Dr Deirdre Gartland

Deirdre Gartland is a postdoctoral research fellow at Healthy Mothers Healthy Families, Murdoch Children’s Research Institute. She was awarded her Professional Doctorate of Health Psychology, Swinburne University of Technology in 2009, after completing a BSc (Psych) at the University of Melbourne. She is co-leader of the research program focusing on Health, Wellbeing and Resilience across the Life Course.

Deirdre's research interest is women and children’s health and resilience in vulnerable populations. Her research over the last 3 years has focused on the impact of intimate partner violence on maternal health and child outcomes. Her doctoral research was at the forefront of international efforts to measure resilience in adolescents. She has a particular focus on social adversity and building the evidence needed to better support vulnerable families, including families experiencing violence.

Deirdre is currently working with Aboriginal and refugee background communities to define and measure child resilience.