Associate Professor Melissa Petrakis
PhD, BA, BSW, MSW (Research)
Group Director, Social Work Innovation, Transformation and Collaboration in Health (SWITCH) Research Group, PhD, BA, BSW, MSW Research
melissa.petrakis@monash.edu
+61 3 9903 4497
Profile
Associate Professor Melissa Petrakis is Director of SWITCH Research Group at Monash University, Department of Social Work. She has worked in mental health services for over 30 years, as a counsellor, clinician, manager, then practice-based researcher. She has authored over 100 publications and is a highly sought after speaker nationally and internationally. She was Chief Investigator of a 10-year longitudinal study into evidence-based early psychosis treatment, with St Vincent's Hospital (Melbourne). In 2016 she was awarded The Tom Trauer Evaluation and Research Award, Australian and New Zealand The MHS Awards, acknowledging excellence in her approach to research, championing co-design, co-production and co-authorship, with clinicians and people with lived experience of mental illness.
Associate Professor Petrakis' career focus in research is to excellence in mental health services research. She has a particular emphasis on the implementation of evidence-based practice (EBP), conducting practice-based research (PBR), and the fostering of practitioner-researcher opportunities for skilled clinicians. She is actively engaged in supporting lived experience voices in research, and in co-design and co-production with emerging consumer and carer researchers, working as an ally to foster, promote and elevate the leadership of people with lived and living experience.