Patients with facial trauma and cancer will be the ultimate beneficiaries of a Churchill Fellowship awarded to Department of Health and Families (DHF) employee Wendy Guscott.
Mrs Guscott has been involved in a pilot project conducted by Royal Darwin Hospital and Top End Mental Health Services to assess the psychological impact of facial injuries, such as broken jaws, and head and neck cancer.
The project came about after the hospital's Maxillo Facial Surgeon, Mr Mahiban Thomas, approached Mental Health Services when it became apparent that many of his patients were at risk of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).
"Through screening and more detailed assessments of patients experiencing significant facial trauma requiring surgery, we have confirmed there is a high incidence of PTSD and other mental health problems, including depression, when patients suffer facial trauma" Mrs Guscott said.
Mrs Guscott, who works as the NT Mental Health Disaster and Critical Incident Response Coordinator, said that patients found at risk of suffering mental health problems are offered psychological support or referred for more intensive treatment.
"I think we need to develop psychological treatments that are more culturally sensitive and specifically tailored to our patients' needs in the Territory," Mrs Guscott said.
The Churchill Fellowship will enable Mrs Guscott to further her groundbreaking work in this area. Mrs Guscott says she is looking forward to visiting centres of excellence and trauma experts around the world, including Edmonton in Canada, London and Cardiff in the United Kingdom, and Hawaii and Alaska in the United States.
"My goal is to study and develop culturally appropriate psychological support for trauma victims in the NT," Mrs Guscott added.