
Glenn A MelvinDeakin University · School of Psychology
Glenn A Melvin
PhD
About
165
Publications
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Publications (165)
Objective
The objective was to identify a prioritized list of research themes and key data points (baseline data and research outcomes) for future studies regarding child and adolescent emergency department (ED) mental health presentations.
Methods
A prospective survey‐based Delphi process was undertaken in Australia within the Pediatric Research...
Background and aim
Dog ownership has been suggested as an intervention to increase physical activity and improve mental health, but few studies have investigated the relationships between dog ownership, physical activity, and mental health outcomes together. This study aimed to (1) investigate whether dog ownership, CA-related physical activity, an...
The current study aimed to assess whether online suicide risk assessment affects state mood and is the first to examine if suicide‐related self‐stigma or coping related to suicidal ideation are predictors of mood change. The Australian participants ( N = 661, M age = 34.9, SD = 12.3, 57.1% female), recruited through a crowd‐sourcing platform, compl...
Background
The use of seclusion in Adolescent Inpatient Psychiatric Units is being heavily scrutinised due to its forceful nature and potential to cause harm. This study aimed to understand staff perspectives on reasons for seclusion in an Adolescent Inpatient Psychiatric Unit.
Method
A mixed methods approach that included the Attitudes to Seclusi...
Background
The prevalence of anxiety and depressive symptoms in young people have increased in many countries around the world. Web-based mental health interventions (or W-MHIs) have the potential to reduce anxiety and depression symptoms for young people. Although W-MHIs have become more widely used by young people since the coronavirus disease 20...
Sexual and gender minority (SGM) people experience elevated rates of suicidal ideation and attempts. This scoping review examines the effectiveness of suicide prevention programs for SGM people. Eligibility criteria included: the intervention was specifically designed for SGM people or specific analysis of SGM (sub)samples; reported suicide or suic...
Background and Aim: Dog ownership has been suggested as an intervention to increase physical activity and improve mental health, but few studies have investigated the relationships between dog ownership, physical activity, and mental health outcomes together. This study aimed to (1) investigate whether dog ownership, CA-related physical activity, a...
Objectives
Suicide safety plans are a personalized means of documenting how a person at risk of suicide recognizes and intends to cope with emerging suicidal thoughts. This study aimed to understand how users of digital suicide safety plans describe their warning signs, methods of coping and any relationships between these that may emerge.
Methods...
Background
School refusal is a heterogenous problem which typically emerges in adolescence and co-occurs with internalising disorders. A substantial proportion of adolescents do not respond to existing treatment modalities; thus, novel, effective intervention options are needed. Partners in Parenting Plus (PiP+) is a coach-assisted, web-based inter...
Many young people (YP) are diagnosed with mental illnesses and require support. Web-based mental health interventions (W-MHIs) have been increasingly utilized by YP, healthcare providers, and parents due to reasons including convenience and anonymity. W-MHIs are effective in improving mental health in YP. However, real-world engagement with W-MHIs...
Background: Suicide safety plans were originally devised to be paper-based and clinician-guided, but digital self-guided plans are now common. Aim: This study explored whether plan format (paper vs. digital), assistance (self-authored vs. collaboration), and suicide attempt history were associated with differences in suicidal ideation, suicide-rela...
Introduction
Understanding the specific strategies individuals use to cope with their suicidal thoughts may have implications for suicide prevention. This study developed a classification system of coping strategies and applied this system to individual coping behaviors documented in a safety planning intervention smartphone application called Beyo...
In a world characterized by dynamic demographic shifts, rapid technological transformations, and evolving pedagogical practices, the need for reimagining school attendance and a relationship with education has become paramount. This Research Topic, boldly titled “The Unlearning of School Attendance: Ideas for Change,” compels us to challenge conven...
The COVID-19 pandemic and associated public health measures altered patterns of help-seeking for mental health, with increases in emergency department utilisation reported. We examined the association between COVID-19 restrictions and adult emergency department (ED) mental health presentations in Victoria, Australia, through secondary analysis of d...
Background
Perinatal mental health disorders affect up to 20% of all women. Women of refugee background are likely to be at increased risk, yet little research has explored this. This study aimed to assess if women of refugee background are more likely to screen risk positive for depression and anxiety than non‐refugee women, using the Edinburgh Po...
Background
Suicidal behaviors are prevalent among college students; however, students remain reluctant to seek support. We developed a predictive algorithm to identify students at risk of suicidal behavior and used telehealth to reduce subsequent risk.
Methods
Data come from s everal waves of a prospective cohort study (2016–2022) of college stude...
Objective
To investigate the longitudinal associations between COVID-19 induced stress (related to COVID-19 restrictions/changes), attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms, oppositional symptoms, and mental health outcomes (negative affect, anxiety, depression, and irritability) in children with ADHD during the COVID-19 pandemic.
M...
Background:
Family members of people with mental illness (MI) may experience a host of psychological adversities such as increased stress, burden, and reduced wellbeing. However, relatively little is known about siblings. This study aimed to characterise the experience of distress (viz. depressive and anxiety symptoms), burden, and wellbeing in si...
Purpose: The present study investigated school absence among 1,076 5–15 year-old children with neurodevelopmental conditions (intellectual disability and/or autism) approximately one year following the start of COVID-19 in the UK. Methods: Parents completed an online survey indicating whether their child was absent from school during May 2021 and t...
p>In this paper, we use a combination of physiological and behavioral metrics of anxiety to detect changes in anxiety status in clinically anxious participants compared with healthy controls, which is important for intervening in a timely manner for the effective management of anxiety. Specifically, we first operationalize four phases of anxiety an...
p>In this paper, we use a combination of physiological and behavioral metrics of anxiety to detect changes in anxiety status in clinically anxious participants compared with healthy controls, which is important for intervening in a timely manner for the effective management of anxiety. Specifically, we first operationalize four phases of anxiety an...
Inpatient psychiatric care may be required to manage adolescents with severe mental health problems. As the ward can be a challenging environment, this study explored the influence of clown doctors on adolescents. Seventy-seven adolescents (13–18 years) and 22 staff from the Monash Health Stepping Stones Adolescent Unit, and 11 clown doctors from T...
Background
Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and irritability commonly co‐occur, and follow similar developmental trajectories from childhood to adolescence. Understanding of the developmental relationship between these co‐occurrences is limited. This study provides a longitudinal assessment of how ADHD diagnostic status and symptom p...
The Suicide-Related Coping Scale (SRCS) measures how well a person manages suicidal thoughts through the use of internal and external coping strategies. Many studies using SRCS, including the original scale validation, used samples of treatment-engaged military veterans or personnel, which may limit the generalizability of study findings to other h...
Background:
Children with neurodevelopmental conditions have high levels of school absence. During the COVID-19 pandemic, schools closed for many students. The relationship between home learning during school closures and subsequent school attendance requires attention to better understand the impact of pandemic education policy decisions on this...
Disclosure of suicidal ideation and behaviours, defined as thoughts, plans, or attempts, to other people provides opportunity for intervention and prevention. This study is the first to meta-analyze all available studies to estimate the prevalence of disclosure, to whom people disclose, and examine factors that influence disclosure. Databases were...
Children and adolescents (henceforth “children”) with both attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and anxiety experience greater difficulties than children with either alone, though qualitative methodologies are yet to be used to understand the challenges this population experience. We aimed to explore parent-reported daily impacts of co-o...
Background:
It appears that students with intellectual disability (ID) are more frequently absent from school compared with students without ID. The objective of the current study was to estimate the frequency of absence among students with ID and the reasons for absence. Potential reasons included the attendance problems referred to as school ref...
The Suicide-Related Coping Scale (SRCS) measures how well a person manages suicidal urges through the use of internal and external coping strategies. Many studies using SRCS, including the original scale validation, used samples of treatment-engaged military veterans or personnel, which may limit the generalizability of study findings to other help...
Objective:
The Covid-19 global pandemic has meant large parts of the world's population have been isolated from others for often months at a time due to lockdown measures to stop the spread. The effects of isolation can be damaging and increase risk of self-injury (NSSI) and suicide. We examined the effects of the first Australian national lockdow...
Nurses are at the forefront of seclusion in adolescent psychiatric units. Understanding nurses and other staff perspectives on the effects of seclusion is critical in the ongoing effort to minimize and eliminate seclusion. The aim of this study was to gain a better understanding of staff attitudes, experiences, and beliefs about the effects of secl...
COVID-19 brought disruptions to children’s education and mental health, and accelerated school de-registration rates. We investigated Elective Home Education (EHE) in families of children with a neurodevelopmental condition. A total of 158 parents of 5–15 year-old children with neurodevelopmental conditions (80% autistic) provided information on re...
Suicide rates in Australian young adults have been increasing over the past decade. Psychological interventions with a selective focus can be effective to reduce suicidal ideation. Perceived burdensomeness, a belief that an individual’s death is worth more than their life, may drive suicidal ideation more strongly in young adults. Online modules, a...
Inpatient psychiatric care is often required to manage adolescents with severe mental health problems. As the ward can be a confronting and challenging environment, this study explored the influence of clown doctors on adolescents. Seventy-seven adolescents (13–18 years) from Monash Health Stepping Stones Adolescent Unit and 11 clown doctors from T...
The COVID-19 pandemic placed older adults at a disproportionate risk of experiencing social isolation and loneliness and subsequent reduced wellbeing. Evidence suggests companion animals may have the capacity to provide social support, reduce loneliness, and improve wellbeing in older adults. Using a cross-sectional design and online/phone semi-str...
Objective
The objective of this study was to characterise the prevalence and/or severity of psychological distress (namely, depression and anxiety symptoms) in siblings of people with mental illness (MI) and to examine correlates of distress in siblings of people with MI.
Method
Studies comparing distress in individuals with and without a sibling...
The COVID-19 outbreak, and associated school restrictions affected the learning experience of students worldwide. The current study focused on the learning experiences of United Kingdom children with neurodevelopmental conditions, including autism and/or intellectual disability. Specifically, the aim was to examine families’ experience with school...
Recently, interest has grown in the assessment of anxiety that leverages human physiological and behavioral data to address the drawbacks of current subjective clinical assessments. Complex experiences of anxiety vary on multiple characteristics, including triggers, responses, duration and severity, and impact differently on the risk of anxiety dis...
Background
Adolescent depression can place a young person at high risk of recurrence and a range of psychosocial and vocational impairments in adult life, highlighting the importance of early recognition and prevention. Parents/carers are well placed to notice changes in their child’s emotional wellbeing which may indicate risk, and there is increa...
The preprint describes analyses that describe the experience of Elective Home Education in families of children with a neurodevelopmental condition in the UK
The preprint describes a study that aimed to describe the experience of home schooling /home learning in families of children with a neurodevelopmental condition in the UK approximately one year from the start of the COVID-19 pandemic (2021)
This preprint describes analyses that examined the association between home learning (home schooling) and later school attendance problems in children with a neurodevelopmental condition during the COVID-19 pandemic
Background
Parents play a crucial role in facilitating depression treatment for adolescents, yet parental preferences for adolescent treatments are ill-understood. Past treatment experience and belief in a biological model of depression may impact preferences, and warrant investigation.
Methods
Parents (N = 143) of teens (12–18 years) completed a...
Disclosure of suicidal ideation and behaviours, defined as thoughts, plans, or attempts, to other people provides opportunity for intervention and prevention. This study is the first to meta-analyse all available studies to estimate the prevalence of disclosure, to whom people disclose, and examine factors that influence disclosure. Databases were...
School refusal is a complex problem that refers to difficulty attending/remaining at school due to emotional distress about attendance. Despite its occurrence being associated with negative outcomes, many are unresponsive to the current treatment options. While parent factors have a key role to play in school refusal, they are not adequately addres...
The preprint describes analyses that investigates school attendance problems in children with neurodevelopmental conditions in the UK approximately one year after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Objective
Major depressive disorder (MDD) is relatively common in adolescence, with far-reaching impacts. Current treatments frequently fail to alleviate depression severity for a substantial portion of adolescents. Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) may assist with this unmet clinical need. However, little is known about adverse e...
Background: Interest in the use of yoga to enhance engagement with and augment the benefits of psychological treatment has grown. However, a systematic approach to reviewing existing research examining the use of yoga with psychological treatment is lacking.
Materials and Methods: This mapping review identified and synthesised research trialling yo...
The COVID-19 pandemic has markedly impacted functioning for children and adolescents including those with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). We explored home learning difficulties (HLD) during COVID-19 restrictions in Australian children (aged 5–17) with ADHD, aiming to: (1) describe home learning experiences, and (2) examine associat...
Background
Adolescent depression can place a young person at high risk of recurrence and a range of psychosocial and vocational impairments in adult life, highlighting the importance of early recognition and prevention. Parents/carers are well placed to notice changes in their child’s emotional wellbeing which may indicate risk, and there is increa...
Among the many impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, one of the most dramatic was the immediate closure of in-person schooling in spring 2020 when parents were faced with much greater responsibility in supporting their children’s learning. Despite this, few studies have examined parents’ own perspectives of this experience. The aims of this preliminary...
Objectives: Up to 40% of adolescents with Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) do not respond to treatment. Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (rTMS) is an effective treatment in adults for MDD which shows promising efficacy in adolescents, however additional controlled investigations are needed. This pilot study compared rTMS applied to the l...
The aim of this study was to investigate symptomatology and diagnoses of PTSD and subthreshold PTSD and the screening properties of the Harvard Trauma Questionnaire (HTQ) within a sample of Dari-speaking women of refugee background receiving antenatal care. This cross-sectional study administered the HTQ to 52 Dari-speaking women at a public pregna...
Suicide is a substantial contributor to global mortality, with suicidal ideation (SI) a significant predictor of suicide. Research has demonstrated relationships between dispositional coping styles and SI. This study aimed to advance this research by moving from the disposition coping level to examining the specific coping strategies people use whe...
Anxiety is increasingly becoming a global burden. Although several mobile anxiety assistive technologies have been designed and developed aiming to support the increasing demands, it is not well understood how the design can be improved to aid better regulation outcomes for patients while providing therapists with useful and timely data to make bet...
Objective
To control a second-wave COVID-19 outbreak, the state of Victoria in Australia experienced one of the world’s first long and strict lockdowns over July–October 2020, while the rest of Australia experienced ‘COVID-normal’ with minimal restrictions. We (1) investigate trajectories of parent/child mental health outcomes in Victoria vs non-Vi...
The Exploring Together program is a group-based parent training program that comprises separate parent, child, and teacher components, and a combined parent–child interactive component. A cluster-randomized trial design was used to compare the Exploring Together program with (Exploring Together; ET) and without (Exploring Together-Adapted; ET-Adapt...
Vicious cycles of anxiety responses underlie the onset of increasingly prevalent and highly impairing anxiety disorders and also contribute to their maintenance. Our goal is to evaluate whether different anxiety responses are evident in temporal patterns of physiological and behavioral features. Consequently, we established a rich multimodal-multis...
The COVID-19 pandemic presents significant risks to population mental health. Despite evidence of detrimental effects for adults, there has been limited examination of the impact of COVID-19 on parents and children specifically. We aim to examine patterns of parent and child (0–18 years) mental health, parent substance use, couple conflict, parenti...
Objective
Identifying women at risk of depression and anxiety during pregnancy provides an opportunity to improve health outcomes for women and their children. One barrier to screening is the availability of validated measures in the woman’s language. Afghanistan is one of the largest source countries for refugees yet there is no validated measure...
Objective
This study aimed to evaluate whether the Therapist-assisted Online Parenting Strategies programme increased parenting behaviours known to be supportive of adolescents experiencing anxiety and/or depression. Secondary parenting outcomes of parental self-efficacy, parental accommodation, carer burden, parent–adolescent attachment, family fu...
How fathers cope with stress may be critical to their mental health during the perinatal period. Using a sequential explanatory design for systematic review and meta-analysis, we aimed to identify associations and causal relations between higher- and lower-order avoidant and approach coping strategies and paternal psychopathology. We searched five...
Introduction: The immediate impact of COVID-19 on morbidity and mortality has raised the need for accurate and real time data monitoring and communication. The aim of this study is to document initial observations from multiple digital services providers during the COVID-19 crisis, especially those related to mental health and wellbeing. Materials...
Problem
Seclusion is considered a necessity when alternatives have failed. There is a consensus that seclusion has no therapeutic benefit, which justifies efforts to reduce the practice. This study aimed to identify nurse and patient variables that are predictive of seclusion on a large adolescent inpatient unit.
Methods
Nested case controls were...
Partner abuse (PA) is associated with significant morbidity and mortality worldwide. Health care practitioners regularly encounter patients experiencing PA and require comprehensive education on how to respond. This study describes the creation and validation of a new measure of readiness to encounter patients experiencing PA for health care practi...
Partner abuse is a significant contributor to mortality and morbidity worldwide, and has been identified as a priority health care issue. Most health care students rarely receive education on partner abuse and report not feeling ready to encounter patients experiencing partner abuse. Analysis of the current readiness of health care students and can...
Objective
To examine the impact of COVID-19 restrictions among children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
Methods
Parents of 213 Australian children (5–17 years) with ADHD completed a survey in May 2020 when COVID-19 restrictions were in place (i.e., requiring citizens to stay at home except for essential reasons).
Results
Com...
Objective
The aim of this study is to assess the feasibility (uptake, retention and adherence) and acceptability of a combination of smartphone apps to deliver a digitized safety plan, BeyondNow, and personalized management strategies, BlueIce, with adolescents discharged from a mental health inpatient ward following self-harm, suicidal ideation an...
Background
Children and young people with intellectual disability and/or Autism Spectrum Disorder (autism) experience higher rates of mental health problems, including depression, than their typically developing peers. Although international guidelines suggest psychological therapies as first-line intervention for children and young people, there i...
The COVID-19 pandemic presents significant risks to the mental health and wellbeing of families. This study aimed to examine: (1) patterns of parent and child (0–18 years) mental health, parent substance use, couple conflict, parenting practices, and family functioning during COVID-19 compared to pre-pandemic data; and (2) associations between pare...