Dr Fiona Charlson

Adjunct Associate Professor

School of Public Health
Faculty of Medicine

Overview

Associate Professor Fiona Charlson is a NHMRC Research Fellow at the Queensland Centre of Mental Health Research and School of Public Health, University of Queensland. She is a psychiatric epidemiologist and health services researcher with strong experience in addressing some of the most challenging global mental health research questions. Her research utilises a wide range of highly-specialised research skills, from traditional qualitative and quantitative research methods to new and innovative methods aimed at breaking down barriers to progress in the field. She has been a core member of the Mental Disorders and Illicit Drug Use Research Group for the Global Burden of Disease Study since 2009 and is at the leading edge of research into the mental health impacts of climate change and leads the Social and Emotional wellbeing group of UQ’s Climate Change and Health Transdisciplinary Impact Research Network. Her technical expertise is highly sought after and has attracted collaboration requests and funding from a wide range of national and international stakeholders, including; Queensland Health, the World Health Organization, the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (University of Washington), US National Institutes of Health, Alan Flisher Centre for Public Mental Health (University of Cape Town) and various organisations in low- and middle-income countries.

Research Interests

  • Global Mental Health and Climate Change

Publications

View all Publications

Supervision

  • Doctor Philosophy

  • Doctor Philosophy

  • (2023) Doctor Philosophy

View all Supervision

Available Projects

  • Climate change is the greatest threat to global health in the 21st century. While certain physical health impacts of climate change are well understood, for example heat-related morbidity and mortality, the acute and chronic mental health impacts of climate change remain poorly understood. Depression is already the single largest contributor to global disability. Failing to adequately consider the climate change implications on mental health could further exacerbate and accelerate growing global trends in mental ill-health.

    The many varied links between climate change and mental health, which are highly socially and culturally mediated, raise challenges in the understanding, operationalisation and measurement of these complex relationships. This impedes our understanding of how to design and deliver effective interventions that reduce the mental health impacts of climate change and secure community social and emotional wellbeing. This PhD research will address these gaps through exploring the development of interventions that aim to mitigate the mental health impacts of climate change.

    This PhD research will be conducted in partnership with the UQ Social and Emotional Wellbeing in Climate Change Network and supervised by Associate Professor Fiona Charlson, School of Public Health, and by Dr Anne Cleary, Institute for Social Science Research.

View all Available Projects

Publications

Book Chapter

  • Charlson, Fiona J., Baxter, Amanda J., Dua, Tarun, Degenhardt, Louisa, Whiteford, Harvey A. and Vos, Theo (2015). Excess mortality from mental, neurological and substance use disorders in the Global Burden of Disease Study 2010. Disease control priorities: Volume 4, Mental, neurological, and substance use disorders. (pp. 41-65) edited by Vikram Patel, Dan Chisholm, Tarun Dua, Ramanan Laxminarayan and Maria Elena Medina-Mora. Washington, DC, United States: The World Bank.

Journal Article

Conference Publication

Other Outputs

Grants (Administered at UQ)

PhD and MPhil Supervision

Current Supervision

  • Doctor Philosophy — Principal Advisor

  • Doctor Philosophy — Principal Advisor

    Other advisors:

  • Doctor Philosophy — Principal Advisor

  • Doctor Philosophy — Principal Advisor

  • Doctor Philosophy — Associate Advisor

Possible Research Projects

Note for students: The possible research projects listed on this page may not be comprehensive or up to date. Always feel free to contact the staff for more information, and also with your own research ideas.

  • Climate change is the greatest threat to global health in the 21st century. While certain physical health impacts of climate change are well understood, for example heat-related morbidity and mortality, the acute and chronic mental health impacts of climate change remain poorly understood. Depression is already the single largest contributor to global disability. Failing to adequately consider the climate change implications on mental health could further exacerbate and accelerate growing global trends in mental ill-health.

    The many varied links between climate change and mental health, which are highly socially and culturally mediated, raise challenges in the understanding, operationalisation and measurement of these complex relationships. This impedes our understanding of how to design and deliver effective interventions that reduce the mental health impacts of climate change and secure community social and emotional wellbeing. This PhD research will address these gaps through exploring the development of interventions that aim to mitigate the mental health impacts of climate change.

    This PhD research will be conducted in partnership with the UQ Social and Emotional Wellbeing in Climate Change Network and supervised by Associate Professor Fiona Charlson, School of Public Health, and by Dr Anne Cleary, Institute for Social Science Research.