Mental Illness Stigma Lab

Dr Chris Groot - Lab Director

Dr Chris Groot leads the Mental Illness Stigma Lab in the Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences at the University of Melbourne, which drives research, teaching, and public engagement programs that focus on stigma about severe and complex experiences of mental illness. He was the academic lead on Australia's first National Stigma Report Card and has supported the expansion of this work internationally. Dr. Groot has supported Australian and international governments and the World Bank in addressing mental illness stigma. He is a member of the Global Anti-Stigma Alliance, the Global Mental Health Innovation Network’s Stigma and Discrimination Working Group, and co-founder of the Mental Ill-Health Stigma Researchers Australia network (MISRA).

Ms Beth Hobern - PhD Candidate and Lab Coordinator

Beth Hobern is a PhD Candidate in the Mental Ill-Health Stigma and Telehealth Lab in the Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences at the University of Melbourne.  Her PhD research focusses on stigma about schizophrenia spectrum and alcohol and other drug disorders, which she is investigating both from the perspective of general public and those with lived experiences. Beth was previously the lead research assistant on the National Stigma Report Card, which was a collaboration between SANE Australia and the Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences. She also completed her Honours degree in psychology with a thesis examining the public’s stigmatised personal responses to positive symptoms of psychosis.  Beth also plays an instrumental role in MISTLab and works closely with Chris to coordinate its operations across research, teaching, and engagement. Beth's PhD supervision team includes Dr Chris Groot (Primary), Dr Michelle Blanchard (Co-supervisor), and Dr Imogen Rehm (Co-supervisor).

Dr Imogen Rehm - Honorary Senior Fellow

Dr Imogen Rehm is a Senior Lecturer and Chair of the Master of Professional Psychology program at Victoria University. She holds broad clinical and research interests in the areas of psychosocial recovery, stigma, digital mental health, anxiety, and obsessive-compulsive and related disorders. As a member of the self-stigma technical advisory committee, Imogen is currently advising the National Mental Health Commission regarding their development of Australia’s first National Stigma and Discrimination Reduction Strategy. She also holds a position as Honorary Fellow with the Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences at University of Melbourne and is an Associate Editor for the Australian Psychological Society journal, Clinical Psychologist. Imogen is a practising Clinical Psychologist and registered supervisor with the Psychology Board of Australia.

Ms Alsa Wu

Alsa Wu is a mental health advocate and a psychology graduate from the Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences. She is an enthusiastic member of the teaching staff at the University of Melbourne, holding roles across multiple departments. Her Honours degree research was conducted as part of Australia’s National Stigma Report Card, with her thesis examining the stigma of borderline personality disorder in intimate relationships. With years of experience in mental health awareness advocacy, Alsa has been deeply involved in efforts to reduce stigma surrounding complex mental illnesses, particularly within diverse cultural contexts. She is passionate about fostering understanding and dismantling barriers to mental health support, especially in East Asia, where cultural nuances play a significant role in shaping stigma.

Dr Elise Carrotte

Dr Elise Carrotte completed here PhD in the Mental Ill-Health Stigma and Telehealth Lab in the Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences at the University of Melbourne in 2024. Her PhD commenced in 2020, and involves exploring novel interventions to reduce stigma against people living with complex mental health issues, specifically through the development and evaluation of a new podcast focusing on lived experience, 'On the Same Wavelength'. She is continuing work on developing and evaluating the podcast series through co-supervision of graduate students in the Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences. Elise holds a Master of Psychology (Clinical), and has worked as a psychologist to deliver assessments and psychological therapies across a range of settings, and currently holds a role with Orygen.

MISTLab Alumni and Theses

2024

Elise Carrotte - PhD Thesis "On the Same Wavelength: A  Co-Designed Podcast to Reduce Stigma Towards People Living with Complex Mental Health Issues.

Melissa Chrys - Masters thesis "Investigating Detective Duck: Does an animated video intervention decrease stigma about depression?"

Will Morrisey - Masters thesis "The 'Detective Duck' mental health video intervention and its effects on state empathy and helping intentions."

Jessica Vinnicombe - Masters thesis "The effect of an animated mental health video intervention on people’s confidence, comfort, and intentions to have a helping conversation with a young person experiencing depression."

2023

Michelle Li - Masters thesis "Exploring the Effects of Myth-and-Fact vs. Fact-Only Anti-Stigma Interventions on Self-Stigma of Seeking Help of Mental Illness and the Role of Gender".

Barbara Zavros - Masters thesis "Etiological Explanations of Mental Illness in Anti-Stigma Video Education do not Impact Blame Stereotypes in Adolescents".

Rebecca Sullivan - Masters thesis "The Effects of Mental illness Aetiological Education on Self Stigma of Seeking Help and Willingness to Seek Help for Psychological Problems: Comparisons between the Biopsychosocial, Biomedical and Psychosocial Models".

Mika Goodyer - Masters thesis "Myth-busting or myth-enforcing? Assessing the efficacy of stigma reduction interventions in refuting the negative beliefs around mental illness: addressing ideas of perceived dangerousness and desire for social distance".

Brian Niu - Masters thesis "Effectiveness of Myth-Busting versus Purely Corrective Interventions in Reducing Youth Personal Stigma about Mental Illness".

2022

Ernest Wang - Masters thesis "Exploring the Effect of Biopsychosocial Education on Personal Stereotypes about People with Schizophrenia".

Kayla Matisi - Masters thesis "The Influence of Familiarity with Mental Illness on the Desire  for Social Distances".

Ashley Milosevska - Masters thesis "Levels of Personal and Perceived Stigmatised Attitudes Associated with Depression, Anxiety, and Schizophrenia".

Robyn Young - Masters thesis "Personality Bias and Stereotyping as Predictors of Desire for Social Distance from Individuals with Anxiety, Depression, and Schizophrenia".

2021

Alsa Wu - Honours thesis "The Stigma of Borderline Personality Disorder in Intimate Relationships: An Investigation of Self-Reported Experiences and Anticipation of Stigma and Discrimination, and their Association with Interpersonal Withdrawal".

Kelton Hardingham - PhD Thesis (Prof. Nick Haslam primary supervisor, Dr Chris Groot co-supervisor) "The Effects of Television and Internet News on Stigmatisation of Schizophrenia".

2020

Mengjie Cai - Honours thesis "The Lived Experience of Borderline Personality Disorder in Australian Mental Healthcare Services: An Investigation of Self-Reported Experiences and Anticipation of Stigma, and their Relationship with Withdrawal from Help-Seeking".

Jessica Westfold - Masters thesis "Stigmatising Responses to Borderline Personality Disorder in a Telehealth Context".

2019

Ellen Rankin - Honours thesis "Public Stigmatised Responses to Schizophrenia: An Investigation of the Role of Negative Symptoms and Sex".

Emma Waldron - Honours thesis "Understanding stigma towards Borderline Personality Disorder in telephone counselling settings".

2018

Jessica Westfold - Honours thesis "Hallucinations and Unusual Sensory Experiences: Examining the Psychosis-Proneness-Persistent-Impairment Model in a Non-clinical Sample".

Beth Hobern - Honours thesis "The Roles of Positive Symptoms, Gender, and Positive Schizotypy in the Elicitation of Public Stigma Towards Schizophrenia".

2017

Kelton Hardingham - Honours thesis "The Effects of Relabelling, Symptomatology, and Illness Course on Public Stigma about Schizophrenia".

Anna Orzech - Honours thesis (Co-supervised with A/Prof Simon Cropper) "Hallucination-Proneness, Sensory Processing and Schizotypal Personality: Associations in Healthy Individuals".

Elle Pattenden - Honours thesis (Co-supervised with A/Prof Simon Cropper) "Hallucination Proneness in a Non-Clinical Population: Associations with Hypomanic Personality and Perceptual Factors".