Dr. Marina Downing is a Senior Research Fellow at the School of Psychological Sciences at Monash University. She is also Deputy Director of the Monash Epworth Rehabilitation Research Centre (MERRC), which aims to conduct ethical, innovative and internationally competitive research investigating outcomes and the effectiveness of intervention programs for individuals with brain injury or orthopaedic injury sustained as a result of trauma.

Dr Downing is one of the Lead investigators on the Longitudinal Head Injury Outcome study, investigating outcome following traumatic brain injury (TBI) at Epworth HealthCare. She is passionate about conducting research to identify ways in which we can understand the factors associated with poorer outcomes post-injury, and improve rehabilitation practices to ultimately achieve better outcomes and improve the quality of life. This study contains over 3500 individuals and is funded by the Transport Accident Commission (TAC) where findings are translated directly to TAC policy and practice.

Dr Downing has several current exciting lines of research: (1) examining the impact of cultural background on outcome in individuals with TBI, as well as strategies to mitigate them; (2) improving return-to work outcomes for individuals with TBI and other trauma groups (i.e., those with multi-trauma injuries, spinal cord injuries) by investigating the efficacy of early vocational intervention as well as a ‘Return to Work after TBI’ smartphone application; (3) improving the way in which sexuality issues are addressed for individuals with TBI (at both inpatient and outpatient levels), and (4) investigating cognitive and psychosocial needs of individuals with TBI Australia-wide and implementing strategies to address them.

Dr Downing is an author on 1 book chapter and 62 peer-reviewed journal publications. She has supervised 3 Doctoral students to completion with a further 3 underway. She has received grant funding from several sources (MRFF, TAC, Epworth Medical Foundation, Epworth Research Institute). Dr Downing has collaborated with several research groups including: the Victorian State Trauma Outcomes Registry and Monitoring (VSTORM) group; the DEPRESsion Screening Data worldwide group; Masstricht University in The Netherlands; and the Department of Biostatistics in the School of Medicine at Virginia Commonwealth University, USA. As Deputy Director of MERRC, Dr Downing supports the Director with strategy development for the Centre and overseeing the conduct of research.

Related Links: 

• MERRC: https://www.monash.edu/medicine/psych/merrc/home
• Psych: Research Themes