Nat James

Background

About Nat James

Nat is a Psychologist (Clinical Psychology Registrar) registered with AHPRA, and a Doctor of Clinical Psychology Candidate at Deakin University. Her Doctoral thesis is entitled 'Exploring Co-occurring Borderline Personality Disorder and Substance Use Disorder', a topic which she is incredibly passionate about. Nat completed her Graduate Diploma of Professional Psychology at Monash University in 2016, and Bachelor of Applied Science (Psychology) at Deakin University in 2015.Nat is currently employed as a Psychologist with Eastern Health within the Allied Health Mental Health Graduate Program, working in the Older Adult Mental Health and Wellbeing Service (community), and at the Peter James Centre (Inpatient Psychiatric Unit). Previously Nat worked in forensic settings (custodial and community) with youth offenders as a Provisional Psychologist, alongside teaching into the Psychology Honours program at Deakin University as a Sessional Academic.Nat has extensive experience within the aged, disability, and mental health care sectors. She was the National Screening and Assessment Coordinator for My Aged Care, playing a key role in the aged care reforms and development of the Screening and Assessment framework. During this time, she also volunteered in a dementia-specific respite service, which involved running groups, working collaboratively with people with dementia, and supporting the wellbeing of clients and carers. She then worked as a Care Coordinator, supporting people with a disability or older adults receiving services in the community, and was responsible for coordinating complex care programs. Nat was the Aged and Disability Care Compliance Manager for a Community Care service provider, where she notably wrote a successful government tender to become an approved provider of Home Care Packages.Nat has previously worked in Research Assistant Roles at both Deakin University and the National Ageing Research Institute (NARI) where she was responsible for writing ethics and grant applications, data collection, report writing, organising educational events, and overall translational research support. Her most recent Research Assistant role at Deakin University was in the areas of Emotion Regulation and Impulse Control (the ERIC project).In 2016, Nat became a Community Mental Health Practitioner in a residential Prevention and Recovery Care (PARC) service, supporting clients to achieve their individual mental health recovery goals, where she continues to work casually across a number of adult and youth sub-acute residential mental health services.