Projects and grants

Our work is supported through grants and donations.

We gratefully acknowledge these financial contributions that support our integrated research activities.

  • Category 1 to 4 competitive funding
  • industry grants
  • donations.

Read more about our current and recent work.

Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia and Relationships Australia South Australia

Family Violence Triage in Family Courts: Safety, Efficacy and Benefit. ARC Linkage Project (LP210100181)

Principal Investigator – Professor Jennifer McIntosh; Partner Investigator – Professor Amy Holtzworth-Munroe (Indiana University); Chief Investigators – Dr Heng Jiang; Dr Anna Booth; Professor Yvonne Wells; Dr Bradley Wright; Professor Craig Olsson (Deakin University); Partner Investigators – Dr Claire Ralfs (Relationships Australia South Australia); Ms Elizabeth Evans (Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia).

  • Domestic and family violence (DFV) risks are highest during relationship separation, elevated further for parents and children involved in Family Court disputes. Utilising the federal Family Courts Triage pilot program, this partnership project aims to examine risk pathways, burdens and costs of post-separation DFV, and the efficacy and cost-benefits of early DFV triage. The project intends to produce new knowledge about family and systemic drivers of safety, to advance evidence on the efficacy of DFV triage and to translate findings into new resources for preventing DFV harms. This world-first study aims to inform global family law policy and practice, with intergenerational benefit for vulnerable Australian families and for society.

The Australian Temperament Project

The Australian Temperament Project, Life@4 study. NHMRC Grant (APP1082406)

Principal Investigator - Professor Craig Olsson (Deakin University); Chief Investigator - Professor Jennifer McIntosh

Pre-conception predictors of early childhood social and emotional development: A 30-year longitudinal study of grandparents, parents and children. ARC Grant (DP1311459)

Principal Investigator - Professor Craig Olsson (Deakin University); Chief Investigator - Professor Jennifer McIntosh; Investigator – Dr Anna Booth

  • This 37 year old cohort is now in its third generation. Prof McIntosh leads the Melbourne Attachment and Caregiving Lab in this project, centering on gold standard assessment of attachment, to date at one and four years. Prof McIntosh and Dr Booth are active in observational studies of parent child interaction, and the origins of co-regulatory states at the core of social-emotional well-being. They contribute to wider studies of pre-conception predictors of early childhood social and emotional development, led by Principal Investigator - Professor Craig Olsson (Deakin University).

The Intergenerational Origins of Social and Emotional Wellbeing. ARC Grant (DP180102447)

Principal Investigator - Professor Craig Olsson (Deakin University); Chief Investigator - Professor Jennifer McIntosh

Family functioning in the face of COVID-19

Chief Investigator - Professor Jennifer McIntosh; Investigators – Dr Anna Booth, Ms Felicity Painter

  • The Australian Temperament Project, Generation 3 Study of COVID-19 impacts on parent and child well-being.

Million Minds Mission

Leveraging digital technology to reduce the prevalence and severity of eating disorders in Australia. Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF) NHMRC Grant. 2020-2023

Investigators - Drs Matthew Fuller-Tyszkiewicz, Susan Paxton, Scott Griffiths, Suku Sukunesan, Siân McLean, Zali Yager, Rachel Rodgers, Catherine Mihalopoulos, Denise Meyer, Alexandra Parker, Adrian Shatte.

  • Although a range of evidence-based prevention and treatment programs are available for eating disorders, the majority of individuals who would benefit from treatment do not seek or receive help. Our Web- and app-based Interventions for Reducing Eating Disorders (WIRED) framework seeks to increase engagement with evidence-based eating disorders treatment and prevention resources via: (1) personalized, eHealth-based delivery of content, and (2) use of social media to identify and engage those in need of treatment. Across a series of inter-linked studies, we will evaluate efficacy and cost-effectiveness of our proposed intervention platform for eating disorders through randomised controlled trials, as well as gain insights into how to tackle propagation of eating disorder-related content via social media.

Let’s Talk About Children

Developing an Australian-first recovery model for parents in Victorian mental health and family services. Mental Illness Research Fund (MIRF). 2016-2019.

Chief Investigator – Professor Darryl Maybery (Monash University); Investigators – Dr Brendan O’Hanlon, Rose Cuff

  • Let’s Talk About Children is a brief, evidence-based recovery model designed specifically for parents with mental health problems. Monash University led the project with multiple researchers and service organisations to adapt Let’s Talk for professionals in Victorian adult clinical mental health services, mental health community supports services and family sectors to have a structured discussion with parents who experience mental illness about parenting and their child’s needs.

Australian Department of Defence, Social Policy Research Program, 2022

Socio-Emotional Well-Being and Economic Outcomes for Currently Serving Military Families: Examining Differences Relative to Civilian Families Through a Series of Rapid Reviews

Professor Jennifer E. McIntosh, Dr Heng Jiang, Dr Anna Booth, Dr Jessica Opie, Felicity Painter, An Vuong, Rowan Dowling, Dr Mohajer Hameed
  • The Bouverie Centre reviewed the evidence-base about the health and wellbeing of currently serving members, their families, spousal partners, and children, to guide policy and practice decisions. Studies exploring the impacts of military service on well-being and upon military retention have to date focused on the individual serving member, and/or on veterans, leaving the contemporary military family under-researched. Further, studies focusing on currently deployed or serving members are few, and those with such a focus rarely use civilian families as a control group. Thus, understanding the real differences between currently deployed or serving military families and civilian families, as well as the impacts these factors may have on military retention, are critically important research topics with significant policy implications. Read the Project Summary here. [PDF 180 KB]

Department of Justice and Community Safety, Victoria, 2020-2023

Stage 1 Women’s Diversion and Rehabilitation Strategy. Family Therapy Services in Women’s Prisons. 2020-2023.

Joint Principal Investigators – Professors Jennifer McIntosh and Jeff Young. $1,575,000.

  • This project examines, develops, pilots and evaluates family therapy interventions within Dame Phyllis Frost Centre and Tarrengower Prisons. The 3 ½ year fully integrated practice-research project will build and offer a multi-level family centred education and therapeutic service model for women prisoners and their families. The model will be trauma informed, evidence-based, and culturally safe, recognising and fostering the fundamental role of close relationships in successful reintegration where the risk of recidivism and rates of reincarceration are significantly reduced.

Relationships Australia, South Australia, 2018-2023

Research consultancy and development: Vulnerable Families Projects. 2020-2023.

Principal Investigator – Professor Jennifer McIntosh; Chief Investigator – Dr Anna Booth. $270,000.

Research consultancy and development: Vulnerable Infant Program. 2018-2021.

Principal Investigator - Professor Jennifer McIntosh. $240,000.

    Vulnerable Families Studies

  • With our long-term partner, Relationships Australia, South Australia, we are involved in multiple studies which share a common thread: the protection and support and safety of vulnerable families. Central to this collaboration is the development and implementation of the Family DOORS tools, for universal risk screening. We are also engaged in the development of a different approach to early engagement of homeless mothers, through the referral service.

Department of Families, Fairness and Housing, Victoria, 2018-2020 (previously known as Department of Health and Human Services)

Extension to training program in Trauma Informed Practices for the Maternal and Child Health Nurse Sector. 2019-2020.

Principal Investigator - Professor Jennifer McIntosh. $240,000.

Training program in Trauma Informed Practices for the Maternal and Child Health Nurse Sector. 2018.

Principal Investigator - Professor Jennifer McIntosh. $840,000.

MERTIL. Professor Jennifer McIntosh, Dr Anna Booth, Tanudja Gibson, Ellen Welsh, 2018 - 2020.

  • My Early Relational Trauma Informed Learning (MERTIL) began as a state-wide 20 hour training program for all Maternal and Child Health Nurses in Victoria. With strong evidence of its efficacy in improving practitioner confidence and capacity in detecting and responding to early forms of trauma in young families, MERTIL now offers a generic online training program, and a short course. MERTIL is a collaborative project between La Trobe University, Deakin University and the Women’s Hospital.

eheadspace Family and Friends, 2020

Development of an Online Resources for Families and Friends in partnership with headspace and the Psychosocial Research Centre, University of Melbourne. 2020.

Chief Investigator - Professor Carol Harvey (University of Melbourne); Investigators - Dr Brendan O’Hanlon, Nick Barrington. $140,000.

  • This research project aims to improve the support currently provided by eheadspace to the family and friends (FAF) of young people with mental health issues. To inform the development of an online psycho-educational resource for FAF designed to enhance the eheadspace response, an audit of routinely collected data collected by eheadspace of FAF-related contact and a series of four focus groups, three with FAF and one with eheadspace clinicians, will be conducted.

Department of Families, Fairness and Housing, Victoria, 2015-2019 (previously known as Department of Health and Human Services)

SPLice Supporting Practice Leaders in relation to ice. 2015-2019.

Dr Brendan O’Hanlon, Dr Jacqui Sundbery, Angie Nyland, Henry von Doussa

  • Clinical supervision and practice support were identified in the Victorian government’s Ice Action Plan as critical enablers in strengthening the capacity of Mental Health (MH) and Alcohol and Other Drug (AOD) workforces to provide best practice responses to people with ice-related issues. In partnership with Turning Point, Youth Support and Advocacy Service (YSAS) and the three mental health training coordination centres; NEVIL, LAMP and Western Cluster, we were commissioned by the Department of Families, Fairness and Housing (previously known as Department of Health and Human Services) to deliver a suite of training and support options. Read the report here. [PDF 921.9 KB]

Acute Psychiatric Inpatient Services, 2015-2016

Mental Health Beacon Implementing Single Session Family Consultation in Acute Psychiatric Inpatient Units. 2015-2016.

Dr Peter McKenzie, Hanna Jewell, Dr Brendan O’Hanlon, Sarah Jones.

Pandemic Family Violence and Workforce Well-being, 2020

Professor Jennifer McIntosh, Dr Siân McLean

  • A Bouverie funded study documents the rates of family violence presenting to health, maternal and child health and alcohol and drug sectors in Victoria, and the concurrent well-being of practitioners in these workforces. Read the report.