Media round-up: A/Prof Gemma Sharp discusses new guidelines for cosmetic surgery practice

From 1 July 2023, new guidelines for the regulation of cosmetic surgery practice came into effect in Australia. This was in response to a number of complaints made against cosmetic surgeons in the last few years following patients experiencing complications of both a physical and psychological nature. 

The new guidelines stipulate that people seeking cosmetic surgery must have a referral from their GP and undergo mental health screening. Previously, the mental health screening was only suggested, but it is now compulsory. 

Associate Professor Gemma Sharp of the Department of Neuroscience served as the lead expert for the world-first clinical guidelines for mental health assessment of people seeking cosmetic surgery back in 2018, which have since been adopted internationally. She subsequently served as the lead expert again in the 2023 revision of these guidelines in preparation of the new regulations coming into place in Australia. 

A/Prof Sharp spoke to a number of media outlets about the likely impacts of these new regulations. 

ABC TV News Breakfast (video)

New cosmetic surgery rules leave doctors divided (ABC News radio)

Beauty industry set for makeover with more than 1 billion at stake (Canberra Times)

Why so many people including the Kardashians have plastic surgery regret (The Age)

Gemma Sharp wins Paul Bourke award

A/Prof Gemma Sharp with the Paul Bourke award

Associate Professor Gemma Sharp, NHMRC Early Career Research Fellow in the Department of Neuroscience at Monash University, is a recipient of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia’s 2022 Paul Bourke Award for Early Career Research (see the video 3:17 mins). 

A/Prof Sharp is an exceptional early career researcher who is known for pioneering research in body image, eating disorders and digital mental health interventions. She has published more than 55 research outputs in high quality journals and amassed more than $5 million in research funding. Her research excellence has been recognised with over 50 awards including the US-based Association for Psychological Science Rising Star Award (2021).

Congratulations to Associate Professor Gemma Sharp on her promotion

A/Prof  Gemma Sharp joins CCS's Department of Neuroscience

We are delighted to announce that Gemma Sharp has been promoted to Associate Professor, and she and her research group have joined the Department of Neuroscience. Welcome Gemma!
 
Associate Professor Sharp is a researcher, lecturer and clinical psychologist who is very well known for pioneering research in body image, eating disorders and digital mental health interventions (e.g. chatbots and mobile apps).

College of Clinical Psychologists (Vic) Significant Contribution Award for Gemma Sharp

Associate Professor Gemma Sharp in clinic

Associate Professor Gemma Sharp, Department of Neuroscience, has been recognised by the College of Clinical Psychologists (Vic) with a Significant Contribution Award. 

A/Prof Sharp's contribution spanned all areas, particularly her work in the field of body image related disorders including eating disorders and body dysmorphic disorder. She is particularly well known for leading the development of a world-first set of practice guidelines focused on the psychological evaluation of patients seeking cosmetic procedures with the Australian Psychological Society. These guidelines were first published in 2018 and she is currently leading the update of these guidelines to be released in late 2022/early 2023. A/Prof Sharp was kindly nominated for the award by her post-doc Dr Kathleen de Boer.

Second generation AI chatbot for positive body image being funded

The positive body image chatbot is being further
developed with a Telematics Trust grant

Congratulations to Associate Professor Gemma Sharp of the Department of Neuroscience, who has been awarded a Telematics Trust grant for $50,000. The focus of these grants is to fund technology which can transform the lives of Victorians through education. 

A/Prof Sharp led the team which developed the world's first pilot positive body image conversational AI agent or chatbot. The pilot was highly successful with over 20,000 users in Australia in under 12 months.

The grant will allow for the development and evaluation of a second generation chatbot in collaboration with researchers in Monash's Faculty of Iinformation Technology. A/Prof Sharp said, "This next generation chatbot will have much more sophisticated conversational AI which will likely lead to even higher usage and greater benefits to body image and mental health."

Congratulations to Narelle Cox, Gemma Sharp and Karin Jandeleit-Dahm on NHMRC Investigator grants!

L-R: Dr Narelle Cox, A/Prof  Gemma Sharp and Professor Karin
Jandeleit-Dahm have won NHMRC Investigator grants

Congratulations to our National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Investigator grant recipients in Central Clinical School (CCS) Dr Narelle Cox, Associate Professor Gemma Sharp and Professor Karin Jandeleit-Dahm.

Dr Narelle Cox's (Department of Respiratory Research@Alfred) EL2 project is "Improving access to non-pharmacological treatment in chronic respiratory disease", and has been awarded $1,526,390 

Associate Professor Gemma Sharp's (Department of Neuroscience) EL2 project is "Smartphone sensors: Predicting changes in mental health and delivering "just in time" interventions", and has been awarded $1,526,390 

Body image concerns impact more than a third of young people and are linked with eating disorders, anxiety, depression and suicidality. This program of research will harness the popularity of smartphones to predict when young people are struggling with their body image from the way they are using their phones, and provide the right level of personalised support via “just in time” online interventions. If effective, this work will translate into improved body image for at-risk young people. 

Professor Karin Jandeleit-Dahm's (Department of Diabetes) L2 project is "Reducing the burden of diabetic complications" and has been awarded $2,382,170

Club Melbourne Fellowship award to Dr Gemma Sharp

Dr Gemma Sharp receiving her Club Melbourne Fellowship award

Congratulations to NHMRC Early Career Senior Research Fellow, Dr Gemma Sharp, who was awarded a Club Melbourne Fellowship (one of two in Victoria) on 18 August at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre. 

Dr Sharp will use this fellowship to attend the International Society for Research on Internet Interventions 11th Scientific Meeting in Pittsburgh US in September 2022 where she will present an evaluation of the world's first positive body image chatbot - a project she has led since 2020. Owing to the success of the chatbot within Australia (over 20,000 users in its first year), the chatbot will be disseminated internationally in late 2022/early 2023.

Dr Sharp said, "It's a real honour to be awarded this fellowship, particularly with Central Clinical School having such a strong history of success in this fellowship program. It will be a thrill to present this research in-person at the ISRII conference and know that the chatbot will be available in the US shortly after!" 

How can we influence the influencers to be more real?

SBS The Feed writes, "Fuller lips, smooth frown lines, and square jaws are just some of the facial features made popular by social media filters. There are fears it's pushing younger and younger influencers to turn to injections and cosmetic procedures to get that 'Insta Face' look." 

Dr Gemma Sharp was interviewed for comment and analysis. See clip at @TheFeedSBS tweet featuring @gemmasharp11.

Forthcoming: ABC TV 22 Feb 2022 Catalyst featuring our Dr Gemma Sharp on body image issues

ABC Catalyst will be airing an episode on Tuesday 22 February, 8.30pm, "Forever Young? The Rise Of Injectables". It will feature Central Clinical School's Dr Gemma Sharp (pictured being interviewed by a journalist on Zoom for the episode) talking about body image concerns.

Australians spend over a billion dollars on injectable treatments annually and clients seeking tweakments are getting younger. The Catalyst episode explores the psychology behind this trend and the consequences of pursuing youth and perfection.

Congratulations to Dr Gemma Sharp on best paper award!

A paper on the KIT chatbot concept and methodology led by Dr Gemma Sharp
has won best paper award from the Society for Mental Health Research

Congratulations to Dr Gemma Sharp, who has won the 'Best Paper' competition of The Society for Mental Health Research. Dr Sharp is senior author on "Development of a positive body image chatbot (KIT) with young people and parents/carers: Qualitative focus group study."

The paper outlines the co-design of the chatbot which led to KIT's successful launch in November 2020 on the Butterfly Foundation website and on Facebook chat. KIT has helped over 20,000 people in their first year of life and has big plans for 2022!

Gemma Sharp finalist for Bupa Emerging Health Researcher Award

Dr Gemma Sharp is a tireless community advocate,
and is also a co-host for 3RRR "Radiotherapy"

Congratulations to Dr Gemma Sharp who is an NHMRC Early Career Fellow and clinical psychologist in the Central Clinical School's Department of Psychiatry. She was one of only five national finalists for the Bupa Emerging Health Researcher Award. 

Dr Sharp was nominated by her supervisor and Head of Psychiatry, Professor Jayashri Kulkarni, for her significant contribution to the field of body image and eating disorder clinical research in her short career. 

Participants sought: Vegetarianism, Veganism, and Eating Behaviours

Link: monash.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_6LGEcDFuo8vvAiy

Calling all meat-eaters, vegetarians and vegans who are 18 years and over! Take part in Courtney McLean's PhD study in an online survey (estimated time for completion: 15 minutes):

Eric Morand said, "Great study, some piercing questions about self-image and even self-regard. So important - well done @CourtneyPMcLean."

Unpacking the pathologising of plant-based diet followers

Vegetarians and vegans might be dietary abstainers, but that
doesn't make their eating pathological.

Courtney McLean is a PhD student supervised by Dr Gemma Sharp and Professor Jayashri Kulkarni in CCS's Department of Psychiatry. Courtney's focus of research is on eating disorders.

They have recently published a paper investigating the commonly endorsed notion that meat avoidance is a precursor to the development of eating disorders. They argue that this notion, common though it might be, is not based on strong evidence. 

They write that since the 1980s, vegetarian/vegan-focused research has been varied, often contradictory, and scarce, supporting the notion that commonly used diagnostic eating disorder questionnaires may be detecting and pathologising normal vegetarian- and  vegan-related eating behaviours.

Congratulations to Dr Gemma Sharp on her APS "Rising Star" award!

Dr Gemma Sharp is an APS "Rising Star"

Congratulations to Dr Gemma Sharp, who was awarded a prestigious international Association for Psychological Science (APS) Rising Star for 2021 Award, only one of five Australians and the only Monash University researcher to be recognised in this year's award.

The "Rising Star" award recognises early career researchers who have demonstrated excellence in publications, received significant recognitions, made significant discoveries, generated work with broad impact, and established an independent research career. Dr Sharp's pioneering work in the field of body image, particularly in her leadership of the development of KIT the body image chatbot, was instrumental in her award success.

Bad Body Image Day? The KIT chatbot can help

KIT the chatbot

KIT, the world's first positive body image chatbot, is helping thousands of people since its launch mid November 2020. Psychology Today has published an essay by Dr Charlotte Markey on KIT, "Bad body image day? It's possible that a chatbot could make a difference".

Dr Gemma Sharp said that KIT "has had a wonderful first two months of life since launching on the Butterfly Foundation's website".

What has KIT been up to? 

Participants sought: Survey on eating behaviours and personality characteristics

Find out more about our survey

If you are aged between 16 - 30 years old, we would love to hear from you to help us find out more about how personality is associated with eating behaviours! Australian participants aged between 16-30 years of age are sought for an online survey, estimated to take about 30 minutes. See detail about the study here. 

Until We Tweet Again: What Happens Next? podcast on social media and mental health, part three

This episode of What Happens Next? features all the best tips and guidance from our experts about how to help young people manage their social media use for mental health and wellbeing, and how it can be used to build communities and share stories. Gemma Sharp is one of three interviewees in this podcast, speaking on how to be aware of when social media use is becoming unhealthy.

People You May Know: What Happens Next? podcast on social media and mental health, part two

Every generation faces its own moral panic over new technology. Even right back to Socrates when the use of written text in books was seen as something that would negatively impact our lives. In the 20th century, wireless radio and television was thought or assumed to bring about the downfall of civilisation.

Monash study aims to redress poor genital self-image in teens

Dr Gemma Sharp giving a TED talk against a backdrop of
labia models

by Riya Kiran

 

Cosmetic genital surgery is on the rise and the most common procedure is a labiaplasty, the surgical reduction of the inner vaginal lips so they don’t overlap the outer lips.

This procedure is on the rise in teenage girls.

A 2016 survey of 443 Australian GPs found that a third have seen patients aged below 18 wanting to trim or shape their genitalia. Almost all the doctors surveyed said they had seen women of all ages express concerns about the appearance of their genitalia. The reasons for this anxiety included a perception of normality based on images seen online, particularly those in sexualised media.

A Monash University study – published in the journal, Body Image – has looked at how a 2 minute video highlighting the variability in labia shape and size, aimed at teenagers could assist in creating a positive genital self-image.

Gemma Sharp is a Eureka finalist for promoting understanding of science

Dr Gemma Sharp explains her science communication
strategies. See video. Follow @gemmasharp11

Dr Gemma Sharp from the Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences, has been nominated as a finalist in the 2020 prestigious Australian Museum Eureka Prizes in recognition of her effective science communication.