Dr Simone Darling supervises postgraduate research students interested in child mental health, school-based reform, implementation science, and digital health innovation. Her supervision emphasises research that translates directly into improved outcomes for children, families, and communities through cross-sector collaboration between education, health, and policy systems.

Simone welcomes students motivated to conduct applied, policy-relevant research within multidisciplinary teams and who are passionate about bridging research and real-world impact. She provides mentorship on project design, mixed-methods approaches, data linkage and integration, stakeholder engagement, and translation to practice and policy.

Dr Darling has strong collaborative links across government, education, health, and research sectors, offering students opportunities to work with interdisciplinary teams at the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute and the University of Melbourne. Students may engage in longitudinal and causal inference analysis, qualitative and mixed-methods research, co-design with educators and families, and policy translation.

Current PhD Opportunities

1. Longitudinal follow-up of children exposed to the Mental Health in Primary Schools (MHiPS) initiative

This PhD will collect new data on the long-term outcomes of children who attended MHiPS-participating schools between 2020 and 2022. It will explore how early exposure to MHiPS influences trajectories in mental health and wellbeing, access to care and other health-related outcomes. The project can also include an economic evaluation of MHiPS, providing insights into the return on investment (ROI) of preventative mental health initiatives for families, schools, and government. Students will have access to population-level datasets and the opportunity to apply advanced longitudinal and quasi-experimental methods. The project will generate new evidence on the lasting benefits, scalability, and cost-effectiveness of large-scale school-based mental health reform.

2. Exploring place-based school-service integration models for child mental health through the MHiPS initiative
This PhD will investigate how schools and community services can work together to provide coordinated, equitable, and sustainable care for children’s mental health. Using the statewide MHiPS initiative as a backbone platform, the project will explore how different communities structure and implement school-service integration models, what contextual and system factors drive success, and how these models impact children, families, and educators. Findings will inform the evolution of MHiPS and broader strategies for connecting education with local systems of care.

Dr

Simone Darling

Honorary (Senior Fellow)

Department of Paediatrics

Dr

Simone Darling

Contact Simone

Division

Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences

Dr

Simone Darling

Print

Simone's Short Profile

Enquiries

Contact