Melissa Opozda

Dr Mel Opozda is a registered Health Psychologist and Research Fellow (Men’s Mental Health) in the College of Medicine and Public Health, on Kaurna land in Tarntanya (Adelaide). She is primarily working in a team headed by Prof James Smith and A/Prof Kootsy Canuto to evaluate a new culturally adapted, social media-based social and emotional wellbeing intervention for young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander males in the Northern Territory (the YBMenNT project).

Her research interests are primarily in young men's and men's mental health, particularly:

• their experiences of physical and mental ill-health and wellbeing,
• their health-related behaviours and behaviour change (e.g., eating, alcohol use, exercise),
• their experiences of accessing healthcare,
• supporting health professionals to provide effective care to young men and men, and
• developing and evaluating health and wellbeing programs that suit young men's and men's preferences, needs, and circumstances - especially in the e-health/m-health space.

She is particularly interested in these issues in specific populations of young men and men who often have higher rates of mental ill-health and less access to suitable care, such as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander males, gay, bisexual, trans, and nonbinary folx, and new migrants.

She has recently worked on projects investigating men's experiences of using telehealth services, men's use of alcohol during COVID-19, African migrant men's experiences of accessing mental health care in their new countries, and the effects of internet-based psychotherapeutic interventions on men's mental health. She mainly uses qualitative, mixed, and review methods. She has co-supervised two PhDs to completion and various Honours/Masters theses.

Prior to joining Flinders, Mel was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow with the Freemasons Centre for Male Health and Wellbeing at the South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute/University of Adelaide. She has also worked in a variety of teaching, health education, health promotion, and clinical settings.