Dr Christina Driver is a Lecturer and Course Coordinator of the Thompson Institute's Graduate Certificate in Mental Health and Neuroscience and new Graduate Diploma in Mental Health and Neuroscience.
She is also a research team member for the Thompson Institute's ground-breaking youth mental health and neurobiological research project, the Longitudinal Adolescent Brain Study.
Dr Driver coordinates courses in the Graduate Diploma and Graduate Certificate in Mental Health and Neuroscience at UniSC's Thompson Institute. These courses include Youth Mental Health and Neurobiology; Mental Health and Neuroscience: Translational Research; Neuroimaging Advances in Mental Health; Understanding and Preventing Suicide; Neurocognition in Mental Health and Healthy Brain Ageing; and Stress Related Disorders and Lifestyle Factors and Mental Health.
Her research is currently focused on youth mental health and adolescent brain development. Dr Driver is also a Science Mentor for Frontiers for Young Minds (a health, psychology and neuroscience journal) and was part of the first live review in Australia at the Society for Mental Health Research Conference in 2018.
For her PhD, Dr Driver researched the application of psycho-social strategies for rehabilitation and chronic disease, particularly with regards to physiotherapy practice. This involved the development of a framework for learning and teaching of psycho-social strategies for physiotherapists and other allied health professionals.
In other research roles, she has explored psychological strategies in occupational therapy for patients with Parkinson's disease, the psychological effects of injury, disability and chronic disease, service mapping of mental health, suicide prevention, alcohol and other drugs service providers, and effects of multidisciplinary pain management programs.
Awards
- Vice Chancellor and President's Awards, for Excellence in Learning and Teaching, 2021
Dr Driver shared this award with her colleague Liz Askew for the Mental Health and Neuroscience postgraduate programs at the Thompson Institute.
'Dr Driver and Ms Askew are recognised for their instrumental role in the development and delivery of the highly innovative and unique online MHN postgraduate program. It is evident that a lot of thought and planning has gone into the development of this new program including the use of a variety of strategies and tools to engage and interact with students in a fully online environment. The high-quality and dedicated learning and teaching work undertaken by both, and in particular, the combination of Dr Driver's outstanding teaching skills and Ms Askew's educational design skills has resulted in impressive student evaluation scores and a successful and growing program'.
Dr Christina Driver’s specialist areas of knowledge include mental health, neuroscience, the psychosocial aspects of injury, disability and chronic health conditions, and the use of psychosocial strategies as part of a biopsychosocial model of care for health and rehabilitation
Teaching areas
- Lecturer and Course Coordinator: Graduate Certificate in Mental Health and Neuroscience
- Lecturer and Course Coordinator: Graduate Diploma in Mental Health and Neuroscience
- Supervision: youth mental health and neuroscience
Dr Christina Driver’s specialist areas of knowledge include mental health, neuroscience, the psychosocial aspects of injury, disability and chronic health conditions, and the use of psychosocial strategies as part of a biopsychosocial model of care for health and rehabilitation