Rate My Professor Helen McLaren

Professor Helen McLaren serves as Professor of Social Work and National Head of Discipline (Social Work) in the School of Allied Health, Faculty of Health Sciences, at Australian Catholic University, based at St Patrick's Campus in Melbourne. With qualifications including a Bachelor of Social Work (Honours) and a PhD, she brings extensive experience from diverse roles in practice and research. Her career encompasses positions as a forensic and psycho-social therapist in Child Protection Services at the Adelaide Women’s and Children’s Hospital, victim support and forensic investigator within South Australia's Justice Portfolio, researcher at the South Australian Department of Community Welfare and the Australian Centre for Child Protection at the University of South Australia, and Professorial Research Fellow at the Centre for Decentralization and Participatory Development Research at Universitas Padjadjaran in Indonesia. Prior to ACU, she held a professorial position in the College of Education, Psychology and Social Work at Flinders University, where she built interdisciplinary research teams and advanced PhD supervision, earning the highest completion track record in Social Work.

McLaren's research specializations center on trauma-informed care, child protection, social work practice with culturally and linguistically diverse communities, practitioner wellbeing, secondary trauma, foster care innovations like the Mockingbird Family model, quality of life, and community-based supports for individuals with serious mental illness and ageing populations. Notable projects include evaluations of the Mockingbird Family model across eight studies, co-design of the Linker Service for women experiencing poverty, and investigations into ageing in prison and meaningful connections for mental health recovery. Key publications include "Covid-19 and women’s triple burden: Vignettes from Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Vietnam and Australia" (2020, Social Sciences), "The aging experiences of LGBTQ ethnic minority older adults: A systematic review" (2022, The Gerontologist), "Achieving Family-Integrated Care for Older Patients with Major Neurodegenerative and Mental Health Conditions: A Systematic Review" (2025, International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health), and "Connecting, Making Friends, and Having Good Times: Children and Young People's Experiences in a Systematic Intervention - The Case of the Mockingbird Family" (2026, Child Care in Practice). Her contributions have garnered international recognition through collaborations with governments, NGOs, and institutions in Australia and Asia. Awards include the Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Higher Degree Research Supervision (2020), Faculty Citation for Outstanding Contribution to Student Learning (2016), and Faculty Scholar in Learning and Teaching (2015). She holds editorial roles on Kumawala: Jurnal Pengabdian Kepada Masyarakat and Social Alternatives, and serves on expert panels for family studies and child protection.