Dr. Merridy Grant is a Senior Lecturer in the Western Australian Centre for Rural Health and an Adjunct Senior Research Fellow and Research Officer in the School of Health and Clinical Sciences at the University of Western Australia. She also serves as an Adjunct Research Fellow in the Curtin University School of Population Health since November 2014. With more than 15 years of experience, Dr. Grant conducts research across Western Australia and low- and middle-income countries in Africa aimed at improving health and wellbeing outcomes for young people and adults, with a particular emphasis on marginalized populations. Her approach involves co-creating knowledge and solutions with communities through qualitative research and participatory methodologies, centering on community-based mental health.

Dr. Grant earned her PhD in Psychology from the University of KwaZulu-Natal in 2023, with a thesis on the development and feasibility of a Community Mental Health Education and Detection (CMED) Tool in the Amajuba district, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. She holds an MSocSci in Research Psychology (2007) and an Honours degree in Psychology (2004) from the same university. Key publications include: “The Thing That Will Save You Is the Community”: Qualitative Perspectives on Mental Health and Social Connectedness Following a Major Australian Bushfire (Qualitative Health Research, 2025); A learning health systems approach to scaling up an evidence-based intervention for integrated primary mental healthcare case finding and referral in South Africa (BMJ Global Health, 2024); Impact of a multicomponent navigation strategy on stigma among people living with HIV and Kaposi's sarcoma in Kenya (Journal of the National Cancer Institute Monographs, 2024); Management of Depression in Chronic Care Patients Using a Task-Sharing Approach in a Real-World Primary Health Care Setting in South Africa (Community Mental Health Journal, 2023); and Strengthening integrated depression services within routine primary health care using the RE-AIM framework in South Africa (PLoS Global Public Health, 2023). Dr. Grant has 29 research outputs, contributing to UN Sustainable Development Goal 16: Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions.

Professional Email: merridy.grant@uwa.edu.au