Research officer and PhD candidate Bernard Leckning is part of Menzies inaugural Centre for Child Development and Education (CCDE) team, commencing as a casual research assistant in 2011.
Having followed his wife, an ABC journalist to the Top End, Bernard began his career at Menzies working on a child and youth suicides study and in 2017, commenced his PhD delving deeper into this area of research.
Bernard’s PhD comprises several studies that examine the characteristics and outcomes of people who are treated in hospital for self-harm or suicidal thoughts. Halfway through, he received funding to develop guidelines to improve assessment for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who present to hospital with suicidal behaviours. This research translation work now forms part of his PhD project.
Bernard now divides his time between his PhD and his CCDE role working on data linkage research into child and youth development, with a focus on adolescent behaviours and mental health.
Despite now being completely immersed in the research world, Bernard did not always intend to become a researcher.
“With a background in computing science and sociology, I had been offered scholarships before, but I could not resist working here at Menzies on my own project when the conversation started about scholarship opportunities here,” Bernard said.
Bernard is a quiet achiever and very humble in his achievements. But he is being noticed. He was selected for the 2020 Emerging Leadership in Suicide Prevention Research Program run by the University of Melbourne, giving him front row access to mentorship with Professor Andrew Page from Western Sydney University to build on his understanding of population level health research and its translation into practice. And in 2020, he was awarded the prestigious Society for Mental Health Research prize for best PhD paper in the applied research category.
Bernard has a long list of mentors who support and inspire him, however, credits his supervisors at Menzies, Professors Gary Robinson, Steve Guthridge, Sven Silburn and Associate Professor Rohan Borschmann from the University of Melbourne for providing him with the opportunities to grow.
Sydney-born and raised, Bernard is thriving living and researching in the NT.
“Being here, you have the convenience of living in a “city” with most modern conveniences and yet having access to the best that nature has to offer,” he said.
Nearing the end of his PhD, Bernard hopes to continue contributing in any way he can to support the youth he works with. “I want to be able to build the evidence needed to foster the development of children and young people and reduce the burden of adverse outcomes like suicidal behaviours,” he cited.
In the meantime, Bernard has his hands full, juggling work and study with two busy boys, playing basketball, and a recent foray into coaching junior basketball.