Linda Bowden (BHSc (OT), MHsc) is a PhD Candidate at the Department of Psychological Medicine supervised by Associate Professor Sarah Hetrick, Dr. Sarah Fortune and Professor TerryAnn Clark. Linda’s PhD is dedicated to studying the best practice environment for managing self-harm in schools. By investigating the epidemiology of self-harm by time trends, and examining enablers and barriers of implementation of best practice to contribute to ensuring young people can get the best support for managing self-harm at school.

While embarking on her PhD, Linda is a mental health clinician with over 15 years experience in child, and youth mental health with a focus on suicide prevention. Linda graduated originally as and occupational therapist from AUT University and completed her Master of Health Science focusing on resilience from a child’s perspective and exploring the contribution of occupations to the concept of resilience. Linda is a clinical advisor for Clinical Advisory Services Aotearoa, and engages in private practice around clinical supervision and suicide prevention projects and has been a Suicide Prevention Postvention Coordinator for Counties Manukau Health. Linda is particularly focused on co-designed methods to ensure equitable outcomes for communities. Linda also works alongside Associate Professor Sarah Hetrick and Dr Sarah Fortune, collaborating with suicide prevention experts and lived-experience researchers in a multitude of projects.