Name: Professor Phil Ward
Position/s Professor Phil Ward, Director, Schizophrenia Research Unit, SWSLHD; Postgraduate Coordinator, School of Psychiatry; Chair, Waves of Wellness Foundation
Theme and CAG position:
Sub theme leader for Complex and Difficult to Treat Diseases
My work focusses on improving physical health outcomes for people living with mental illness, by developing and evaluating lifestyle interventions tailored for this population and ensuring that evidence-based therapies are implemented as part of routine care and promoting guideline-adherent treatment regimens.
As sub-theme leader, I see the sub theme as providing a platform for supporting research that addresses real-world clinical issues identified by practitioners, including those working in mental health services, community-based organisation, and primary care.
To date, a range of innovative projects driven by sub-theme participants have received seed funding from the CAG, including identifying and treating obstructive sleep apnoea, investigating the gut microbiome in early and established psychotic disorders, implementing targeted lifestyle interventions to increase the consumption of legumes among service users, and trialling new medications to improve metabolic risk in people prescribed clozapine.
One of the recent interests is to ensure that service users and carers are fully engaged in research and evaluation, from identifying key issues, designing intervention frameworks, and evaluating outcomes – co-design is an important methodology for achieving these goals, and its pivotal role was highlighted by the funding announced for the ALIVE national network as a NHMRC Strategic Initiative in Mental Health
An initiative I am currently involved in, The Waves of Wellness Foundation, is a NFP that provides mental health interventions whilst participants learn to surf or increase their surfing skills, over an eight-week program. It currently operates at sites in NSW, Queensland and Victoria, with plans to expand Western Australia later this year. Evaluation projects are planned for several sites where recruitment targets participants living with psychotic disorders. Please get in touch by email p.ward@unsw.edu.au if you or someone you know would be interested in collaborating on such evaluations.