” By fostering environments that simulate professional contexts and support personal development, educators can help learners transition more smoothly and confidently between both domains of mental health and public health.”
1. Could you tell us about your academic and professional journey and what led you to focus on both mental health and public health in your teaching and research?
I was born and raised in Sri Lanka. As a young adult I moved to Australia to pursue my career. I completed my Bachelor of Nursing in 2012 and was privileged to work as a registered nurse at the largest and the oldest mental health hospital in Australia. My curious personality has led me to work in various departments of the same hospital over the past decade. I have experience in medical psychiatry, rehabilitation, community mental health, child and adolescent psychiatry, emergency psychiatry, pre and postnatal psychiatry, and acute psychiatry. While I was working as a registered nurse in all those areas of psychiatry, I always wanted to expand my career into education pathways. I work with different educational organisations, including casual academic staff at various universities and local high schools, as a career mentor. I joined IHM a few years ago and am enjoying my career as a lecturer. As a mental health nurse and a lecturer, I believe I was given the opportunity to integrate mental health and public health into my teaching and therefore to educate future generations on the benefit of the integration of mental health and public health.
2. Why do you believe cross-training between mental health and public health is especially important in today’s healthcare context?
Currently, health care provides holistic care for individuals, which involves body, mind, and spirit, which are interconnected at a deeper level of human nature. Cross-training builds a more responsive, holistic, and resilient healthcare system, which is essential to meet the requirement of complex needs of individuals in the community more than ever. Research has found that psychological health is well connected with the physical health of humans. Cross-training helps professionals address both dimensions of health more effectively, leading to better patient outcomes. In addition to natural disasters and social turbulence, pandemic also have an impact on the mental health of communities. Cross-trained Professionals are better equipped to recognise and respond to these widespread psychological impacts, allowing for earlier identification and prevention of mental health issues at the population level. In addition to this, as a solution to the workforce shortages, cross-training expands the capacity of each field by enabling professionals to provide care in wider areas of health, in both mental health and public health sectors.
3. Can you share any specific moments in your teaching or fieldwork that underscored the value of dual competency in these areas?
As a community mental health nurse working in a specific community, I was a part of a team responding to a cluster of youth suicides. While public health responses focus on data collection, risk surveillance, and community-wide prevention strategies, my team’s mental health training allows us to recognize the silent grief, fear, and stigma in the community —especially in schools and among parents My team reorganised safe spaces for community dialogue, offered mental health first aid workshops, and advocated for a trauma-informed approach within the broader public health strategy. At the same time, we facilitated the development of a local suicide prevention framework that includes upstream strategies like youth engagement, strengthening cultural identity, and social connection.
4. What does effective cross-training between mental health and public health look like in an academic or training environment?
Effective cross-training between mental health and public health in an academic/training environment involves an intentional, integrated curriculum and practical experiences that prepare students or professionals to understand and address the complex interplay between psychological well-being and population health outcomes. Some of the components of this could be integrated curriculum design, which includes interdisciplinary training modules and practical placements. With that, the student has practical experience for cross-professional exposure.
5. What challenges do students or professionals typically face when navigating both domains, and how can educators support them in overcoming these?
When navigating multiple domains, students face many challenges, including deficiency of the theory-to-practice gap, lack of soft skills/technical skills, time management with the workload, and lack of exposure in the field, which can affect the confidence level of the student.
Educators play a critical role in bridging the gap between academic learning and professional success. By fostering environments that simulate professional contexts and support personal development, educators can help learners transition more smoothly and confidently between both domains of mental health and public health.
6. In your experience, how does dual training enhance a healthcare worker’s ability to respond to complex community needs, especially in underserved areas?
Dual training bridges the gap between clinical expertise and community-centred care. Professionals who have knowledge of cross-training between mental health and public health provide culturally competent care, which builds stronger relationships between professionals and the community, which leads to building a stronger community. When the community has a strong bond with health professionals, it encourages the community to engage in health promotions. Critical thinking and leadership qualities of the professional play a vital role when responding to complex community needs.
In underserved areas, this results in more equitable, responsive, and sustainable healthcare delivery—ultimately improving outcomes at both individual and population levels.
7. Can you highlight any examples where integrated knowledge of mental and public health led to better intervention outcomes or systems thinking?
One of the best examples of integrated knowledge of mental health and public health application is Headspace. Headspace is Australia’s National Youth Mental Health Foundation, which provides mental health early intervention services for young people. Headspaces provide psychiatric care, peer support, and counselling for youth. Headspace coordinates with education providers. When education providers recognise an individual who needs support, they can refer them to Headspace. Headspace will provide a holistic approach to improve the mental state of that individual with assessment and with further intervention. The outcome of this process is to recognise individuals who need support as early as possible and treat them. It has been proven to reduce suicide risk and deterioration of mental health.
8. How do you incorporate real-worldscenarios or interprofessional simulations tofoster dual speciality preparedness amongyour students?
Incorporating real-world scenarios andinterprofessional simulations is crucial to preparingstudents for dual specialities—such as mental healthand public health—by building practical skills,empathy, and collaborative competence. Whilestudents are at clinical placement, they have theopportunity to experience real- world case scenarios;students will observe and have firsthand experienceof how multidisciplinary teams work in collaborationto obtain one goal. Students have the opportunity toreflect and debrief the situation with their facilitator.
9. With the growing mental health crisis andglobal public health challenges, how caninstitutions better prepare the next generationof dual-trained professionals?
By bridging education, practice, and policy, institutionscan develop a generation of professionals who are notonly clinically competent but driving transformativeimprovements in health outcomes. To better prepare thenext generation of dual-trained professionals in mentalhealth and public health, institutions need to adopt anintegrated, forward-thinking approach that addressesboth the complexity of real-world health challengesand the evolving expectations of professional practice.
10. What innovations or educational reforms would you like to see that support the development of dual- speciality competencies across health education programs?
To prepare graduates who can address complex and overlapping issues such as mental health and public health, education programs must evolve to be more integrated, flexible, and practice-oriented. The above innovations and reforms would greatly support dual- speciality competency development:
11. Finally, what message would you give to current students or early-career health professionals considering a path that spans both mental health and public health?
You are at the forefront of one of the most important intersections in modern healthcare. Mental health is not just an individual issue; it’s a public health priority that shapes communities, impacts economies, and reflects the broader social determinants of health. By pursuing this dual path, you’ll be uniquely equipped to design systems, policies, and interventions that not only treat individuals but also prevent illness, promote well-being, and reduce stigma at the individual and population level. Whether you’re working in research, policy, advocacy, or direct service, your ability to integrate these perspectives will make you a powerful change agent.
Stay curious, keep learning across disciplines, and seek mentors who understand both lenses. Most importantly, hold on to your passion because your contribution matters deeply, and we need leaders like you who can see the wider picture.