Rate My Professor Caitlin Fehily

Dr. Caitlin Fehily is a postdoctoral researcher in the School of Psychological Sciences, College of Engineering, Science and Environment, at the University of Newcastle, Australia. She earned her PhD from the University of Newcastle in 2020, with a thesis entitled 'Translation of chronic disease preventive care guidelines into mental health service delivery.' Prior to her doctorate, she held a Bachelor of Psychological Science (Honours). Her research specializes in health psychology and implementation science, with a primary focus on developing and evaluating strategies to enhance the delivery of preventive care for chronic disease risk factors—including tobacco smoking, harmful alcohol consumption, inadequate nutrition, and physical inactivity—among clients of community mental health services. Fehily's work addresses the integration of physical health care within mental health settings, emphasizing clinician behavior change and service system interventions through rigorous study designs such as randomized controlled trials, cluster-randomized trials, systematic reviews, and meta-analyses.

Fehily has published extensively in high-impact journals, contributing significantly to the evidence base for preventive care in mental health. Key publications include 'Systematic review of lifestyle interventions to improve weight, physical activity and diet among people with a mental health condition' (2022, International Journal of Mental Health Nursing), 'Effectiveness of nutrition and dietary interventions for people with serious mental illness: systematic review and meta-analysis' (2022, World Psychiatry), 'The effectiveness of interventions to increase preventive care provision for chronic disease risk behaviours in mental health settings: a systematic review and meta-analysis' (2020, Systematic Reviews), 'Effectiveness of embedding a specialist preventive care clinician in a community mental health service in increasing preventive care provision: a randomised controlled trial' (2020, Australian & New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry), 'An economic evaluation of a specialist preventive care clinician in a community mental health service: a randomised controlled trial' (2020, Australian & New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry), and 'Increasing chronic disease preventive care in community mental health services: clinician-generated strategies' (2023, BMC Psychiatry). She has also co-authored policy-influencing reports such as 'Being Equally Well: A national policy roadmap to better physical health care and longer lives for people living with serious mental illness' (2021). Her contributions have earned recognition through the Equally Well Award for achievements in mental and physical health integration. Fehily collaborates with the Hunter Medical Research Institute and Hunter New England Population Health, advancing translational research in public health.