Bio: Jane Burns, a 2004-05 Harkness Fellow in Health Care Policy, is a senior manager at Australia's national depression initiative, beyondblue, where she has been instrumental in establishing their nationally and internationally recognized youth agenda. She is a visiting fellow at the Centre for Mental Health Research, Australian National University and an honorary research fellow at the Murdoch Children's Research Institute, University of Melbourne. Burns holds an ongoing consultancy with Athlete Development Australia as their chief investigator for research exploring the impact of using athletes, musicians and celebrities as role models. She is director and adolescent health advisor to the BounceBack Foundation: Role Models for Youth and a member of the Advisory Committee for the Inspire Foundation. She has a doctorate in public health with training in psychology, psychiatric epidemiology and evidence-based medicine. Her previous appointment as an National Health and Medical Research Council Fellow at the Centre for Adolescent Health (Royal Children's Hospital) covered prevention research in youth suicide, depression, and drug and alcohol use.
Placement: University of California
Mentors: Claire Brindis, Ph.D.; Charles Irwin, M.D.
Project: Prevention or Treatment in Adolescent Mental Health? A Comparison of U.S. and Australian Strategies and Approaches
Description: Jane Burn's project explored policy options and strategies to reduce adolescent mental health problems. She first conducted a literature review, and then used two large datasets (National Survey of Drug Use and Health; Adolescent Health Survey) to examine the prevalence, trajectory, explanatory factors, and associated utilization of adolescent mental health problems. Finally, she conducted interviews with researchers on different approaches to prevention and treatment.