As Australia’s first lab to combine expertise from two related areas of knowledge: visual analytics and decision analytics, the VIDEA Lab provides new opportunities to better plan mental and public health.
We support healthcare decision-makers, executives, policymakers and advocates to improve mental health outcomes in the community.
The Mental Health Policy Unit focuses on using evidence-based decision support systems to support health and social policy. We work with local and international research institutions, governments, health networks, service providers and advocacy organisations to better understand, influence and improve mental health and disability care in the community.
We use benchmarking tools and indicators to analyse data and develop systems to support mental health and disability service planning. As part of this work, we develop integrated healthcare atlases. These are structured service assessment and decision support tools that collect standardised information about specialised mental health services in a particular area and present it visually using Geographical Information Systems (GIS).
We work closely with other ANU research groups including the Centre for Mental Health Research Learning Development Unit and the Visual and Decision Analytics (VIDEA) lab.
Members
- Professor Luis Salvador-Carulla
- Executive Assistant - Nicole O'Connor
Staff
- A/Prof Nasser Bagheri
- A/Prof Sue Lukersmith
- Prof. Neeraj Gill
- Dr Cindy Woods
- Dr Katie Speer
- Dr MaryAnne Furst
- Dr Hossein Tabatabaei-Jafari
- Dr Itismita Mohanty
Adjuncts
- Adj Professor Carlos Garcia Alonso
- Adj. Professor David Perkins
- Adj. Professor Annette Schmiede
- Adj. Professor Daniel Rock
- Adj. Associate Professor Sebastian Rosenberg
- Adj. Associate Professor Jose Alberto Salinas-Perez
- Adj. Associate Professor Mencia Ruiz Gutierrez Colosia
Visiting Research Fellows
- Dr Nerea Almeda
- Mr Diego Diaz-Milanes
- Mr Ivan Duran
- Ms. Carlota de Miquel
- Robert Horsten
- Peter McGeorge
- ACT Health
- ACT Office for Mental Health and Wellbeing
- ACT Government Community Services
- Australian Government Department of Health
- Australian National Centre for Latin American Studies
- BUPA Health Foundation
- Capital Health Network
- Centre for Rural and Remote Mental Health
- ConNetica
- Data CO-OP
- Loyola University - Spain
- Mental Health Community Coalition - ACT
- National Institute of Public Health - Mexico
- National Mental Health Commission
- Pandemic Mental Health International Network
- PSICOST
- Queensland University of Technology
- University College London
- University of Notre Dame - Sydney
- University of Sydney
- VheP (Value in Health Economics in Policy) Group
- WA Primary Health Alliance
MHPU Projects
UC's Mental Health Policy Unit undertakes several projects each year, including:
- Access to recent mental health seminars by the Health Research Institute (Current)
- BUPA Project - Simulation modelling to guide mental health (Current)
- Community Mental Health Pathways (Current)
- Frontiers in Mental Health Webinar Series (Current)
- Global Impact of COVID-19 on Mental Health Webinar Series (Current)
- Mental Health Service Mapping Project (Completed)
- The public health impact of COVID-19 in Latin America Webinar Series (Completed)
You can find information on our larger projects below.
Atlases of health and social care
Integrated atlases provide vital information for integrated care planning. They include data on service availability and capacity across all sectors of care in a health jurisdiction, as well as the social and demographic characteristics and health-related needs of the region, to provide an analysis of the local pattern of mental health care delivery and opportunity for regional and longitudinal comparison.
EMPOWER
EMPOWER is a research and innovation effort, with an innovative pilot of implementation, that focuses on the development and implementation of a novel and low-cost eHealth platform to address mental health in the workplace from a multimodal perspective.
GLOCAL
The GLOCAL project incorporates information from local atlases of care into a metadata repository to enable national and international health system comparison.
A Local Navigation Tool for Mental Health Care (MChart): Demonstration Study in ACT
MChart will design, develop and implement an interactive user-friendly digital care platform that can be used by mental health planners, professionals and organisation managers to navigate the mental health care system which should result in better care for people with mental illness
Evaluation and impact analysis of the Movember veterans and first responders’ mental health grant program
This project involves the complex evaluation of 15 projects funded through the Movember grant program which targets mental ill health of Veterans and First Responders (VFR) communities in seven countries. The main objective of the impact analysis and our use of novel methods, is to identify those strategies that are effective, have a positive impact for VFR and their families, are sustainable and potentially scalable.
The Case Management Taxonomy (CMTaxonomy)
Case management (called by many different names) is a care coordination strategy frequently used in different contexts for people with health, social care and support needs. Case managers perform actions (interventions), which can make a unique contribution towards participation and support of the person. Yet, appraisal, policy, planning and education on case management are impeded by a lack of a common language. The broad range of users of the CMTaxonomy input, throughput taxonomy trees and the glossary has demonstrated its value to policy makers, planners, service providers, evaluators, researchers, and educators.
Novel modelling to maximise health benefits of the 20-minute neighbourhood
The NHMRC Ideas Grant is a research project about identifying which combination of natural and built environment factors (such as local amenities, recreational services, schools and open spaces) can positively or negatively affect the health of residents.
Congratulations to Professor Luis Salvador-Carulla and colleagues for being awarded the 2023 Malaspina Award. The Malaspina Award is an honour bestowed by the Spanish Embassy in Canberra and the Association of Spanish Researchers in Australia-Pacific (SRAP) to individuals and organisations who have made a significant contribution to the scientific and/or cultural relationship between Spain and Australia. This year, the awards took place at the Australian Academy of Science's Shine Dome on Friday 17 November 2023, with the University of Canberra's EMPOWER Consortium led by Professor Luis Salvador-Carulla taking home the institution award.
View policy reports, publications and event recordings related to our MHPU projects.
Contact us
University of Canberra Health Research Institute
11 Kirinari Street
Bruce ACT 2617
+61 (02) 6206 8312
uchri@canberra.edu.au
