To celebrate International Women’s Day on Tuesday March 8, we profile some of our many outstanding women undertaking research across the Centre to advance male health & wellbeing. We focus on our young, emerging leaders and recently completed PhD students who have been supported by the Centre and who have made major contributions in the areas of prostate cancer, mental health, and refugee and migrant health and wellbeing.
“Having the support of the FCMHW, both financial and otherwise, has been life changing”
Dr Phoebe Drioli-Phillips
Phoebe began her collaboration with FCMHW while studying her Bachelor of Science at the University of Adelaide, after receiving a summer vacation scholarship. She went on to also complete her psychology honours and PhD under a Commonwealth Government Research Training Award and with the support of the Centre.
Phoebe’s research focused on men’s mental health, with her PhD examining men’s experience with anxiety. Phoebe’s research has offered a unique insight into the self-blame, stigma, and distress that many men experience as a result of their anxiety. Phoebe continuously found through her research that “not only was the anxiety itself distressing, men also experienced significant guilt and shame as a result of being a man with anxiety which only served to compound their distress.”
Phoebe also speaks on the growing recognition of the importance of men’s mental health throughout the past decade, saying “we need to know more, and to do better with regard to supporting men with their mental health.” Phoebe attributes this recognition to a much-needed increase in research in the area, saying “for me personally, it has been so exciting and fulfilling to be a small part of that movement through my PhD.”
Phoebe is now studying to be a psychologist in the Master of Psychology (Health) program at the University of Adelaide. Her eventual goal is to combine her research training with her training as a psychologist to work with men in order to “optimise their social, emotional and physical health”. Phoebes contribution to understanding men’s preferences for engaging with health services to seek information and support, has been crucial in formulating a major program for the Centre from 2022 using digitally driven pathways to optimise use and outcomes of primary care for men.
As a mother, Phoebe also has a strong interest in parenting, family functioning, and the impact of early life experiences on emotional wellbeing in later life. “I hope to find a way to work to support men to feel fulfilled and confident in their roles and responsibilities within their relationships and families” she says.
Phoebe describes her experience at FCMHW, saying
“the Centre is amazing in facilitating a strong network of likeminded people. This network has been, and continues to be invaluable to me. I am not exaggerating when I say that having the support of the FCMHW, both financial and otherwise, have been life changing. I am so proud to have spent these past seven years working with the Centre, and hope to continue to do so for many more to come.”
“I am really proud of the research I conducted during my PhD”
Megan McIntosh
Megan initially joined the Centre as a summer vacation scholarship student while completing a Bachelor of Arts (major in psychology). She went on to complete her honours in psychological sciences at the University of Adelaide, and then her PhD through a Commonwealth Government Research Training Award and with the support of the Centre.
Megan began her work with the Centre during a summer vacation internship with Dr Camille Short to work on a project in prostate cancer. “I always had an interest in the relationship between physical illness and mental health, and had experience with prostate cancer as my grandfather was a prostate cancer survivor” says Megan.
Megan was also encouraged to forge her own interests and research path within the prostate cancer and mental health space. Megan completed her Honours year with Camille as her primary supervisor, and undertook a qualitative study on the experiences of men on active surveillance for prostate cancer. Specifically Megan explored their interest and desire for additional exercise support, which was later published.
Megan undertook her PhD in Medicine at the University of Adelaide to continue her research with men on active surveillance for prostate cancer. Her PhD focussed on the overall experiences of men on active surveillance, from diagnosis to discontinuation and what support men needed to inform decisions about remaining on active surveillance, and the reasons why they chose to leave active surveillance and undergo treatment.
Megan found the Centre to be “incredibly supportive” during this period.
“I was provided with financial support through a top-up scholarship which helped immensely. I also had amazing support from other researchers in the Centre, and got to collaborate with some of them” she says.
Megan is “really proud” of her research conducted at the Centre, which will help inform improvements in the care and support services for men on active surveillance. “I hope I can continue my research in this important area of men’s health one day in some way!” she says.
Megan is now currently taking some time off from full-time research while pregnant with her first child, and eventually hopes to complete her Masters in Health Psychology and continue research in men’s health.
“I hope to continue this trajectory to improve the outcomes for men with prostate cancer by developing new therapies and strategies that allow tailoring of treatment to individual patients.”
Dr Chui Yan (Shanice) Mah
After graduating with a Bachelor of Science (Biomedical Science) in 2016, Shanice was awarded a University of Adelaide post-graduate scholarship to undertake her Master of Philosophy, and also received a FCMHW supplementary scholarship. Her research program was in prostate cancer biology supervised by Professor Lisa Butler. Shanice converted to a PhD program in Medicine at the University of Adelaide and graduated in 2021.
Shanice’s interest in men’s health was initiated after losing her dad to cancer when she was 13. “At that age, I didn’t even know what cancer was, but I knew how much losing my dad impacted on me and my family. Since then, I had been really interested about biology and learning about the human body” says Shanice.
Her PhD research was focused on studying the role of lipid metabolism in prostate cancer development and identifying key enzymes of fatty acid oxidation that could be targeted for treatment of prostate cancer.
Through her study, the fatty acid oxidation enzyme, DECR1, was identified in prostate cancer cells that functions to protect prostate cancer cells from “ferroptotic” cell death, a form of cell death that is characterised by the accumulation of lipid peroxides. This study was published in a leading international journal eLife in 2020, and was featured across multile media outlets, including locally in the the Adelaide Advertiser.
This research has now spawned the development of the world’s first DECR1 inhibitor drug to be tested for its potential role in prostate cancer.
Shanice elaborates on the support that the Centre provided during her study, saying
“ In addition to supporting me financially during my PhD via the top-up scholarship, I was also able to meet other prostate cancer researchers and build new networks through the centre’s men’s health seminars and events. I also enjoyed presenting my research to like-minded researchers that are passionate about men’s health. The centre has also helped me increase the impact of my study by promoting my research more broadly across its networks.”
Shanice hopes to further enhance the work she did at the Centre, and continue to positively contribute to men’s health, stating “going forward, I hope to continue this trajectory to improve the outcomes for men with prostate cancer by developing new therapies and strategies that allow tailoring of treatment to individual men.”
In order to progress this important work, Shanice has a long-term goal of establishing her own independent prostate cancer research program. “As a fresh PhD graduate, I’m still learning new skills and building new research collaborations or networks. Going forward, I want to develop my own independent research with a multi-disciplinary and strong clinical/consumer focus.”
“I am passionate about helping people feel confident and comfortable moving safely.”
Holly Evans: Holly began her time at the Center after completing her Bachelor of Applied Science (Hons) and Graduate Diploma of Clinical Exercise Physiology, and started her PhD under a Commonwealth Government Research Training Award and with the support of the Centre.
Holly’s area of expertise is in exercise oncology, typically working with individuals diagnosed with cancers, such as prostate cancer. She is passionate about helping people feel confident and comfortable moving safely. “Exercise is such a wonderful tool to help people feel stronger, more resilient, and complete the things they love doing” she says.
As an exercise physiologist she often sees men who were active when they were young, then come to find that as they age, life/work/health typically can influence their ability to exercise, and they find they are not as active, strong and mobile as they once were.
“I love seeing men reclaim that sense of strength and capacity and get back into doing the activities they love.”
Holly’s PhD project focused on developing and testing a web-based exercise and behaviour change program for men with metastatic prostate cancer (ExerciseGuide). It was one of the world’s first eHealth programs which tailored exercise to individual men with prostate cancer whilst also providing education, resources and telehealth support from an Exercise Physiologist.
Holly describes the Centre’s contribution to her research as “fantastic” saying,
“Not only did they support me personally as a researcher, but they provided opportunities to recruit participants from their registry and connect us with physicians who would ensure our project was delivered safely and had high likelihood of being effective.”
Holly hopes to continue to contribute to men’s health by increasing accessibility for those unable to complete supervised exercise to help reduce cancer treatment-related side-effects, improving strength and fitness and potentially, overall survival. There is now further work to do, and funding required, to move ExerciseGuide into a publically available program for men and her supervisor team and planning this next crucial translation stage of her research for impact.
“ I am currently working clinically in Adelaide and teaching at Flinders University, but I hope to support further research in exercise and men’s health. It is such an important area and one that can improve the quality of life of men and their families.”
“I hope to continue to build upon this body of work”
Dr Daile Lynn Rung joined the Freemasons Centre for Male Health and Wellbeing as the inaugural Early Career Research fellow of the Northern Territory Division when the Menzies School of Health Research joined the Centre in the second half of 2020.
Daile is an early career social policy researcher whose multidisciplinary approach often draws upon sociology, political science, psychology, education, and public health to explore the health, wellbeing, and social inclusion outcomes of people from refugee and migrant backgrounds.
Her PhD focused on migrant and refugee men and women's experiences with human (im)mobilities and resettlement in Sydney, Australia. Her approach to men's health is shaped by her background in postcolonial feminist and critical race theory, critical pedagogy, and institutional ethnographic methodological research approaches.
For the 2021 FCMHW Seminar Series Daile presented a paper under development that explored the health and wellbeing implications of COVID-19 policy exclusions for men with temporary migration status living in Australia.
Prior to academia, Daile served as the Senior Policy Officer with the Northern Territory Government's Office of Gender Equality and Violence Reduction where she contributed to the development of whole-of-government policies and programs aimed at improving gender equality, supporting men in their care-giving and fathering roles, and preventing domestic, family, and sexual violence.
She is currently working on projects with the FCMHW-NT Division focused on migrant and refugee men's fathering and employment experiences; social and emotional wellbeing; violence prevention; gender norms; and healthy masculinities.
Daile’s time at the Centre has provided her with an Early Career Research Fellowship which will support her in her further research aspirations..
“I hope to continue to build upon this body of work to contribute to the development of scholarship that will make evidence-based policy recommendations to support men in their roles as fathers, carers, workers, and allies in violence prevention initiatives.”