New Graduate Research students

Meet our new PhD and Masters students

Clare Bellhouse

Clare’s PhD project title is ‘How can we better prepare first-time parents? Perspectives from new parents and healthcare providers’. She is under the supervision of Prof Meredith Temple-Smith, Dr Jade Bilardi, and A/Prof Lena Sanci. This project will investigate what additional supports and resources first-time parents may need to better prepare them for the transition to parenthood and early parenting.

Timothy Kariotis

Timothy is a PhD candidate supervised by Dr Victoria Palmer, A/Prof Shanton Chang, and Dr Megan Prictor. His project title is ‘Improving information continuity between primary health care and social care for people with a lived experience of severe mental illness: A Co-Design Approach’. The integration of primary health care and social care services is recognised as having the potential to better support people with a lived experience of severe mental illness. This project will explore the potential information sharing between primary health care and social care services, to improve integrated care. A co-design approach will draw on service user’s experience to inform improvements in information continuity, with broader learning for how co-design can be used across sectors.

Jacqueline Kuruppu

Jacqueline’s PhD project aims to develop a co-designed decision-making tool to assist GPs and practice nurses in the decision to report child abuse. This project is an extension of her Honours research, which found that GPs and practice nurses feel unsupported as mandated reporters. The decision-making tool seeks to support GPs and practice nurses by providing information and direction on how to approach the issue of reporting child abuse. The tool will be co-designed with social workers, Victorian GPs and practice nurses and parents. She is supervised by Prof Kelsey Hegarty and Prof Cathy Humphreys. Her project title is ‘Developing a decision-making tool to assist in the decision to report child abuse’.

Molly Wellington

Molly’s MPhil project will examine ‘Victorian abortion providers understandings, perceptions and responses to reproductive coercion’. This project aims to explore the knowledge and understandings of reproductive coercion (RC) by health professionals who are involved in providing termination of pregnancy. RC is a behaviour that takes away a woman’s control over her own body through behaviours such as sabotaging contraceptives and forcing her to have a termination. Molly will be interviewing health professionals who provide abortions due to their likelihood of treating women who experience RC and are in a unique position to respond. She is supervised by Dr Laura Tarzia and Prof Kelsey Hegarty.

Lily Claringbold

Lily is a MPhil candidate under the supervision of Prof Meredith Temple-Smith and Dr Jade Bilardi. Her project will examine ‘The provision of psychosocial support to women who experience miscarriage in Early Pregnancy Assessment Services (EPAS) across Australia’. Lily will perform key informant interviews with health care professionals working in EPAS and compare psychosocial support provided with best practice clinical guidelines. This research will aim to provide a better understanding of the current support received in the healthcare system by women who miscarry.