian communities.
In particular, she currently leads the Equip project, a multisite trial developing psychological disaster preparedness and community resilience. Having completed a Masters and PhD in Clinical Psychology, her work combines clinical experiences and insights into intervention-based research to support mental health. She completed postdoctoral research fellowships in Germany and France, before returning to Australia and establishing a program of research that aims to better understand the impacts of climate change on mental health, and how to best support mental health into the future as climate change and its impacts escalate.
She holds memberships on international societies, actively furthering the connection of science and clinical practice. Her work is based on a strong commitment to ensure that the best evidence guides and is translated into clinical practice and helps to protect and promote the mental health of individual and communities.
Source: Supplied
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8003-3704
-
Dr Meghan McIlwain
DR MEGHAN MCILWAIN, CLINICAL RESEARCH MANAGER
PRESIDENT, THE NEW ZEALAND ASSOCIATION OF CLINICAL RESEARCH,
AUCKLAND, NEW ZEALAND -
Investigating new approaches to target plaque inflammation in atherosclerosis
Associate Professor Peter Psaltis is an Academic Interventional Cardiologist who holds Level 2 NHMRC Career Development and National Heart Foundation Future Leader Fellowships. He has Faculty positions within the University of Adelaide, Central Adelaide Local Health Network (CALHN) and South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute (SAHMRI). Within SAHMRI, he is the Co-Theme Leader of the Lifelong Health, Program Leader of Heart and Vascular Health and Co-director of the Vascular Research Centre in the Lifelong Health Theme.
-
Understanding the experience of pain for novel brain-based treatments
Associate Professor Tasha Stanton leads the Persistent Pain Research Group at SAHMRI. She is also co-Director of IIMPACT in Health at the University of South Australia, Adelaide. She is a clinical pain neuroscientist, with original training as a physiotherapist, and her research focusses on pain – why do we have it and why doesn’t it go away?
