Contact details
Email abigail.freeland@otago.ac.nz
Research interests and activities
Abigail works within EleMent: Mental health research and the World of Difference research groups. Her technical background is in mathematics and statistics, as well as being a service-user academic with a strong passion for working in the mental health and addiction field.
She is involved in a range of different projects within the sphere of mental health research. The main focus of her current work is using data to examine and improve the mental health of New Zealanders.
Currently, she is a member of the Tupuānuku research project, helping to investigate the physical health inequity associated with mental illness and addiction within Aotearoa. Abigail is also working on a project using nationally collected routine data on mental health service usage and linking it to emergency department data. This project aims to examine the increase of help seeking for mental health related issues within emergency departments.
Publications
Every-Palmer, S., Flewett, T., Dean, S., Hansby, O., Freeland, A., Weatherall, M., & Bell, E. (2024). Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) therapy compared to usual treatment for posttraumatic stress disorder in adults with psychosis in forensic settings: Randomized controlled trial. Psychological Trauma. Advance online publication. doi: 10.1037/tra0001643 Journal - Research Article
Werkmeister, C., Cunningham, R., Freeland, A., Stanley, J., Every-Palmer, S., & Kuehl, S. (2023). Missed presentations, missed opportunities: A cross-sectional study of mental health presentation undercounting in the emergency department. Emergency Medicine Australasia, 35, 276-282. doi: 10.1111/1742-6723.14114 Journal - Research Article