Shaun Garlett

My traditional people is Noongar, Yamatji and Nyiyaparli. My father is a Noongar man from the Wadjuk, Balladong area. My mother is a Yamatji through my grandmother and Nyiyparli through my grandfather.

This scholarship is important to me as it will allow me to become successful in my university life by removing many different types of barriers and assist me within my carer through mentorship within indigenous mental health and suicide prevention. Such barriers can include but are not limited to financial barriers, study barriers and living barriers. In addition to removing such limiting factors I believe it will allow me to accomplish my goals to become a registered clinical psychologist and work within my communities as a specialised indigenous clinical psychologist. To learn and or be mentored from Dr Tracy Westerman would be an amazing opportunity that will allow me to deliver appropriate care to many indigenous communities as I have found throughout my degree it is not appropriate towards indigenous mental health.

Upon completion of my studies my main focus will be suicide prevention and at-risk indigenous people. In addition to this there are certain areas which I would like to focus on such as, Child and Adolescent mental health as this area has grown on me and Men’s mental health as indigenous men are more likely to talk with other men about their mental health. As such I wish to aim for clinical psychology work as a clinical psychologist on graduation.