Leanne Casey

• PhD
• Griffith University

Motivational Interviewing (MI) has been used as an approach to enhance readiness for change and behavior modification in a range of addiction and substance use disorders. Large meta-analyses comparing MI with non-MI interventions point to mixed conclusions about the short-term and long-term effectiveness of MI, with participant, outcome, and delive...

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...

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in youth can lead to a trajectory of early and repeated contact with the criminal justice system (CJS), where such youth face significant challenges due to the nature of their diagnosis and the lack of specialized detective training in this area. This article reviews Australian detectives’ perceptions...

One hundred and two Child Protection Investigation Unit (CPIU) detectives were recruited to answer questions about their perceived knowledge and skill, as well as training accessibility and development needs, regarding the interviewing of youth with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Results indicate that CPIU detectives rated themsel...

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...

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in youth witnesses, victims and suspects can significantly impact the investigative interviewing process. In this study, 102 Child Protection Investigation Unit (CPIU) detectives were asked to read four vignettes of adolescents being interviewed by police, two as witnesses and two as suspects, in whic...

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...

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 study examined the relationship between self-injurious behavior and intentions to seek help from professionals, family and friends, technology based support and from no-one. Participants were 679 young people aged 14 to 25 years drawn from a larger internet survey (N = 1463) on the basis of their reported self-injury. A help-negation effect wa...

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...

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...

Objectives: Family members may play an important role in the health and well-being of older adults. However, little is known about the factors that influence the likelihood of family members supporting older relatives to seek help from mental health professionals for mental health concerns. Mental health literacy is associated with people's help-s...

The development of digital technologies is rapidly providing mental health researchers and clinicians with innovative means of communication, assessment, and intervention. Video games provide an important new platform for the delivery of mental health assessments and effective interventions. However, researchers and clinicians wishing to make use o...

Background: Although increasing numbers of young people are seeking help online for self-injury, relatively little is known about their online help-seeking preferences. Aims: To investigate the perspectives of young people who self-injure regarding online services, with the aim of informing online service delivery. Method: A mixed-methods expl...

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...

Research into second language anxiety (SLA) has largely focused on second language learners rather than immigrants. However, living in an environment where the target language (TL) is the language of everyday communication may constitute a significant source of anxiety that generalises beyond the language classroom [Pappamihiel, N. E. 2001. “Moving...

Although Mental Health Literacy (MHL) has been a topic of substantial interest, measurement of this concept using a scale-based measure has been limited, including a lack of psychometric and methodologically robust scale-based measures of MHL. This study developed a new scale-based measure of MHL, the Mental Health Literacy Scale (MHLS), which asse...

Objectives: To identify differences between young people who seek help online for self-injury and those who self-injure but do not seek help online, in order to improve online services for young people at high risk of suicide. Methods: Young people reporting a history of self-injury (N = 679) were identified as part of large study (N = 1463) explor...

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....

The impending commercial release of affordable VR systems is likely to accelerate both the opportunity and demand for VR applications that specifically target psychological conditions. The aim of this study was to conduct a meta-analysis of outcomes associated with VR psychological interventions and to examine the methodological rigour used in thes...

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...

Objective Despite significant psychosocial morbidity, there are few controlled trials of psychological support for people with brain tumor. This study evaluated the efficacy of the Making Sense of Brain Tumor (MSoBT) program, a home-based psychosocial intervention.DesignA randomized controlled trial with a wait list conditionMethods Fifty participa...

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...

Time lost due to injury or illness requiring rehabilitation is a major problem. Activity is an important part of rehabilitation, however compliance and adherence can be challenging. This paper addresses this issue by presenting an automatic system for monitoring activity allowing objective assessment of the activity. The system consisted of a smart...

Purpose: To develop and examine the psychometric properties of the Daily Living Self-Efficacy Scale (DLSES) designed to assess stroke survivors' self-efficacy in daily functioning. Method: Two groups of participants (N = 424) were recruited, a stroke survivor group (n = 259) who were recruited through two stroke associations in Australia and a n...

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...

Guides readers through successive stages of working with clients, demonstrating how their integrative model can be applied to enhance assessment, conceptualisation, treatment, risk management, outcome evaluation, irrespective of a practitioner's theoretical orientation or client's presenting problem.

Chronic respiratory illnesses are the most common group of childhood chronic health conditions and are overrepresented in socially isolated groups. To conduct a randomized controlled pilot trial to evaluate the efficacy of Breathe Easier Online (BEO), an Internet-based problem-solving program with minimal facilitator involvement to improve psychoso...

Dropout is a frequent problem in face-to-face psychological interventions. However, little is known regarding dropout in computer-based interventions (CBIs). It is important to understand the extent to which children and adolescents drop out of CBIs, so we can ensure that more people complete the programmes to gain maximum benefit. A systematic rev...

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...

Yes Yes

The study aimed to assess the effectiveness of group and individual formats of a combined motivational interviewing and cognitive behavioral treatment (CBT) program for problem gamblers (PGs) using a randomized controlled design. One hundred and two PGs were randomly assigned to individual or group CBT conditions. Twenty-eight of these participants...

Yes Yes

The purpose of this review was to present an in-depth analysis of literature identifying the extent of dropout from Internet-based treatment programmes for psychological disorders, and literature exploring the variables associated with dropout from such programmes. A comprehensive literature search was conducted on PSYCHINFO and PUBMED with the key...

Despite the rapid proliferation of technological adjuncts in cognitive behavior therapy (CBT), much of this development appears to have occurred on an ad hoc basis and in many cases has resulted in applications that are beyond the resources of most practicing clinicians. The authors delineate the specific areas in which CBT can be augmented through...

This study investigated the relationship between two biologically-based dimensions of impulsivity, "reward drive" and "rash impulsiveness" as well as the related construct of punishment sensitivity in problem gamblers, with and without alcohol problems, and non-problem gamblers. One hundred and ten adults completed self-report measures of problem g...

This paper reports on the development and psychometric properties of a Gambling Refusal Self-Efficacy Questionnaire (GRSEQ). Two hundred and ninety-seven gamblers from both normal and clinical populations completed an initial set of 31-items of which 26 were selected for inclusion in the final version of the GRSEQ. A series of factor analyses showe...

Premature dropout from treatments for pathological gambling is potentially of significant importance, if it occurs before substantial progress has been made in addressing the problem. A systematic review of current research on dropout from psychological treatments for pathological gambling identified 12 studies from five countries. Dropout ranged f...

The association between substance use and suicide is well-established, but evidence is scant regarding the relationship between the number, type, and level of substances and other risk factors in completed suicide across the lifespan. To examine the relationship between social/demographic characteristics and the number, type, and level of drugs pre...

This study examined the differential role of negative and positive cognitions in mediating treatment outcome in CBT for Panic Disorder through comparison of a Standard CBT (n = 36) versus a Waitlist Condition (n = 24). Regression analyses indicated that, relative to the Waitlist Condition, patients in the Standard CBT condition reported significant...

Time period analysis was used in an international sample of clients (N = 106) to demonstrate that cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) for panic disorder is associated with specific changes in both negative and positive cognitions during the treatment period. In the first 6 weeks of the treatment phase, working alliance failed to predict changes in p...

One reason for the neglect of the role of positive factors in cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT) may relate to a failure to develop cognitive models that integrate positive and negative cognitions. Bandura [Psychol. Rev. 84 (1977) 191; Anxiety Res. 1 (1988) 77] proposed that self-efficacy beliefs mediate a range of emotional and behavioural outcom...

This study investigated the role of both negative and positive cognitions in predicting panic severity in an international sample of patients diagnosed with panic disorder (with and without agoraphobia). One hundred and fifty-nine patients were administered the Brief Bodily Sensations Interpretation Questionnaire (BBSIQ), the Self-efficacy to Contr...