Dr. Ruth Wells

Biography

Ruth Wells is a Senior Research Fellow at the University of New South Wales, specializing in Clinical Psychology within the School of Clinical Medicine. She is a registered psychologist with a keen focus on understanding how socio-cultural processes shape individual and community responses to conflict and displacement. Ruth has extensive experience working with psychosocial professionals in Syrian refugee communities in Jordan, Turkey, and Iraq to culturally adapt clinical treatments and co-design research programs. Currently, she leads a quasi-experimental study across Turkey, Syria, and Bangladesh to investigate the impact of clinical supervision interventions on the well-being of mental health practitioners working within refugee communities. This project also examines the quality of supervision from the perspective of service users in these communities. Ruth’s qualitative participatory research has involved assessing community readiness to address the psychosocial consequences of war and displacement, and she utilizes a strengths-based framework in her work. She is also involved in the Reassure study, a longitudinal project that looks at the impact of Australia’s immigration policies on Farsi and Dari speaking refugees and asylum seekers in Sydney. In addition, Ruth engages in service quality improvement research at St John of God Hospital in Richmond to enhance treatment experiences for those seeking help for PTSD and occupational trauma.

Research Interests