Dr Lynn Meuleners
Curtin University of Technology, WA
Mental Health Research 2009
Dr Meuleners received her PhD in December, 2001. She is an injury epidemiologist with over six years experience in injury research. The focus of her work involves road safety, interpersonal violence, data linkage and injury surveillance. One major component of Dr Meuleners’s research in the injury field is the evaluation of the effectiveness of road safety programs. She has been involved in studies determining the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness and return on investment in Western Australia’s road enhancement and black spot programs. She is also currently leading a road injury study in Vietnam, and is a major participant in a nationally funded ARC-Linkage case-control study of heavy vehicle safety in WA, NSW and Queensland. She is the chief investigator of an ARC-Discovery grant which is examining the association between cataract surgery and crash risk for older drivers.
In addition, Dr Meuleners has also performed cross-jurisdictional research and developed an advanced skill base in her ability to manipulate and interrogate complex record linked datasets. Her recent project examined the crash risk for older drivers who take medications that act on the central nervous system. This is the largest study, and one of the first population-based studies, that used Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme data. This information is also essential to the development of strategic countermeasures and policy development for older drivers particularly with the projected growth in this population over the next decade.
Dr Meuleners has published widely in the injury and road safety area (26 journal articles and three book chapters) and has worked alongside both government and community stakeholders on a wide range of injury-related projects.
SUMMARY OF PROJECT:
Mental illness and interpersonal violence: evidence from a population based study
Nearly one in five Western Australians will have a diagnosable mental illness. This causes considerable disability, incurs high direct and indirect costs and imposes a heavy burden of human suffering on the community.
Interpersonal violence has been identified as a significant and costly public health issue and research indicates that it may share a strong association with mental illness.
Evidence to date indicates that people with a mental illness are at increased risk of interpersonal violence victimisation. This victimisation can have additional negative mental health and social consequences for these people. Evidence also suggests that a two-way relationship may exist between interpersonal violence and having an increased risk of poor mental health.
A detailed understanding of the nature, risk factors and relationships between mental illness and violence victimisation is required to target effective public health interventions. However, past research has been limited by:
♦ cross-sectional study designs
♦ small sample sizes
♦ studying only specific mental illnesses
♦ varying definitions of interpersonal violence victimisation and
♦ reliance on self-reported or police data.
Dr Meuleners’ population-based retrospective study aims to increase understanding of the detailed interrelationships between mental illness and hospitalisation due to interpersonal violence. The study will utilise the Western Australian Data Linkage System, located at the Western Australian Department of Health to examine:
♦ prevalence
♦ demographic factors
♦ specific diagnoses
♦ circumstances surrounding violence hospitalisation
♦ repeat admissions and
♦ the sequence of mental illness and violence victimisation.
The results of this study can be used to improve the mental health of Australians in three ways. Information will be used to:
♦ guide public health interventions aimed at reducing the incidence of interpersonal violence hospitalisations in people with mental illness
♦ reduce the incidence of additional adverse mental health impacts for people with mental illness following violence victimisation and
♦ reduce the incidence of mental illness that might arise from violence victimisation