Dr Urska Arnautovska

Senior Research Fellow

Princess Alexandra Hospital Southside Clinical Unit
Faculty of Medicine

Overview

Urska Arnautovska is an early career clinical academic, working as a Research Fellow at the University of Queensland, Faculty of Medicine and as a general psychologist in private practice. Following her professional training in Slovenia, she focused her research on suicide which led her to receiving an appointment at the Australian Institute for Suicide Research and Prevention (AISRAP), a World Health Organization (WHO) Collaborating Centre for Research and Training in Suicide Prevention and, since 2008, a National Centre of Excellence in Suicide Prevention. In addition to her research work, she acted as a research coordinator of the Life Promotion Clinic and was involved in the management and analysis of clinical data pertaining to the patients of the clinic, which presented with complex mental health problems and suicidal thoughts and behaviour. Her subsequent research remained focused on mental health, and in more recent years, become dedicated to improving health outcomes in people with severe mental illness. Her PhD, for which she received a competitive Griffith University International Postgraduate Research Scholarship (2012-2016), investigated the motivational processes underlying physical activity in older adults and was awarded the Australian Psychology Society (APS) Award for Excellent Higher Degree Thesis in Health Psychology. She has 36 peer-reviewed publications, with over half being the first author, and has over $4.8 million in research grants.

Research Interests

  • Health behaviour change
  • Severe mental illness
  • Physical health co-morbidity
  • Digital interventions
  • Physical activity and exercise

Research Impacts

Dr Arnautovska’s research work has been cited in a range of subject areas which expand over three times beyond the subject areas she had published in. Among the citing institutions are Health Education and Training Institute Higher Education, Ministry of Education China, Ministry for the Family, Italian Psychogeriatric Association, and Harvard Medical School. Her contribution to the evaluation of Queensland Community Care Units was cited in the report on models of care for Victorians living with severe and persistent mental illness, commissioned by the Royal Commission into Victoria’s Mental Health System (2020).

Qualifications

  • Masters (Research) of Clinical Psychology, University of Ljubljana

Publications

View all Publications

Publications

Book Chapter

  • De Leo, Diego and Arnautovska, Urska (2019). Suicidal behaviour in older adults. Primary care mental health in older people: a global perspective. (pp. 199-210) edited by Carlos Augusto de Mendonça Lima and Gabriel Ivbijaro. Cham, Switzerland: Springer. doi: 10.1007/978-3-030-10814-4_17

  • Diego, de Leo and Urska, Arnautovska (2016). Prevention and treatment of suicidality in older adults. The international handbook of suicide prevention. (pp. 323-345) edited by Rorry O’Connor and Jane Pirkis. London, United Kingdom: Wiley-Blackwell. doi: 10.1002/9781118903223.ch18

  • De Leo, Diego and Arnautovska, Urska (2011). Prevention and treatment of suicidality in old age. The international handbook of suicide prevention: research, policy and practice. (pp. 309-328) edited by Rorry C. O'Connor, Stephen Platt and Jackie Gordon. London, United Kingdom: John Wiley & Sons. doi: 10.1002/9781119998556.ch18

Journal Article

Conference Publication

Other Outputs