The Lives Lived Well (LLW) Research Group conducts clinical research on the assessment, understanding and treatment of primary and comorbid alcohol and other drug (AOD) use in young people. Our research agenda is underpinned by a formal research partnership with LLW, the largest AOD treatment service provider in Queensland. The group specialise in implementation research aimed at reducing the 18-year gap between the development of evidence-based AOD treatments and their translation into clinical practice. The team are also part of the National Centre for Youth Substance Use Research (NCYSUR), the only nationally funded youth-focused addiction research centre in Australia.

The LLW Research Group:

  • Develop and test new models for understanding youth AOD use and comorbidity
  • Conduct clinical trials of novel prevention and early intervention approaches to youth AOD use
  • Improve the treatment of youth AOD use and comorbidity by:
    • Integrating more strengths-based approaches
    • Targeting individual mechanisms of change
    • Combining psychological and pharmacological treatments
    • Integrating mobile-app and web-based interventions
  • Use an implementation science approach to translate evidence-based treatments into routine practice, including the training and supervision of staff
  • Develop and test mobile-app and web-based interventions targeting the mental health and wellbeing of young people including:
    • Ray’s night out: mobile app targeting risky alcohol use
    • music eScape: mobile app using music to improve affect regulation
    • Breakup Shakeup: mobile app for coping with relationship breakups
    • Keep it Real: web-based program targeting psychotic-like experiences in AOD users
    • SMART ROM: Routine outcome monitoring plus feedback app developed for SMART Recovery Australia (led by A/Prof Kelly, University of Wollongong).
    • INSIST suicide prevention app for Aboriginal and Torres-Strait Islander Peoples
  • NHMRC Centre of Research Excellence Project (led by Prof Hides): Meaningful Outcomes in Substance Use Treatment (MO CRE): Implementing routine outcome measures and client feedback in the AOD sector to increase its capacity to deliver evidence-based and cost-effective care.
  • Commonwealth Department of Health (Prof Connor & Hides), National Centre for Youth Substance Use Research (NCYSUR)
    • Drug Checking/Pill Testing – Co-design and testing of a brief intervention
    • Reducing AOD-use and related-harm in university students
    • Early intervention for substance use among young people accessing support services in night-time entertainment precincts and AOD treatment
  • MRFF Project (led by Prof Newton, University of Sydney): OurFutures Vaping: a cluster randomised controlled trial of a school-based eHealth intervention to prevent e-cigarette use among adolescents
  • NHMRC Project (led by Prof Johnson, QUT): Motivation, Aetiology and Symptomology of Potentially Concerning Videogame Play in Young People
  • Momentum NHMRC MRFF Million Minds (led by Prof March, University of Southern QLD) Translating evidence-based interventions into population-level digital models of care for child & adolescent mental health
  • National Centre for Clinical Research on Emerging Drugs (led by Prof Kelly, University of Wollongong): Methamphetamine and mutual support: A mixed-methods exploration of SMART Recovery participants’ characteristics and opportunities for enhanced referral pathways 
  • National Centre for Clinical Research on Emerging Drugs (led by Prof Kelly, University of Woolongong): BeSMART: feasibility and preliminary efficacy of an intervention for family members impacted by methamphetamine 
  • Commonwealth Department of Health (Prof Connor & Hides), National Centre for Youth Substance Use Research (NCYSUR) 
    • Understanding the impact of COVID-19 on AOD staff, clients and services
    • Development, implementation and evaluation of a new trauma-informed model of care for residential treatment settings
    • ‘First Step’ Brief Intervention Implementation Trial: Evaluating the 'First Step' in treatment for individuals seeking substance use interventions
    • Adolescent Aware: The relationship between social cognitive processes, substance use, bullying, and wellbeing during early adolescence
    • Grit Wellbeing program for individuals attending alcohol and other drug day group treatment programs
    • Keep it Real: web-based program targeting psychotic-like experiences in AOD users
  • NHMRC Project (led by Prof Hides): Brief interventions to prevent future alcohol-related harm in young people presenting to emergency departments
  • NHMRC Project (led by Prof Hides): Randomised controlled trial of a telephone-delivered social well-being and engaged living (SWEL) intervention for disengaged at-risk youth
  • NHMRC Project (led by Prof Kavanagh, QUT): Trial of a new low-cost treatment to support self-management of Alcohol Use Disorder: Functional Imagery Training
  • NHMRC Project (led by Prof Toombs, University of QLD): Indigenous Network Suicide Intervention Skills Training (INSIST): Can a community-designed and delivered framework reduce suicide/self-harm in Indigenous youth?
  • NHMRC Project (led by Prof Collins, University of Newcastle): Efficacy and cost-effectiveness of varying levels of technology-delivered personalised feedback on dietary patterns in motivating young Australian adults to improve diet quality and eating habits: The Advice, Ideas and Motivation for My Eating study
  • NHMRC Project (led by Prof Sue Cotton, University of Melbourne): Rates, patterns and predictors of long-term outcome in a treated first-episode psychosis cohort
  • Rotary Mental Health Grant (led by Prof Hides): FullFix: A pilot randomised controlled trial of a telephone-delivered transdiagnostic intervention for comorbid substance and mental health disorders in young people
  • NHMRC Project (led by Prof Teesson, University of Sydney): Internet-based universal prevention for anxiety, depression and substance use in young Australians
  • NHMRC Project (led by Prof Teesson, University of Sydney) - Healthy, wealthy and wise: The long-term effectiveness of an online universal program to prevent substance use and mental health problems among Australian youth
  • Paul Ramsay Foundation (led by Prof Teesson, University of Sydney): The Health4Life Initiative: Evaluation of an eHealth school-based program targeting multiple chronic disease risk factors among young Australians

 

Founder:

Professor Leanne Hides

Researcher Fellows:

Research Assistants 

Adjuncts, Honoraries & Affiliates

PhD students

  • Ms Lily Davidson: Using Social Network Analysis to Improve Understanding of the Social Processes Related to Drinking in Australian Adolescents 
  • Ms Courtney O-Donnell: Establishing a clinical supervision exchange model for the alcohol and other drug sector
  • Ms Valeriya Mefodeva: Trauma Informed Treatment for Alcohol and Other Drug Related Disorders with Comorbid Posttraumatic Stress Disorder
  • Mr Calvert Tisdale: Mental and physical health trajectories of individuals who access substance use residential treatment: A data linkage project
  • Miss Sophia Glasgow: Profiling Chronic Mental and Physical Health Comorbidities in the Australian d/Deaf Community - Prevalence and Service Utilisation
  • Ms Rebekah Thomas: Exploring socio-emotional markers and the development of emerging eating disorder throughout adolescence
  • Mr Habte Gobie: Enhancing self-confidence in school-aged adolescents for prevention impulsive behaviors (substance addiction, risky sexual behavior, gambling and internet addiction) and mental illnesses
  • Mr Tesfa Mekohen Yimer: Barriers to service use and treatment gaps for mental health service in resource limited settings
  • Mr Yiu Chak Chung: Impacts of Cannabis Use and Cannabis Vaping - Insight into Australian Cannabis Policies
  • Ms Cuik Ying Vivian Chiu: The impacts of legalisation of medical and recreational cannabis

Professor Leanne Hides
l.hides@uq.edu.au 
+61 7 3365 6398

Lives Lived Well Research Group, McElwain Building (24A), St Lucia

https://www.liveslivedwell.org.au/