MENTAL WELLBEING IN RURAL AND REGIONAL COMMUNITIES DEALING WITH ENVIRONMENTAL CHALLENGES LIKE FIRE, FLOODS AND DROUGHT
With
Suzie Cosh, Associate Professor in Clinical Psychology,
The University of New England, New South Wales, Australia
RESEARCHER PROFILE
Filmed in Armidale, New South Wales, Australia | June 2025
Associate Professor Suzie Cosh is a psychologist and clinical researcher. Her work focuses on the intersection of climate change and mental health and she currently leads a body of work that focuses on supporting small rural communities to recover from and prepare for extreme weather events such as bushfires, floods and droughts.
In 2024, she received $6 million in funding from the Australian Government’s Medical Research Futures Fund and the National Health and Medical Research Council to trial novel interventions to protect mental health and wellbeing in diverse rural Australian communities.
In particular, she currently leads the Equip project, a multisite trial developing psychological disaster preparedness and community resilience. Having completed a Masters and PhD in Clinical Psychology, her work combines clinical experiences and insights into intervention-based research to support mental health. She completed postdoctoral research fellowships in Germany and France, before returning to Australia and establishing a program of research that aims to better understand the impacts of climate change on mental health, and how to best support mental health into the future as climate change and its impacts escalate.
She holds memberships on international societies, actively furthering the connection of science and clinical practice. Her work is based on a strong commitment to ensure that the best evidence guides and is translated into clinical practice and helps to protect and promote the mental health of individual and communities.
Source: Supplied
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8003-3704
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Health and economic burden of interstitial lung diseases
Dr Cox’s main research interests focus on respiratory diseases and primarily on the economic burden and economic evaluation of interventions and treatments for their management. She earned her PhD from the University of Tasmania where her doctoral research examined the health and economic burden of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) in Australia, one component of the NHMRC Centre for Research Excellence for Pulmonary Fibrosis, a national project implemented alongside the Australian IPF Registry and the Lung Foundation Australia. This research provided the first epidemiological profile and first costing estimates of the economic burden of the disease in Australia, providing essential evidence for health service reimbursement policies.
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Nuclear medicine & theranostics for molecular imaging & targeted therapy
Dr Aviral Singh is a globally renowned Nuclear Medicine Physician with special interest in Theranostics.
Dr Singh is based in Perth, Western Australia since 2024 and serves as the Clinical Head of Theranostics and Nuclear Medicine at GenesisCare Australia. He is also a Consultant Nuclear Medicine Physician at Fiona Stanley and Royal Perth Hospitals, in addition to pursuing national and international consulting physician roles as Director at Infinity Theranostics.
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Elite athlete physical and mental health impact performance
Understanding the interaction between genes and lifestyle factors in response to stress can lead to potential therapeutic interventions for stress-related disorders. This research is crucial for promoting health and well-being.
Professor Mehta has recently commenced research into elite athlete physical and mental health impact performance, with research at the intersection of statistics, genomics, and mental health. This research is ahead of, and in anticipation of, the Summer Olympics in Brisbane in 2032.
