Kristin Graham

Lecturer in Podiatry, University of South Australia
I currently work as a teacher and researcher in the Allied Health and Human Performance unit at UniSA and hold an Adjunct Fellowship in the Discipline of Psychiatry at the University of Adelaide. My areas of experise span podiatry and psychology.

With over 25 years’ experience as a clinical podiatrist, in 2014 I decided to follow my passion of understanding what motivates human behaviour and completed a Bachelor of Psychological Science at Flinders University. I then recipieved the inaugural Rotary Health Australia ANZAC PhD Scholarship to complete a PhD at the Centre for Traumatic Stress Studies, The University of Adelaide Medical School. My PhD explored the nexus between physical and mental health through exploring the impact of deployment traumatic experiences on physical and mental symptoms in deployed Australian Defence Force (ADF) personnel. My passion is to explore creative ways to expand knowledge and understanding, challenge convention, and deliver impactful outcomes that make a real difference to people’s lives.

As a clinical podiatrist I have worked in a diverse range of settings including entrepreneurial business activities such as establishing the first locum podiatry service in South Australia as well as public, community, and private practice in urban and rural settings. I am still involved in private practice, which keeps me connected to contemporary issues in health practice. Good business acumen and clinical experience underpin my current role in the UniSA podiatry program.

My current research interests include:

· The impacts of deployment of Australian Defence Force personnel including: the overlap of physical and mental health symptoms; the association of health symptoms with suicide; and the impact of lifetime traumas on physiological dysregulation.

· The use of telehealth and virtual reqality to improve outcomes and access to services in diabetes related foot disease in rural, remote, and Aboriginal and Torres Straight communities.

· the impact of social determinants of health on foot ulcers and amputation rates in diabetes related foot disease.

· the impact of the health practitioner-patient relationship on patient behaviour and health outcomes.

· pharmacological endorsement and prescribing practices of podiatrists.