Australian Rotary Health

Dr Helen Stallman is Senior Lecturer in the Schools of Medicine and Pharmacy at The University of Queensland. She completed her doctoral research evaluating self-directed Teen Triple P – Positive Parenting Program to prevent and treat behavioural and emotional problems in early adolescents. Helen accepted a Post-doctoral Fellowship in 2008 with Professor David Kavanagh at the Queensland University of Technology, working on the development of an online program for the treatment of co-morbid depression and alcohol problems (www.ontrack.org.au) before taking up a lecturing positioning at QUT in 2009 and a Senior Lecturing position at The University of Queensland in 2010.

 

 Dr Stallman was lead author of Family Transitions Triple P, a parenting intervention to promote positive outcomes for parents and children following divorce.    

 

Dr Stallman has conducted a number of studies investigating the prevalence and correlates of mental health problems in university students and is Principle Investigator on a beyondblue project developing an online program to promote resilience in tertiary students. Dr Stallman’s research focuses on promoting resilience at the student, environment, and service provision components of university life. 

 

There is a high prevalence of psychological distress reported by Australian university students. This places them at high risk of mental health problems, and can have an enormous impact on the individual student, and sometimes other students, and institutions. Despite the higher prevalence rates and greater access to services than the general population, only about one third of students seek help for mental health problems. The vast majority who do seek assistance for mental health problems contact their GP. This makes university health services an optimal location to screen and approach students to engage in interventions to improve their psychological wellbeing. The high prevalence rates and limited resources however, demand a change in paradigm from individual face-to face therapy to guided self-help evidenced-based treatments.

 

This study is the first to evaluate the effectiveness and feasibility of a low-intensity intervention in an Australian health service. Low intensity interventions have several advantages over traditional face-to-face treatments including greater availability and accessibility, and, conceivably greater acceptability for at least a proportion of students.

 

Specifically, the project aims to:
 

1.    Increase the identification of university students experiencing psychological distress and provide access to evidence-based treatments.
 

2.    Evaluate the acceptability and impact of ‘low-intensity’ psychological interventions for the distress of university students. The randomised trial compares the effects of screening and treatment information alone, with guided use of internet-based cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT) treatments, or skills-building workshops.