Stuart Lee

Contact Details

Phone: 03 9076 6591
Email: stuart.lee@med.monash.edu.au

Biography

Having completed a Doctorate in Clinical Neuropsychology with Monash University and worked at the Monash Alfred Psychiatry Research Centre since 2006, I am interested in the cognitive and other psychological consequences of psychiatric, neurological and oncology disorders and novel ways to treat them. All too often treatment for these disorders focuses on the medical options, with the psychological distress or thinking and memory difficulties that have a profound effect on quality of life often missed.

As a clinical research centre, working at MAP-RC has enabled me to work closely with staff in the Adult Psychiatry and Oncology Services of The Alfred hospital. This has provided the opportunity to complete a range of projects looking to improve the way care is delivered in these services. These include implementing routine distress screening on the inpatient oncology ward, evaluating the impact of an interagency initiative to improve mental health care for people living homeless, introducing sensory assessment and therapy to reduce seclusion use in inpatient psychiatry, and the benefit of creative therapies in acute psychiatry.

Research Interests

• Psychiatric Service Evaluation
• Cognition in Psychiatry
• Cognitive and Psychological Impact of Cancer

Teaching

• Lecturing in MBBS 4071
• Lab tutor for Research Design and Analysis PSY3062
• Lab tutor for PSY2051

Projects on offer in 2010 to be co-supervised by Lynda Katona – Head of Psychology at The Alfred

1. Emotional distress, coping style, quality of life and the impact on haematopoietic stem-cell transplantation outcome
As part of the routine work up for Allogeneic Haematopoietic Stem-cell Transplantation at The Alfred, patients undergo routine assessment of psychological distress, coping style and quality of life in preparation. This proposed project will evaluate the extent to which each of these impacts on treatment outcome for patients undergoing stem-cell transplantation at The Alfred.

2. Exploring the experience of haematopoietic stem-cell transplantation and changes in emotional distress, coping style and quality of life over time for survivors
Currently the experience of undergoing stem-cell transplantation is not formerly evaluated in any capacity. This project proposes to contact survivors of stem-cell transplantation to subjectively and objectively evaluate their experience of undergoing the treatment. A second aim will be to explore change from pre-treatment planning in emotional distress, coping style and quality of life, to determine whether recovery from stem-cell transplantation has a differential impact dependent on individual coping styles, in patients with different oncology conditions.