Professor Frances Kay-Lambkin

Professor Frances Kay-Lambkin

Professor Frances Kay-Lambkin of the University of Newcastle was awarded $100,000 for their Innovation Research Grant project titled:

SHADE and BreathingSpace – Alcohol, Depression and Social Isolation.

This research proposal will integrate the existing SHADE and BreathingSpace programs with the aim of delivering targeted psychological interventions to reduce suicide in older Australians – across the factors of depression, alcohol use and social isolation – and to provide evidence-based results on these interventions. The research will incorporate the lived experiences of participants, to inform the development of these new targeted approaches to suicide prevention in this age cohort.

In a statement, Professor Kay-Lambkin explains:

“Receiving this research grant is critically important, because it gives my team an opportunity to take our successful treatments for depression and alcohol use into a brand new group of Australians. For the first time, we will be able to see how Australians over 60 years of age like, engage with, and benefit from a technology-based treatment program. We will also be able to see how well a social networking intervention, also delivered by an app, can to reduce social isolation and increase social connections… and whether all of this helps to reduce and prevent suicide.

This grant also provides us the opportunity to engage closely with people who are experiencing depression, alcohol use problems, and social isolation into the design and delivery of our programs. We are very excited about the inroads into suicide prevention we will be able to make with this grant.”

For more information on the funding opportunities available through the Suicide Prevention Research Fund please visit this page.