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Sarah McKenzie imageBSc(Hons), DPH, MPH, PhDSenior Research Fellow, Suicide and Mental Health Research Group, Department of Psychological Medicine

Contact details

Email sarah.mckenzie@otago.ac.nz

Research interests and activities

Sarah is a social scientist specialising in mental health research, critical suicidology, and qualitative research methods. She has worked on a range of projects in the areas of mental health inequalities and the social determinants of mental health, primary mental health care and suicide prevention/intervention. Marsden logo 226pxHer current work is funded by a Marsden Fast-Start and explores men's lived experiences of mental distress and suicidality using participatory visual research methods, critical gender theory and mental health geography.

In the project, titled 'Through the eyes of men', 21 men get behind the lens, taking photos which reflect their personal experiences of living with mental distress, and what helped or hindered their mental health journeys. Their images are displayed in a digital exhibition, along with descriptions of what they mean to the photographers:

Through the eyes of men

Postgraduate supervision

  • Renan Lopes de Lyra PhD – Suicide exposure among first responders
  • Anna von Tunzelman PhD – Is some binge-drinking a form of deliberate self-harm?

Publications

McKenzie, S. K., Kelly, M. T., Cooney, E., & Oliffe, J. L. (2023). Men's accounts of anxiety: A photovoice study. SSM Qualitative Research in Health, 4, 100356. doi: 10.1016/j.ssmqr.2023.100356

McKenzie, S. K., Roguski, M., & Every-Palmer, S. (2023). Colonization drives silence and inequities in men’s mental illness. Nature Mental Health, 1, 609. doi: 10.1038/s44220-023-00113-0

Goel, D., Dennis, B., & McKenzie, S. K. (2023). Is suicide a mental health, public health or societal problem? Current Opinion in Psychiatry, 36(5), 352-359. doi: 10.1097/yco.0000000000000888

Das, T., Mathieson, F., & McKenzie, S. (2023, January). "Tunnelling into blackness": Metaphors men use to describe their lived experience with mental distress. Poster session presented at the University of Otago Summer Student Showcase, Wellington, New Zealand.

Cooper, A., Jenkin, G., Morton, E., Peterson, D., & McKenzie, S. K. (2023). ‘We have to band together’: Service user experiences of naturally occurring peer support on the acute mental health unit. Kōtuitui, 18(2), 118-134. doi: 10.1080/1177083X.2022.2093230

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