Suicide Prevention Australia is pleased to announce the recipients of the 2024 PhD Scholarship funded by the Suicide Prevention Research Fund.
Bonnie Scarth from the University of Melbourne, Casey Hosking from Deakin University, Emily Arnold from the University of Wollongong and Kassandra Hon from Curtin University, were all successful in receiving up to $108,000 over 3 years full-time or part-time equivalent to complete their Doctor of Philosophy in suicide prevention.
This is the fifth time the PhD Scholarship has been funded by the Suicide Prevention Research Fund and they join a cohort of more than 20 researchers who have received funding over the past 5 years.
The PhD Scholarship aims to support outstanding graduates who are in the early part of their research careers. The Scholarship supports research relevant to all aspects of suicide prevention and to develop a capacity for original independent research within Australia.
A brief description of the research being undertaken by the recipients is provided below:
Bonnie Scarth, University of Melbourne
Research title: What helps women experiencing perinatal suicidal behaviour: Development of consensus recommendations for a whole-family approach to perinatal suicide prevention.
Description: Suicide is a leading cause of death for women during the perinatal period, and suicidal behaviour has a significant, negative long-term impact on children of women who experience suicidal behaviour. In addition, partners/spouses of women who engage in suicidal behaviour are more likely to have poor mental health. Despite being well placed to provide support to their partner and children, spouses/partners of women with perinatal suicidal behaviour are often not supported or equipped by services, and their role has limited exploration in the extant research.
This PhD project will build on the research to date on perinatal suicide and self-harm by using a mixed-methods approach in partnership with the lived experience community, including partners of the birthing parent, through Perinatal Anxiety and Depression Australia (PANDA). The project will examine risk and protective factors involved in perinatal suicide and what helps and hinders recovery and prevention.
Casey Hosking, Deakin University
Research title: Identifying longitudinal trajectories, risk and protective factors, and effective prevention approaches for suicide in early fatherhood.
Description: This research will evaluate the long-term effectiveness of an intervention designed to target risk and protective factors for suicidality in early fatherhood. These findings will directly inform the development of evidence-based approaches to promote mental health and prevent suicide among men in early fatherhood in the child and family health sector.
Emily Arnold, University of Wollongong
Research title: Sports-Based Suicide Prevention for Adolescent Females: Ahead of the Game.
Description: This research project will develop, co-design and robustly evaluate a female-specific version of ‘Ahead of the Game’ for national and global scale up. With guaranteed reach to tens of thousands of young female sport participants, this project will be critical in meeting the gender-specific suicide prevention needs of a priority, high-risk group requiring urgent intervention.
Kassandra Hon, Curtin University
Research title: Empowerment in Action: An Ecological Approach to Suicide Prevention via Self-Injury Disclosure and Stigma Reduction
Description: This research primarily aims to develop and implement lived-experience-oriented initiatives to prevent suicide among Australian university students. The objectives are to increase NSSI disclosure rates, educate potential recipients to effectively respond to these disclosures, facilitate support-seeking, and reduce self-injury stigma within the community.
To learn more about the Suicide Prevention Research Fund, click here.
To read previously funded research, click here.