#143 – Dr Tayla Degan on The Importance of Health Literacy for Clinicians and Consumers

In this episode of Better Thinking, Nesh Nikolic speaks with Dr Tayla Degan about health literacy and how important it is to consider both as a clinican and as a consumer of health services. Dr Tayla Degan is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre (NDARC), University of New South Wales, Australia. She is also a registered Clinical Psychologist working in private practice at Beachside Physiotherapy and Psychology, Cronulla NSW. She has research expertise and interest in populations of people living with mental health and substance use disorders. Her PhD research focused on the health literacy of people accessing specialist mental health and substance use disorder treatment. Tayla has experience working across multiple research trials and projects, including the evaluation of treatment services, implementation of a telephone-based continuing care intervention for people discharged from residential treatment services, and is currently involved in a Phase-3 randomised controlled trial examining mirtazapine as a pharmacotherapy treatment option for methamphetamine dependence. Tayla also has a strong interest in online interventions for substance use disorders, health literacy interventions, and using co-design. Tayla has a passion for teaching and inspiring the next generation of psychologists and has lectured across multiple Australian universities. Finally, Tayla runs her own business (Our Mind Space Psychology), alongside colleague and Clinical Psychologist Kendall Allsop, running group therapy programs for adults with ADHD. Episode link at https://neshnikolic.com/podcast/tayla-deganSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.