Scientia Professor Helen Christensen is Director & Chief Scientist at the Black Dog Institute and a Professor of Mental Health at UNSW Sydney. She is Chief Investigator for the Centre for Research Excellence in Suicide Prevention, National Health and Medical Research Council, Elizabeth Blackman Fellow in Public Health, Board Member for the Association of Australian Medical Research Institutes, and previously one of only two NHMRC John Cade Research Fellows. She is also on the Million Minds panel, a government initiative that has brought together the distinguished academics and mental health professionals to reduce the prevalence of mental illness and suicide. Christensen’s areas of interest include:
Christensen is highly recognised as an international authority indepression and suicide prevention, most well known for her pioneering work in harnessing technologies in mental health. She has published more than 600 peer-reviewed research articles, including more than 180 in the last five years. With over 54,200 citations on Google Scholar to date, h index of 129, over 150 papers cited 100 times, and eight cited more than 500 times, she is an ISI Highly Cited Researcher. Her contributions in the last five years has been characterised by the capacity to complete and implement large-scale population-based digital, clinical step-care and community intervention trials and the establishment of a digital mental health research program. She is interested in digital phenotyping and the use of AI in developing faster treatments for mental health problems. As a leading expert on using technology to deliver evidence-based interventions for the prevention and treatment of depression, anxiety, suicide, and self-harm. Christensen has contributed significantly to the prevention of mental health problems in young people through school-based research programs. These programs mostly used websites and apps to prevent depression and suicide risk. Christensen’s lifetime of research and service has been to improve and reform mental healthcare delivery and prevent the human and economic cost of mental ill-health on communities.
Elected to Fellowship of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia in 2004.
Elected to the Fellowship of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences in 2015.
Awards Christensen has won 19 national and international awards and six prizes. She has achieved the highest research award from both her professional body and the peak research body in mental health. She is the recipient of two recent awards for leadership: NSW Premier’s Prize for Leadership in Innovation, and the International Society for Research on Internet Interventions Lifetime Achievement Award. She was conferred an Officer in the General Division of the Order of Australia in the 2019 Australia Day Honours List for her distinguished service to medical research.
Appointments
Former president Australasian Society for Psychiatric Research 2009-2011, which is the peak body for mental health research in Australia.
Former President, International Society for Research into Internet Interventions 2009-2011, a 400-member society which promotes research into Internet applications.
She has been a member of 13 Executive Committees, Government panels and committees, 12 NHMRC Panels since 2001 including project, scholarship and training awards, and Chair/ member of the Victorian Centre of Excellence in Depression Research Grant Applications for 4 years.
She has been a Director of the Australian Foundation for Mental Health Research, and was the chair of the organising committee that established the organisation in 2003.
Supervision of over 30 PhD students since 2004. CIA on NHMRC Capacity Building Grant 2007. Substantial mentoring of PhDs and Post Docs since 1999. Introduction of mentoring/leadership training to the Centre for Mental Health Research at the ANU.
