Dr Jane Mulcahy

Jane completed her PhD exploring Chronic Pain and Meaningful Daily Activity in 2011 at Victoria University.

She is currently a lecturer in the Osteopathy program at Victoria University and is also in private practice as a health psychologist in St Kilda Road, Melbourne.

In her teaching role Jane has been involved in the substantial modification of the psychology units within the osteopathy course, and has worked collaboratively with osteopaths to develop clinical teaching strategies for chronic pain patients.

Her professional interests include health risk assessment, behavioral factors associated with chronic illness, chronic pain, depression, anxiety and dispositional optimism as it affects health behaviors and outcomes of clinical interventions. 

Over the last 10 years Jane has been working on a measure to assess the perceived outcomes of patients who receive osteopathic treatment. This work has primarily involved establishing what comorbidities and patient-specific variables affect the outcomes of and satisfaction with osteopathic treatment.

Key publications

Mulcahy J, Vaughan B. (2015) Exploring the construct validity of the Patient Perception Measure – Osteopathy using classical test theory and Rasch analysis. Chiropractic & Manual Therapy; 23:6 doi:10.1186/s12998-015-0055-x

Vaughan B, Mulcahy J, McLaughlin P. (2014) The DREEM, Part 2: Psychometric properties of the DREEM in an osteopathic student population. BMC Medical Education, 14:100 doi:10.1186/1472-6920-14-100

Mulcahy J, Vaughan B. (2014) Sensations Experienced and Patients Perceptions of Osteopathy in the Cranial Field (OCF) Treatment. Journal of Evidence-Based Complementary & Alternative Medicine, doi: 10.1177/2156587214534263

Mulcahy, J., Vaughan, B., Boadle, J., Klas, D., Rickson, C., & Woodman, L. (2012). Item development for a questionnaire investigating patient self reported perception, satisfaction and outcomes of a single osteopathy in the cranial field (OCF) treatment. International Journal of Osteopathic Medicine(0). doi: 10.1016/j.ijosm.2012.07.003

Conference presentations

Mulcahy, J. (2008) Oral presentation: A measure of meaningful daily activity as an additional outcome measure to develop treatment goals and monitor symptoms in CP patients, Australian Health Outcomes Collaboration Conference. "Health Outcomes 2008: Facilitating Knowledge Exchange and Transfer for a Dynamic Future", Rydges Lakeside, Canberra, Australia.

Mulcahy, J. (2007) Oral Presentation: The association between lawn bowls participation and the health and wellbeing of Australian Elders, Australian New Zealand Osteopathy Research Conference (ANZORC), Unitec, Auckland, New Zealand.

Mulcahy, J. (2005) Oral presentation: Illness Perception and meaningful daily activity in chronic pain symptomatology, ASBM Conference "Behaviour and Health: Evidence to Practice" Hilton on the Park, Melbourne, Australia.

Mulcahy, J. (2004) Keynote Speaker Inaugural Conference, Institute of Registered Myotherapists of Australia. As health professionals how can we improve the quality of life of chronic pain sufferers. Hilton on the Park, Melbourne, Australia.

Mulcahy, J. (2002) Poster: A Clinical measure of meaningful daily activity to assess, treat, and manage chronic pain patients, International Behavioural Medicine Conference, Helsinki, 27–31 August 2002.

Mulcahy, J. (2001) Oral presentation: The search for meaning: Meaningfulness in rehabilitation, Australian Psychological Society Conference, Adelaide, Australia, September 2001

Teaching responsibilities

• HHS3171 Psychology and Social Science 1
• HHS3272 Psychology and Social Science 2
• HHS4182 Counselling Skills for Health Professionals
• HHS4285 Identifying Psychopathology in Clinical Practice
• Clinical educator in the VU Osteopathy Clinic, assisting students with the assessment and management of patients with psychosocial factors that have an impact on their treatment.

Coordination

• HHS3171 Psychology and Social Science 1
• HHS3272 Psychology and Social Science 2
• HHS4182 Counselling Skills for Health Professionals
• HHS4285 Identifying Psychopathology in Clinical Practice

Professional membership

• Australian Psychological Society
• College of Health Psychologists, Australian Psychological Society