Meeting 3 -2nd Annual Scientific Meeting of the Mental Health Australian General Clinical Trials Network (MAGNET) 

Date: Tuesday 28 November 2023
Time: 9:00am - 4:00pm
Venue/Room: Kitson Room, Rendezvous Hotel Perth Scarborough
Cost: Inclusive for SMHR Conference Delegates (includes morning/lunch and afternoon tea)

Description: We are pleased to invite the mental health community to the 2nd Annual Scientific Meeting of the Mental Health Australian General Clinical Trials Network (MAGNET). MAGNET is a facilitating clinical trials network that plays a key role in facilitating the delivery of scalable, high-quality, translatable mental health clinical trials to serve community needs. MAGNET aims to unify and improve adult mental health clinical trial research and translation in Australia by creating reusable, sustainable and shared infrastructures to strengthen the capacity, quality, effectiveness, and translation of mental health clinical trials.

The MAGNET Annual Scientific Meeting serves as a premier platform for researchers, clinicians, First Nations and Lived Experience Research Partners, advocates and other stakeholders in the field of mental health to come together and exchange knowledge, insights, and advancements in clinical trials. This year's meeting promises to be even more impactful, encompassing a wide range of topics and featuring renowned experts in the field, keynote presentations, updated from our internationally renowned leads in mental health, and interactive panel discussions. Moreover, the meeting will provide an invaluable opportunity foster connections and collaborations with fellow professionals from various domains and stakeholders, and for all to witness the collective exchange of ideas, knowledge, and passion for advancing mental health research in Australia. Mark your calendars to save the date and join our hybrid 2nd Annual Scientific Meeting in person or online and be part of this inspirational and transformational force that will shape the future of mental health research.

Registration is now available via the SMHR Conference Online Registration Form.   If you are not planning to attend the SMHR Conference but would like to attend the MAGNET Annual Scientific Meeting in person or online please register here via Eventbrite. If you are interest in being part of MAGNET, please visit our website to become a member or contact the team via email magnet@deakin.edu.au. Eventbrite link here

Confirmed Speakers: 
Professor Sheri L. Johnson
Professor Sheri L. Johnson is a Distinguished Professor of psychology and a Chancellor's Professor at the University of California Berkeley. She has received funding from NARSAD, NIMH, NSF and NCI. She has published over 275 manuscripts, including publications in journals such as the American Psychologist, Psychological Bulletin, and the American Journal of Psychiatry (H-index>80). She is a co-author/co-editor of six books. She is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Association for Behavioral Medicine Research, and the Association for Psychological Science, and the Center for Advanced Study in Behavioral Sciences (2013-2014). Her work has focused on bipolar disorder and on emotion-related impulsivity.

Professor Pat Dudgeon
Prof Pat Dudgeon is from the Bardi people in Western Australia. She is a psychologist and professor at the Poche Centre for Aboriginal Health and the School of Indigenous Studies at UWA. Her area of research includes Indigenous social and emotional wellbeing and suicide prevention. She is the director of the Centre of Best Practice in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Suicide Prevention at UWA. She is also the lead chief investigator of a national research project, Transforming Indigenous Mental Health and Wellbeing that aims to develop approaches to Indigenous mental health services that promote cultural values and strengths as well as empowering users. She has many publications in Indigenous mental health, in particular, the Working Together Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Mental Health and Wellbeing Principals and Practice 2014.

Associate Professor Asha Bowen 
Associate Professor Asha Bowen is a clinician scientist working across the Perth Children’s Hospital as a paediatric infectious disease specialist and the Telethon Kids Institute as Head of the Healthy Skin and ARF Prevention Team and leads the END RHD Program. Asha and her team launched the inaugural National Healthy Skin Guidelines to guide clinicians in the recognition and evidence-based treatment of skin infections, and are updating this resource in 2023. Asha has more than 10 years’ experience leading infectious diseases research and investigator-initiated clinical trials focused on issues significant to Aboriginal child health and ARF prevention.

Dr Julia Dray
Dr Julia Dray is an emerging early career researcher. Dr Dray’s current role is as a Lived Experience Research Fellow at the Australian National University. Her current focus is across National research projects investigating exploring the who, where, what and how of mental health lived experience research in Australia, lived-experience perspectives of use of language in mental health, and capacity building of lived-experience mental health researchers. Dr Dray’s prior postdoctoral roles focussed on evaluations of complex implementation science based approaches to improve health and mental health care for reduction of modifiable health risk behaviours and associated chronic disease. Prior to this role, Dr Dray completed her PhD, on resilience and mental health problems in children and adolescents. This work achieved international impact and recognition, cited in multiple policies and guidelines including by the World Health Organisation and The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE, UK). Testament to significance of findings to the field Dr Dray was also invited as a successful recipient of a DJC Fellowship to present at the International Association for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Allied Professions World Congress (IACAPAP, Calgary, Canada). As demonstration of ongoing resulting global collaborations Dr Dray has been a co-author on publications including in The Lancet Psychiatry with a team of ECRs from 14 countries. Over half of Dr Dray’s other publications cover various review and critical appraisal studies including as a co-author on a systematic review forming the WHO Child Health Workers (CHW) Review Project. Dr Dray is passionate about enabling people to embed lived-experience of mental health problems in research; recognise their strengths and available wider community protective factors; to develop and maintain positive mental health, development, and life trajectories; and breaking disadvantage.

Vicki McKenna
Vicki is both a Yawuru and Bunuba Jarndu (woman) with significant experience working in social and emotional wellbeing, and suicide prevention, post-vention support and care, and critical response work. Vicki is a trained Counsellor and a Child Psychotherapist who also has lived experience, having lost family and community members to suicide and has her own experience of suicidality. She has commitment to social justice and a long-term vision to work to advance the wellbeing of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People nationally.

Dr. Robyn Mildron 
Dr Robyn Mildon, PhD, is an internationally recognised figure in the field of research translation and implementation science and program and policy evaluations in health, education and human services. She is the Founding Chief Executive Officer of the Centre for Evidence and Implementation (CEI www.ceiglobal.org), a global social purpose organisation whose work now spans across 8 countries. She is an Adjunct Associate Professor at Monash University, a Visiting Professor at the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore, Co-Director of the recently established Behavioural and Implementation Science Interventions (BISI), National University of Singapore, and Chair of the Evidence and Implementation Summit 2023 (www.eisummit.org). CEI is a not-for-profit intermediary organisation with offices in Australia, Singapore, the United Kingdom, and Norway and academic partnerships across the globe. Since establishing CEI in 2016, Robyn has overseen the rapid growth of the Centre, attracting over 200 projects with a value of over $60 million dollars. Over her career, Robyn’s work has helped to advance the implementation of better evidence in policy and practice settings, improving the quality and effectiveness of health, education and human services. She has authored or co-authored multiple peer-reviewed publications, commissioned evidence reviews and book chapters including being a co-author of an edited book Implementation Science 3.0 (Springer, 2020). In 2022 she was awarded the John Westbrook Award for Contributions to Knowledge Translation by the Campbell Collaboration. This international award recognises outstanding contributions to knowledge translation and the dissemination and implementation of evidence.

Professor Sean Hood 
Professor Sean Hood is a psychiatrist in academic (University of Western Australia), public (SCGH, Nedlands) and private practice (The Marian Centre, Wembley). Professor Hood is Head of the Division of Psychiatry at UWA Medical School. Prof Hood chairs a novel research collaboration with the Meeting for Minds (M4M) Foundation which is a “not-for-profit organisation dedicated to research of the brain and disorders of the brain in partnership with people living with mental illness”. In 2018 CI-Hood was a founding member of the UWA Young Lives Matter (YLM) Foundation (Board Director & Research Management Lead). In 2020 Sean convened and chairs the WA Mental Health Covid-19 Research Panel (WAMH-CoRP) a group unifying all 5 WA universities (viz: UWA, Curtin, Murdoch, Notre Dame Fremantle, Edith Cowen U), public health districts, and consumer/carer bodies.

Professor Sabe Sabesan 
Professor Sabesan BMBS PhD FRACP is a senior Medical Oncologist at the Townsville Cancer Centre and the Clinical Director of the Australian Teletrial Program, Office of Research and Innovation, Queensland Health. He led the development of various telehealth models including the Queensland Remote Chemotherapy supervision model and the Australasian Teletrial model to improve access to high quality care closer to home for RRR communities. As the president-Elect of the Clinical Oncology Society of Australia, he plans to advocate for creating equitable health system in Australia and healthier workplace culture as the foundation for workforce wellbeing.

Professor Nick Titov 
Nick Titov is a Professor of Psychology at Macquarie University, Australia. Nick has managed or co-managed more than 100 clinical trials of psychological interventions across five countries. He has >250 publications and a Scopus h-index of >50. Nick has translated his research into clinical practice. He is founding Executive Director of MindSpot, a national Australian digital mental health clinic which supports adults struggling with anxiety, depression, and chronic pain. Launched in 2012, MindSpot provides confidential screening, education and clinically-proven treatment courses to more than 30,000 Australians each year. Nick’s psychological interventions are currently used in 6 other clinics in Australia and Canada. Nick has supported the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care to develop the Australian National Safety and Quality Digital Mental Health (NSQDMH) Standards and he serves as an advisor to the Australian Government and various NGOs on digital/virtual mental health services. 

Professor Alison Yung
Professor Alison Yung is Professor of Psychiatry at the Institute for Mental and Physical Health and Clinical Translation (IMPACT), Deakin University, Emeritus Professor at the University of Manchester UK and President of the International Early Psychosis Association. She has been researching the early stages of psychotic disorder since 1994 and established the first ever clinical service for people at high risk of developing a psychotic illness in the same year. The instrument she created to assess risk for psychosis, the Comprehensive Assessment of At Risk Mental States (CAARMS) has been translated into 18 languages and is used throughout the world, both for clinical and research purposes. She also researches the effects of exercise for individuals with psychotic disorders and the physical health of people with serious mental illness. Prof Yung received the Lilly Oration Award for prominence in psychiatric research in 2009, and the Richard J Wyatt Award in 2010, for exceptional contributions to the area of early intervention in psychosis. In 2019 she was awarded the Society for Mental Health Founders Medal, in recognition of a significant contribution to psychiatric research and in 2020 received the Outstanding Translational Research Award from the Schizophrenia International Research Society. In 2014 and 2016 and she was named as one of the “world’s most influential scientific minds” by Thomson Reuters. She has over 400 publications and from 2016 to 2022 was named as a “Highly Cited Researcher” by Clarivate Analytics.