There are high rates of tobacco smoking among people who experience mental illness (MI). While videos are an effective method of disseminating health-related information, there is limited research investigating the effectiveness of video-delivered education promoting smoking cessation among people living with MI. This formative study aimed to…

Studies are emerging documenting the experience of fatigue, exhaustion and loss of functioning that has long been described by autistic adults as autistic burnout. New assessment tools are needed to enable identification and diagnosis. Here, we sought to identify factors associated with severity, develop an autistic burnout assessment and test the…

Background: Can disability support services (DS) facilitate access to mental health services (MHS) for people with intellectual disability? This study utilized 10 years of data from 6,260 persons in NSW who had received DS and specific MHS to quantify the relationship between DS utilization and MHS utilization in adults with intellectual…

Autistic burnout is an experience commonly described by autistic people (#AutBurnout and #AutisticBurnout on social media). Recently, two definitions of this syndrome have been published. Both describe debilitating exhaustion with onset related to various stressors including masking, though several differences exist, such as the characteristic of…

Studies about equine therapies or equine experiential learning recommend that significantly more research, specifically longitudinal research, across age groups, genders, contexts and client cohorts needs to occur in diverse contexts. There exists diverse equine-related programs which engage with a range of cohorts, specifically; young children…

Background: There is concern about widespread medication use by people with intellectual disability (ID), especially psychotropic and anticonvulsant agents. However, there is sparse information on prescribing patterns in Australia. Method: This cross-sectional study was conducted between 2000 and 2002 among adults with ID who live in the community…

There is limited large-scale research into the lived experiences of female adults who have an autism spectrum disorder with no co-occurring intellectual disability. Drawing on the findings of an Australia-wide survey, this report presents self-report data from n = 82 women with high-functioning autism spectrum disorder in the areas of health,…

This general review situates Australian research within a framework that quantifies and describes mental health needs of the population with intellectual disabilities across the life span, surveys service provision, and develops the evidence base to inform clinicians regarding assessment and management of psychopathology and psychiatric disorder…

Data concerning 127 persons aged 35 years or above who died by suicide (as determined in consecutive cases by a Sydney coroner) were analyzed. Psychological autopsy (PA) interviews were conducted in 52 cases, and details were compared with the 75 cases where data were available only from coroner's files (CF). Most characteristics of the two groups…

Informal carers of an adult with mental illness have asked that respite care be an integral component of mental health service provision. The present study involved a pilot investigation of the effectiveness of accessing respite care for carers of individuals with a mental illness. It was hypothesised that compared to carers who have not accessed…

This study examines the psychological health correlates of domestic violence in a large random sample of mid-aged Australian women (N = 11,310, age 47 to 52 years). Logistic regressions were used to investigate the associations between domestic violence and depression, anxiety, and psychological wellbeing, after adjusting for demographic variables…

A nonclinical sample of Australian adults (n=239) was surveyed for the incidence of traumatic childhood events, availability of emotional support, and the presence of a dissociative coping style. Findings suggested that lack of emotional support is an important mediator, but not a primary cause of the development of dissociative tendencies.…