Allison Milner
Griffith University, QLD
Ian Scott PhD Scholarship
Mental Health 2008 and 2009
Allison Milner holds an honours degree in psychology from Griffith University, Brisbane, Queensland. Her primary area of study was the relationships between work, wellbeing and the transition to parenthood, with particular attention on how parents mediated the competing demands of employment and family under the pressures of globalisation.
After pursuing some further study in Organisational Psychology, Allison began her employment at the Australian Institute for Suicide Research and Prevention (AISRAP) in 2006, where she continues to be based. Her work at this institute is connected to a long-term World Health Organisation project called ‘START’ (Suicide Trends in At-Risk Territories study), which seeks to investigate the trends and characteristics of suicide in a number of culturally diverse areas of the world, and to provide an intervention for suicidal behaviour in locations where there is none. She is also involved in several other research projects and publications at AISRAP.
It is this international background that provided the impetus for her current PhD topic- the relationship between globalisation, social contexts, and suicide. Allison was awarded an Ian Scott Mental Health Scholarship by Australian Rotary Health to undertake this area of study on a full-time basis in 2008.
This project takes a public health approach to suicide, and seeks to investigate how the social-environmental changes brought about by globalisation have influenced trends (1980-2006) of male and female suicide in 34 countries.
The results of this study suggest that globalisation has influenced suicide both directly and indirectly, and changed the known relationships between ecological risk/ protective factors and suicide. This suggests that public health needs to widen its scope, to consider risk factors for suicide at a global level, as well as those at the community and individual level. Allison is presenting some of these results at the upcoming 9th International Conference of Injury Prevention and Safety Promotion (26th-28th July, 2009).
SUMMARY OF PROJECT:
A Cross-Cultural Examination of the Relationship between Globalisation and Suicide in the Western Pacific, Europe and the Americas
Suicide is recognised as a serious problem throughout the world. To date no research has been conducted on the impact of globalisation – defined as ‘transformation of the world’ - on suicide, despite past research showing that changes in societal functioning are associated with changes in suicide rates (Bjerregaard & Lynge, 2006; Booth, 1999; Rubenstein, 1992).
This study is investigating whether factors associated with globalisation are related to suicide in countries in Europe, the Americas, Africa, the Eastern Mediterranean and the Western Pacific (Australia, Japan, Hong Kong, Samoa, Fiji and Singapore).
Globalisation not only affects the economic and technological performance of a country; it has implications for lifestyle, health outcomes and societal functioning. As a country responds to the influence of globalisation, research suggests an increase in stress-related and chronic diseases such as cancer and heart disease (Beaglehole & Yach, 2003) as well as an increased prevalence of mental illnesses like anxiety and depression (Bhugra & Mastrogianni, 2004).
This research project originally targeted the impact of globalisation on suicide in the Western Pacific region. This is because the Western Pacific:
• currently has the highest rate of suicide in the world (WHO,2004)
• is experiencing rapid social, economic and cultural changes, and
• contains countries with great variations in cultural background
However, Allison Milner decided the study would benefit from a larger sample size that includes Africa, the Americas, Europe and the Eastern Mediterranean region. Comparisons of a wider range of populations at risk of suicide will help to identify whether risks factors are problematic across the region in general, or are country-specific. The outcomes of this study have implications for informed government policy on suicide prevention.
Allison is presenting some results of her research at the 9th National Conference on Injury Prevention and Safety Promotion, to be held in Melbourne on 26 July 2009. (Neeleman & Lewis, 1999; Neumayer, 2003; Stack, 2000)