Description:

This presentation will shed light on the health literacy of individuals living with mental health and substance use disorders. Despite often facing health inequalities, poorer outcomes, and difficulties accessing good healthcare, this group remains understudied. The webinar will provide an overview of a program of research examining the multidimensional health literacy levels of this population and how it affects their health outcomes. The research draws comparisons with other populations and explores the connection between health literacy and service utilization. Additionally, the research investigates whether health literacy shows improvement over time post-residential substance use disorder treatment and how this impacts health and recovery outcomes. Practical tools and next steps to address the health literacy of this population will be discussed. This research contributes important insights, offering the first platform upon which further research and interventions can be developed.

Guest speaker: 

Dr. Tayla Degan is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre (NDARC), University of New South Wales, Australia. She is also a registered Clinical Psychologist working in private practice. She has research expertise and interest in populations of people living with mental health and substance use disorders. Her PhD research focused on the health literacy of people accessing specialist mental health and substance use disorder treatment.

Tayla has experience in working across multiple research trials and projects, including the evaluation of treatment services, implementation of a telephone-based continuing care intervention for people discharged from residential treatment services, and is currently involved in a Phase-3 randomised controlled trial examining mirtazapine as a pharmacotherapy treatment option for methamphetamine dependence. Tayla also has a strong interest in online interventions for substance use disorders and using co-design. She has previously worked as a Clinical Psychologist for Corrective Services NSW specialising in the assessment and treatment of people in custody who experience serious mental health such as schizophrenia and psychosis. Tayla has a passion for teaching and inspiring the next generation of psychologists and has lectured across multiple Australian universities.

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