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New director sets focus on health and wellbeing at Peninsula

22 November 2005

Monash's Peninsula campus has strengthened its commitment to health research with the appointment of Professor Carol Morse as director, Health and Wellbeing Research.

Professor Morse (pictured), who took up the position in October, is a health psychologist and psychotherapy practitioner. She previously held a personal chair in women's health at RMIT University and in 1999 was appointed to a personal chair in adult development and ageing at Victoria University, where she was also dean of the Faculty of Human Development.

In her new position, Professor Morse will bring together research groups from across the campus working in health and wellbeing.

The position will target all areas of health sciences as well as information technology, business and economics and early childhood development.

Professor Morse said the position was aimed at raising the activity level in research across the Peninsula campus and focusing on a few key areas seeking to address national and local issues of importance.

"There appears to be considerable energy waiting to be harnessed and utilised across the campus," she said. "People have been engaged in research, but in the past it hasn't been focused on health and wellbeing.

"This is an area of prime focus for the campus, and, rather than having scores of people across the university researching this area independently, I will be helping to build those connections."

As well as bringing together research groups across the campus, the role will help connect the university with the community, including the Frankston City Council, non-government organisations, local hospitals and healthcare providers.

Professor Morse has spent the past five years looking into the experiences of different ageing ethnic groups in Victoria. She has also carried out several studies exploring the transition to parenthood and associated mood disorders in men and women from pregnancy into the first postnatal year.

She is a member of the Australian Psychological Society, the International Menopause Society, the World Association of Women's Mental Health, the Global Ageing Research Network and the Human Research Ethics Committee of the Victorian Department of Human Services. She also serves on the editorial boards of four international peer-reviewed journals.