Dr Catherine McHugh

Cate is a consultant psychiatrist and holds an academic appointment as a senior lecturer with UNSW Psychiatry and a translational research fellow with the Mindgardens Neuroscience Network. Cate received her Fellowship of the Royal Australian New Zealand College of Psychiatrists in 2020, after completing clinical training in psychiatry across the South Eastern Sydney Local Health District and St Vincent's hospital network. She also has experience working in mental health and population health in the Kimberley, Western Australia and has an interest in population-based approaches to improving mental health outcomes, as well as mental health service delivery in communities with barriers to accessing care. She currently works clinically with the headspace Youth Psychosis program in Western Sydney.

In 2022, Cate completed a PhD in Psychiatry at the Brain and Mind Centre, University of Sydney, which focused on understanding suicidal behaviour in young people accessing mental health services. Her research has explored the role of transdiagnostic processes, including cognition, psychological and social factors, in driving mental health symptoms and recovery, and drawn on a range of methodologies, including machine learning and data linkage. 

She has a strong interest in how technology shapes mental health service delivery and the application of artificial intelligence to psychiatry. Her interest in translational research led her to join the Mindgardens Youth Integration project as the clinical lead in 2022. Her focus is on how the design and implementation of technology within the mental health system can improve the person-centeredness and effectiveness of mental health care.