Bonnie A Clough

• Lecturer at Griffith University

Considerable adverse mental health effects are caused by pandemics, with a global mental health crisis predicated as a result of COVID-19. Existing mental health services already failed to meet population mental health demands prior to 2020, with these rates of unmet need now further exacerbated due to increased prevalence of psychological distress...

Health workforce shortages worldwide are approaching crisis point, further burdening systems already struggling to meet demand. Doctor attrition has been identified as a major contributor to this problem and therefore, the current study examined links between workload demands and stressors, and doctors’ commitment. Based on prior research and key p...

Objective To examine and describe telehealth use and attitudes among mental health professionals in Australia and New Zealand during the initial stages of the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods Participants completed a brief online survey between May and July 2020. Participants were recruited via peak and professional organisations and through psychology-...

Aims: Digital mental health services may increase the accessibility and affordability of mental health treatments. However, client dropout a low use is often reported. The purpose of the current study was to investigate the structural validity of the e-Therapy Attitudes and Process (eTAP) questionnaire, as a theoretically based (theory of planned...

Research is increasingly demonstrating the therapeutic benefits of virtual reality interventions for various mental health conditions, though these rarely translate from research to application in clinical settings. This systematic review aims to examine the efficacy of current virtual reality interventions for emotional disorders, with a focus on...

Objectives: Group psychotherapy holds considerable potential for cost-effective treatment delivery. However, issues with client attendance can compromise the efficacy of such treatments. To date, client specific factors are amongst the most researched predictors of attendance in psychotherapy, with much less of a focus given to process factors, pa...

Background: Digital mental health (DMH) provides effective methods of overcoming issues of time constraints, accessibility, and availability of mental health care. They can provide a valuable means to deliver mental health care in the present pandemic. However, adoption of these methods has been slow. Mental health professional (MHP) concerns at t...

The aim of this article was to investigate the acceptability and feasibility of a daily Short Message Service (SMS) communication system to support patients attending weekly psychotherapy. The patients (N = 32) received daily SMS messages for the duration of a group therapy treatment program. Measures relating to engagement, treatment satisfaction,...

Purpose Stigma is a common barrier to mental health professionals (MHPs) seeking help for occupational stress and burnout, although there is a lack of psychometrically sound tools to measure this construct. The current study aimed to develop and validate a scale (the Mental Health Professional Stigma Scale; MHPSS) for this purpose. Methods The MHP...

Objective: This study aimed to compare stress, burnout, stressors, and protective factors among regional- and metropolitan-based Australian medical doctors. Method: A mixed methods design was utilized with 252 Australian medical doctors completing an online questionnaire package. A subsample also completed qualitative interviews. Results: Stre...

International students may have less understanding and awareness of mental health issues and appear unlikely to seek help. The purpose of the current study was to construct and evaluate a brief online educational intervention designed to increase mental health literacy (MHL) and help-seeking among international tertiary students studying in Austral...

Background: The development of technological applications within psychotherapy has opened up new opportunities for mental health professionals (MHPs) to address client need. Despite the clinical efficacy and utility of evidence-based electronic interventions, MHPs' engagement with these interventions remains poorly understood. Objective: The aim...

Background: Considerable evidence supports the efficacy of e-interventions for mental health treatment and support. However, client engagement and adherence to these interventions are less than optimal and remain poorly understood. Objective: The aim of the current study was to develop and investigate the psychometric properties of the e-Therapy...

Issue addressed Residents of peri‐urban Australia face health inequalities compared to city dwellers. Active lifestyles provide many benefits that could improve the health of this population, however, peri‐urban Australians are more likely to be inactive and sedentary. The aim of this study was to identify the physical activity and sedentary behavi...

Abstract Objectives The Toronto Mindfulness Scale (TMS) is a widely used instrument of state mindfulness. Research suggests the interpretation and functioning of mindfulness scale items may differ as a function of meditation experience, and thus, establishing invariance across experience levels is essential. Methods Five hundred and five meditat...

Abstract Objective Despite the increased risk of experiencing mental health concerns, particularly related to stress and burnout, psychological help‐seeking among medical doctors is typically low. This study examined the barriers to treatment experienced by doctors for stress and burnout‐related difficulties. Methods A mixed‐methods design was a...

The aim of this article was to investigate the acceptability and feasibility of a daily Short Message Service (SMS) communication system to support patients attending weekly psychotherapy. The patients (N = 32) received daily SMS messages for the duration of a group therapy treatment program. Measures relating to engagement, treatment satisfaction,...

Limited research has examined distress or help-seeking knowledge and attitudes among international students. The aim of this study was to examine psychological distress, mental health literacy (MHL), and help-seeking attitudes and intentions among a sample of domestic and international tertiary students. The sample comprised 357 domestic and intern...

Online interventions may offer a means of overcoming barriers experienced in face-to-face treatment for amphetamine use. Usability testing allows a website’s capacity to engage the targeted population to be optimised. This study evaluated the usability of an amphetamine treatment website (www.beatingtherush.com.au) and explored health professionals...

Mental health services are underutilised by people who could benefit from treatment. Research into help-seeking intentions (HSI) is required to support interventions to increase service use. Existing HSI measures are not psychometrically robust and problems with content validity undermine research in this field. Our purpose was to create a clear co...

Background: Occupational stress and burnout are highly prevalent among doctors, with stigma identified as a barrier to help-seeking in this population. However, there has been a lack of a standardised tool to measure stigma of occupational stress and burnout among doctors. Aims: The aim of the current study was to develop and investigate the psycho...

The aim of this study was to investigate the efficacy of an Internet-based cognitive behavioural therapy program (I-CBT) for the treatment of problem gambling, when compared to a waitlist control and an active comparison condition consisting of monitoring, feedback, and support (I-MFS). Participants (N = 174) were randomly allocated to the three co...

There is a lack of psychometrically sound instruments to assess treatment barriers among individuals with disordered eating behaviours. This study examined the factor structure and psychometric properties of the Perceived Barriers to Psychological Treatment scale (PBPT; Mohr et al., 2010) among a sample of individuals with disordered eating behavio...

Background: e-Mental health services have the capacity to overcome barriers to care and reduce the unmet need for psychological services, particularly in developing countries. However, it is unknown how acceptable e-mental health interventions may be to these populations. Aims: The purpose of the current study was to examine consumer attitudes and...

Background Occupational stress and burnout are highly prevalent among medical doctors and can have adverse effects on patient, doctor, and organisational outcomes. The purpose of the current study was to review and evaluate evidence on psychosocial interventions aimed at reducing occupational stress and burnout among medical doctors. Method A syst...

This program of research identified psychological, social and geographical determinants of physical activity and sedentary behaviour in inner-regional Australia.

The aim of this study was to examine the psycho-social determinants of active living in inner-regional Australia, through the identification of beliefs, barriers and facilitators of physical activity and sedentary behaviour.

Introduction: Stress and burnout are highly prevalent among medical doctors, and are associated with negative consequences for doctors, patients, and organizations. The purpose of the current study was to examine the effectiveness of a mindfulness training intervention in reducing stress and burnout among medical practitioners, by means of a Random...

Aim: Emotion regulation (ER) theories and measurement scales have received considerable attention in clinical and research settings. However, there is a need for independent validation of these scales to ensure rigor within this field. The aim of the current study was to examine the factorial, convergent, and criterion validity of one of the most p...

Objective: Although competency-based training of supervisors is now compulsory in many countries, there has been limited evidenced-based literature to guide the profession as to the most effective ways of training supervisors. The aim of the current pilot study was to examine the effects of a supervisor training program on supervisor, supervisee, a...

Background and Objectives: Patient non-attendance and dropout remains problematic in mental health settings. The Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) has proved useful in understanding such challenges in a variety of healthcare settings, but the absence of an adequate measure has hampered research in mental health. The aim of the current study was to...

The aim of this data was to inform a systematic review of adult preference, willingness, and likelihood to use e-Mental Health (eMH) services compared to traditional face-to-face (F2F) services. It was conducted with a view to understand how these factors are currently conceptualised and applied to eMH studies, and to determine their role in the up...

This systematic review evaluated methods used to assess treatment barriers among individuals with eating disorders or disordered eating. Eleven studies were identified and evaluated according to attributes considered important in the accurate assessment of treatment barriers. The majority of studies used qualitative methods, with five studies utili...

E-mental health services are internet-based treatment options for mental illness. Potential benefits of e-mental health interventions include increased cost effectiveness, enhanced dissemination of evidence based treatments, and decreased burden on existing healthcare systems (Griffiths, Farrer, & Christensen, 2007). E-mental health services may al...

We examined the reliability and validity of the Effects of Meditation (EOM) scale (Reavley and Pallant, 2009) which measures Experiences During Meditation (EOM-DM) and the Effects of Meditation in Everyday Life (EOM-EL). Adult meditators (N = 254) completed questionnaires on the effects of meditation, compassion towards self and others, flow, satis...

Consumers are increasingly likely to access various forms of e-mental health, and there is considerable danger that they may be exposed to untested interventions. Traditional research designs, such as the randomized controlled trial (RCT), are limited in their capacity to match the pace of development and evolving nature of e-mental health. There a...

mHealth refers to the use of mobile technologies in the provision of health care and is an expanding field within psychotherapy research. Mobile technologies have the capacity to greatly enhance patient access, uptake, and engagement in psychological treatment. The purpose of the present article is to define mHealth within clinical psychology, prov...

The present research investigated the use of a Smartphone App as an adjunct in the treatment of a range of anxiety disorders. The primary aim of the App was to increase client adherence to between session therapy tasks, involving homework practice of a range of skills and tasks known to be associated with successful treatment of anxiety disorders....

One of the major reasons that internet-based psychological treatments are strongly advocated is the belief that they may enable consumers to overcome many of the barriers to treatment otherwise encountered in seeking face-to-face treatment. A corollary to this belief is the assumption that many consumers may then be more likely to prefer to receive...

Background: Mental Health Literacy (MHL) has become an important concept in the literature; however, quantitative research on MHL methodology has been limited. Aims: This review identified peer-reviewed papers investigating MHL, assessed psychometric attributes of scale-based measures of MHL, and the extent that studies assessed the attributes t...

Smart Homecare Technology and TeleHealth Dovepress submit your manuscript | www.dovepress.com Dovepress 29 R e v i e w open access to scientific and medical research Open Access Full Text Article http://dx.doi.org/10.2147/SHTT.S42684 Abstract: Chronic diseases (CD) – such as cardiovascular, diabetes, cancer, and chronic respiratory diseases – are p...

Background: As healthcare services become progressively more stretched, there is increasing discussion of ways in which technological adjuncts may be used to deliver more cost-efficient services. Before widespread implementation, however, the use of these adjuncts requires proper scrutiny of their effects on psychological practice. Aims: This re...

Research ethics protocols relating to human participants were compared across five countries, namely, Australia, Azerbaijan, Iran, the Philippines, and South Africa. These countries were considered to be geographically and culturally diverse, as well as representing both developed and developing countries. The extent to which the research participa...

Abstract E-mental health services are Internet-based treatment options for mental illness. There has been a proliferation of these services in recent years, with online programs now available for the treatment of mood, anxiety, eating, adjustment, and substance use disorders. (1) E-mental health services allow for greater dissemination of psycholog...

This paper identified and reviewed technological adjuncts to increase client adherence to therapy. Three areas of adherence were identified, namely treatment dropout and non-attendance, engagement during and between therapy sessions, and aftercare. Database searches were conducted in each of these areas to identify relevant studies published betwee...

Although there are several of reviews of technology in psychology, none to date has focused on technological adjuncts for improving traditional face to face therapy. However, examination of response, adherence, and dropout rates suggests there is considerable scope for improving traditional face to face services. The purpose of this paper was to ex...