Researcher

Professor Kay Wilhelm

My Expertise

Depression - gender differences in depression & coping styles, young doctors, impairment in doctors, primary care psychiatry, approaches to depression, smoking & psychiatric illness, transplant psychiatry, general hospital psychiatry, suicidality, Interpersonal Therapy, Expressive Writing

 

Clinical Research, Psychiatry, Health Services Research, Population Health, Diabetes, Transplants, Suicide.

Biography

Research Interests:
She has a longstanding interest in depression, especially gender issues and psychosocial risk factors, brief psychotherapy for depression and deliberate self harm, as well as primary care and general hospital psychiatry. She has been observing a cohort of adults over the past 25 years, with an interest in evolving rates of depression and anxiety, coping styles, gender differences and possible genetic factors. She...view more

Research Interests:
She has a longstanding interest in depression, especially gender issues and psychosocial risk factors, brief psychotherapy for depression and deliberate self harm, as well as primary care and general hospital psychiatry. She has been observing a cohort of adults over the past 25 years, with an interest in evolving rates of depression and anxiety, coping styles, gender differences and possible genetic factors. She has published on interactions between serotonin transporter gene, life events and depression onset. She is currently investigating the effects of short term therapies for people in distress, especially following deliberate self harm and in the context of medical illness, including expressive writing, mindfulness and other strategies to promote coping and emotional regulation. She is evaluating the effects of the program and workshop (see below), in collaboration with Dr Karen Baikie. She has been involved in collaborative studies (with Prof Robyn Richmond, Dr Alex Wodak from UNSW, Dr Tony Butler from Curtin University) investigating smoking cessation in people with mental illness, and/or in prison. She is interested in predicting and early intervention for cognitive impairment, delirium and affective dysregulation in the transplant journey.

Broad Research Areas:
Clinical Research, Psychiatry, Health Services Research, Population Health, Diabetes, Transplant Psychiatry, Suicidality.

Qualifications:
MB BS MD UNSW, FRANZCP

Society Memberships & Professional Activities:
Australasian Society of Psychiatric Research, International Society of Affective Disorders, International Society of Interpersonal Psychotherapists, World Psychiatric Association, Section of Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology

Specific Research Keywords:
Depression, Anxiety Psychology, General Hospital Psychiatry, Doctors' Health, Gender and Health, Smoking Cessation, Chronic DIsease Management, Suicide, Heart and Lung Transplants


My Qualifications

MBBS Hons (UNSW), MD ( UNSW by thesis), FRANZCP


My Awards

  • Research Fellowship, New South Wales Institute of Psychiatry, 1983-4  
  • Founders’ Medal of the Australasian Society of Psychiatric Research, 2005, for lifelong contribution to psychiatric research
  • Member, Order of Australia, 2006, for services for depression management and education, suicide prevention, doctors’ health and professional education
  • RANZCP 2008 College Citation, in recognition of service to the profession
  • Mental Health Matters Research Award, 2011 as part of UNSW Prison Health Research Team

My Research Supervision


Supervision keywords


Areas of supervision

  1.  Expressive writing
  2.  Online interventions to enhance coping with medical illness and suicidality
  3.  Appraisal of online material for consumers on mental-health related issues
  4.  Devising and evaluating material for people with serious chronic illness
  5.  Creating meaning in context serious/fatal illness

  

 


Currently supervising

  1.  Review of student well being programs
  2.  Review of place of nortriptyline in current medical care
  3.  Review of  psychosocial instruments predicting outcome following heart and lung transplants
  4.  Factors predicting delirium post-heart/lung transplant
  5.  Psychosocial aspects of opiod use in lung transplant recipients

My Teaching

  Interviewing skills, traps and pitfalls in history taking

  Depression

  Suicidality

  

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Location

Level 4 O'Brien Centre
St Vincent's Hospital
394 Victoria Street
Darlinghurst NSW 2010

Contact

+61-2-83821542
+61-2-83821402