Helen is the Deputy-Director of the Youth Research Centre, University of Melbourne. She is a former secondary teacher and works in youth, education and health promotion research, specialising in the use of participatory techniques.

She has developed a number of national and international drug education and mental health promtion and HIV prevention programs for use in school and community settings, including 'Rethinking Drinking', the SHAHRP project (School Health and Alcohol Harm Reduction Project), Get WISE: Working on Illicits in School Education and MindMatters: a Mental Health Promotion Resource for Secondary Schools, and Creating Connections Vietnam: a sexuality education and lifeskills course for women and girls.

She teaches in a range of programs at the University of Melbourne, including the Masters in Student Wellbeing, the Masters in School Leadership, the Masters in Youth Health and Education Management and the Masters in Teaching.

Her Masters thesis is entitled "Drama for Empowerment: using drama to enhance resilience in young people". Her doctoral thesis is entitled "Learning Partnerships:using poststructuralist drama techniques to assist teachers and doctors to communicate with adolescents".

Helen works with adolescents using role-play techniques to train doctors and teachers how to communicate effectively with young people about health and social issues which impact on learning and wellbeing. She trains teachers and health professionals in the use of interactive teaching strategies and uses a range of drama methodologies as research and training tools.

Australian Youth Research CEntre, The University of Melbourne

Education Equity and Society Cluster

Drama Australia

Drama Victoria

PhD Study (2008) “Learning Partnerships: the use of poststructuralist drama techniques to improve communication between teachers, doctors and adolescents”, in Graduate School of Education, The University of Melbourne.

Master of Education, The University of Melbourne,
Major Thesis: “Drama for Empowerment: The Use of Drama to Enhance Resilience in Young People”, 2001.

Diploma of Education, Melbourne State College, 1978.

Bachelor of Arts, The University of Melbourne, 1975–1977.

Masters in Student Wellbeing
• Student Wellbeing Contexts and Frameworks 472-648

Masters in School Leadership
• Learning and Individual Pathways

Masters in Youth Health and Education Management
• Leadership in Youth Health and Education Management


Regular guest lecturer
• Drama Methods class, Graduate School of Education
• Short Course in International Adolescent Health, Nossal Centre for Global Health
• Communicating with Adolescents, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences

Participatory and Drama-based Pedagogies

Poststructuralist theory in educationDrug education

Mental Health Promotion

School Change

HIV Prevention

Youth Perspectives

Participatory action research

Reflective practitioner research

Chapters in Books
Cahill, H. (2008). Resisting Risk And Rescue as the Raison D'Etre of Arts Interventions. In A. O'Brien & K. Donelan (Eds.), The Arts and Youth At Risk: Global and Local Challenges. Newcastle upon Tyne, U.K: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
Cahill, H. (2006a). Creating School Environments that Promote Social Emotional Wellbeing. In M. Keefe & S. Carrington (Eds.), Schools and Diversity. Frenchs Forest: Pearson Education.
Cahill, H. (2006b). Devising Classroom Drug Education Programs. In R. Midford & G. Munro (Eds.), Drug Education in Schools: Searching for the Silver Bullet (pp. 147-165). Camberwell: Pearson.
Sheehan, M., Cahill, H., Rowling, L., Marshall, B., & Holdsworth. (2001). Establishing a Role for Schools in Mental Health Promotion. In L. Rowling, G. Martin & L. Walker (Eds.), Mental Health Promotion and Young People: Concepts and Practice. Sydney: McGraw-Hill

Refereed journal articles
Cahill, H. (2007a). Challenges in adopting evidence-based school drug education programmes. Drug and Alcohol Review, 26(6), 673-679.
Cahill, H. (2007b). Powerful Roles: Kids as co-investigators, coaches and key informants in communication training for Education and Health professionals. Paper presented at the Are We There Yet? YACVIC conference Melbourne.
Cahill, H. (2006a). Research Acts: Using the Drama Workshop as a Site for Conducting Participatory Action Research. Drama Australia Journal (NJ), 30(2), 61-72.
Cahill, H. (2006b). Sensitive Issues: Supportive Structures. Drama Australia Journal (NJ), 30(1), 7-22.
Cahill, H. (2005). Profound Learning: Drama Partnerships between Adolescents and Tertiary Students. Drama Australia Journal (NJ), 29 (2), 59-72.
Cahill, H. (2002). Teaching for Community: Empowerment through Drama. Melbourne Studies in Education, 43(2), 12-25.
Wyn, J., Cahill, H., Holdsworth, R., Rowling, L., & Carson, S. (2000). MindMatters, a whole-school approach promoting mental health and wellbeing. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, 34, 594-601.

Editorship of special issues of journal:
Co-editorship with Kate Donelan of 2002 Edition of Melbourne Studies in Education: Drama and Learning, Vol. 43, No. 2.

Reports:
Eckersley, R., Cahill, H., Wierenga, A., & Wyn, J. (2007). Generations in Dialogue about the Future: the hopes and fears of young Australians. Melbourne.

Cahill, H., Wyn, J., Shaw, G. and Smith, G., (2004) Translating Caring into Action, Australian Youth Research Centre, Report No. 26 Melbourne.

Cahill, H., Wyn, J., and Smith, G., (2004) The Welfare Needs of Victorian Catholic Schools, Australian Youth Research Centre, Report No. 27 Melbourne.

Holdsworth, R., Cahill, H. and Smith, G. (2003) Student Action Teams: Phase 2 – 2001-2002: An Evaluation of Implementation and Impact. Research Report 22, Australian Youth Research Centre, Melbourne.

Myer, L. and Cahill, H. Principles of Drug Education: Revised Edition, Quality Schooling Branch, DEST, Canberra, 2003

MindMatters Consortium, 1999, MindMatters: A Whole School Approach Promoting Mental Health and Wellbeing: Final Report, Youth Research Centre: The University of Melbourne

Non-refereed articles:
Cahill, H. (2005) “Learning Partnerships: School Students as Tertiary Teachers”, Connect, No. 154-155.

Cahill, H., Wales, P. and Sanci, L., (2004) “Forging Partnerships and Building Communities: Drama at the Heart of Interactive Learning Partnerships between School Students and Students of Medicine and Education”, Australian Drama in Education Magazine, No. 9, pp. 11-15.

Cahill, H. (2003) “Using role-play techniques to enhance engagement in the health class: issues and strategies.” Health Education Australia Journal, Vol. 3 No. 2., pp 17-23.

Wyn, J., Cahill, H. & Shaw. G., “Making a Difference: Evaluating a student welfare approach to health promotion and whole-school change” in Learning Matters, Vol 7, No. 1.

Cahill, H. (2002) “Symbiotic Strategies for Empowerment through the Aesthetic” i

Current:

School Drug Education Efficacy Trial

Hong Kong-based Drug Education

HIV Prevention and Creating Connections Life Skills Program for Women's Union of Vietnam

Previous:
Protecting Adolescents from Risk Taking Project (PARTY) 2007-2008. Department of General Practice, the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, University of Melbourne, Australia.
I have led a number of projects designed to contribute to the youth friendly clinic. This project entails involving youth in a role-play based approach to training doctors and nurses to communicate better with adolescents about sensitive issues such as sex and drugs. Leadership in this project included development of the training curriculum to support approaches to the youth-friendly clinic; working with local youth, consulting with the medical teams, writing and directing training videos for doctors and nurses to assist them to engage in screening conversations and to learn techniques of motivational interviewing, and facilitation of the training program for doctors and nurses.

Creating Connections Sexuality Education Project, Women’s HIV/AIDS and Reproductive Health Centre (WARC), Women’s Union Viet Nam, 2007-2008
Leadership of this project included the conduct of an initial needs analysis project in Hanoi and surrounding provinces in 2006. Focus groups were conducted with mothers and adolescent girls investigating their needs for relationship and sex education programs. A two-day consultation workshop with trainers from the Women’s Union examined the appropriateness of a range of interactive and drama-based learning strategies in local sex education workshops.

Following the initial needs analysis I lead the curriculum development project to design and pilot a 12-session interactive program for Womens clubs and an additional 12 session program to be run in Girls Clubs (2007-8). I worked in partnership with the Women’s Union and with a contributing researcher (Tu Anh Hoang of the CIHP centre in Hanoi) to develop and pilot the materials across a twelve-month period. I also developed and led the delivery of a train-the-trainer program provided for facilitators from three provinces (2007) as well as a booster training program (2008), accomplishing this in partnership with the Women’s Union and CIHP.

Peer Education Training for Intravenous Drug Users. WHO and UNAIDS, Viet Nam 2007
This joint WHO and UNAIDS project entailed review and re-development of Facilitator Training Manuals used in educating Youth Health Care Providers about HIV prevention and Intravenous Drug Use (IDU) in Vietnam. It also involved the development and piloting of an interactive literacy-free curriculum for IDU Peer Educators. I led the development and delivery of two one-day consultation and training workshops which were piloted in Tho Xuan and Thanh Hoa (2007). Participants included 60 intravenous drug users working as peer educators plus a team of observers from local health services, UNAIDS and WHO.

Hong Kong Life Education Activity Program (LEAP) (1998-2008)
I led the research and development of the English and Cantonese Life Skills and Drug Education Programs for use in kindergarten, primary and secondary schools in Hong Kong. This included needs analysis with local teachers and students, research and writing of the facilitator’s manuals, script development and training of actors for videos, and delivery of train-the trainer program for local course facilitators (1998-2002). In an extension to the program I am leading the development of program updates and extensions to facilitate the inclusion of additional life skills materials about body image and internet use and internet addiction (2008). This again involves the liaison with local trainers, co-ordination with local writers, needs analysis with local students, development of film scripts and directorship at film shoots as well as authorship of the teaching manuals.

LEAD! student participatory approaches to drug ed

Awards and distinctions:
2006: The University of Melbourne Vice Chancellors Award for Teaching Innovation for Inter-disciplinary Learning Partnerships between school students and students of Education and Students of Medicine

2003 Award from Drama Victoria: Best Tertiary Drama Education Resource (for co-editorship of special edition of Melbourne Studies in Education Journal: Drama and Learning)

2002 Award from Drama Victoria: Innovation In Secondary Education (for Inter-disciplinary Learning Partnership between school students and students of Education and Students of Medicine)