Barbara Dicker Brain Sciences Foundation
With around twenty per cent of adults being affected by adverse mental health problems every year, research into effective care and treatment has never been more crucial. 10Inspiring Change - the impact of your support
Thanks to a cultural change around mental health over the last two decades, a large amount of work has been done to destigmatise high-prevalence disorders like anxiety and depression. Unfortunately, the same is not true of more serious mental health conditions like bipolar disorder.
A project at Swinburne hopes to change that. Professor Greg Murray is leading a three-year research program to develop the best model for a bipolar clinic. This work is made possible through a generous anonymous donation and supported by the competitive granting process of the Barbara Dicker Brain Sciences Foundation.
As Greg explains, the project has two crucial purposes. ‘One is to advance research into the psychological aspects of bipolar disorder. The other is to generate a novel psychology clinic to improve the well-being of sufferers.
The research hopes to address the three main concerns which Greg hears from sufferers of bipolar disorder.
‘Firstly, they say they just can’t get access to psychological services. Many psychologists don’t feel comfortable or are unsure of their ability to manage this condition.’
‘Secondly, the side effects of medication. There is a great interest in the extent to which people could potentially manage their bipolar disorder with less or no medication.’
‘Thirdly, most sufferers have other significant problems such as relationship troubles, eating disorders, substance abuse and so on. So they need a more personalised approach with more attention paid to the individual and their particular experience of the condition.’
The Barbara Dicker Brain Sciences Foundation funds projects aligned with its three pillars of depression, dementia and sleep. It operates in partnership with Swinburne, which led to the Foundation supporting the governance of funds donated for the bipolar clinic, as the Foundation’s chair, Associate Professor Tony Dicker, explains.
‘Swinburne had a donor who wanted to provide money for research into two things, one being bipolar, the other being dementia. But he didn’t want to be involved in running it.’
‘Swinburne approached us saying they’d received this generous grant in a similar area to projects we support and that the governance structure we have would be ideal for managing this money.’
For Tony, the most fulfilling aspect of the foundation’s fifteen-year partnership with Swinburne is seeing the efficiency of how projects like the bipolar clinic are undertaken.
‘I’ve seen a lot of this type of thing where nothing evolves. There is lots of talk, but it all gets swallowed up in the planning stage. Here we see our pilot funding turning into longer-term results two years later.’
‘We provide funding for a whole range of projects, usually by junior researchers, sometimes PhD students for pilot projects. For example, we have provided small but essential funds for researchers to buy some time on clinical equipment for pilot tests with just five subjects.’
‘This enabled them to gather essential data and use that data to apply for larger grants to further the study on a larger scale later on. It’s often those small projects and pilot studies that are hard to fund.’
Greg says the bipolar clinic team is very grateful for this opportunity to pause and think about the most significant areas of opportunity.
‘This gift allows us to bring together everything we know and everything the whole world knows about these issues. It’s a luxury to be given the time to get that right.’
Greg expects the clinic will see its first patient in around twelve months. It will be based in the existing Swinburne psychology clinic.
‘As a university-based researcher, we’re always thinking about the synergy between what we’re trying to achieve and the fact that we have teaching responsibilities.’
‘Swinburne has one of the largest and longestrunning psychology clinics of any university in Australia. The bipolar clinic would be part of that, integrated into our teaching activities.’
‘What we can do is think innovatively about what role a clinic like this might play in the overall treatment and understanding of bipolar disorder in Australia. We are hoping that the clinic becomes a template.’
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