Our Experts

This website provides a range of content developed in consultation with experts in the fields of biomedicine and child and adolescent psychology.

Our experts include:

• Dr John Irvine, child and family psychologist.
• Professor Ross Stewart Kalucy, School of Medicine, Flinders Medical Centre.
• Dr Michael George MacAvoy, CEO of DrinkWise Australia.
• Dr Andrew Rochford, Accident and Emergency, Sydney Royal North Shore Hospital.

Dr John Irvine, child and family psychologist, BA. PhD, M.A.C.E., M.A.P.S.

Dr John Irvine is Australia’s best known child and family psychologist. He had his own one-teacher school at the age of 18 before teaching in NSW schools for many years. He then went on to do further study to become a child psychologist at the University of New England, where he was awarded the Shell Prize for Arts and the University medal. Committed to healthy child development, Dr Irvine initiated preschool training at the University of Southern Queensland in Toowoomba, and set up the state’s first and most comprehensive family day care and family support scheme. To recognise his commitment to family services in the region, families dedicated a community house to Dr John Irvine.

In 1980 he became the senior academic in Sydney at the Institute of Early Childhood Studies (now the School of Early Childhood Studies at Macquarie University).

Dr Irvine is a consultant child psychologist at the READ clinic, which he and his brother Warwick founded in Gosford, NSW in 1981. He is the consultant psychologist for NSW’s Central Coast Grammar School and has written many books, including “Coping with Kids”, “Coping with School” , “Coping with the Family”, “Who’d Be A Parent” and A Handbook For Happy Families: a practical and fun-filled guide to managing children’s behaviour. Dr Irvine’s latest book is an updated edition of Thriving At School. Dr Irvine appears regularly on many news and current affairs programs, is a weekly guest on Channel Ten’s morning program and writes for several newspapers. and has a radio segment Coping With Kids on dozens of stations across Australia. He is a much sought after speaker around the nation and is a patron of Family Day Care, Home Start, NAPCAN, Kidsafe and ambassador for Playgroups.

His family includes wife Jean, and three grown-up daughters – Jenny, Heather and Rosie.

Professor Ross Stewart Kalucy, AM, MB.BS, FRANZCP, FRANCP, FRCPSYCH, FACHAM

Professor Ross Stewart Kalucy is an expert on alcohol and the psychological impact of alcohol abuse. On his return to Australia in 1976, after establishing a postgraduate research career at the University of London in psychosomatic disorders, and weight and sleep disorders, Professor Kalucy was appointed as Foundation Professor of Psychiatry in the School of Medicine at Flinders University in South Australia. He later became Dean of the School of Medicine there in 1989 for two years.

As the current Head of the Academic Department of Psychiatry at Flinders University, Director for Emergency Mental Health and past president of the Medical Board of South Australia, Professor Kalucy is a leading authority on mental health in Australia. He has been a member of all the major committees of the National Health and Medical Research Council throughout his career (including Chairman of the AHEC’s Institutional Ethics Committee from 1991-1994) and has directed much of his medical attention towards drug and alcohol-related disorders.

Dr Kalucy’s interest in drug and alcohol disorders has gained him chair appointments on a number of influential boards. Notably, he has been the appointed chairman for the Methadone Appeals Committee since 1985; and since 1993 he has held the position of chairman for the Australian Association Brewers’ Medical Advisory Group, a committee responsible for distributing approximately $250,000 a year to alcohol-related research.

Dr Michael George MacAvoy, CEO of DrinkWise Australia

With a career in drug and alcohol dependency that spans more than 30 years, Dr Michael George MacAvoy is one of Australia’s most respected authorities on drug and alcohol-related issues.

Born and educated in Dunedin, New Zealand, Dr MacAvoy was awarded a Doctorate in Philosophy (Psychology) in 1976, from the University of Otago for his research on the effects of cannabis consumption. He then moved to Australia and took up a position as Senior Clinical Psychologist with the Drugs of Dependence Branch of the Victorian Health Department. This marked the start of a career dedicated to developing strategies to reduce alcohol-related harm in Australia, New Zealand and Switzerland.

In 1997, Dr MacAvoy was made Supervisor of Treatment Services with the Alcohol and Drug Services of the Queensland Department of Health. In 1980 he returned to New Zealand where he established Drug and Alcohol Services for the South Canterbury Hospital. By 1985 he had returned to Australia to take up the position of Director of the Drug and Alcohol Bureau in the Northern Territory where he worked among indigenous communities with substance abuse problems.

In 1988 he was recruited to the inaugural position of Director for the Drug and Alcohol Directorate within the NSW Government., a position established as the Government’s primary advisory body on all matters relating to drugs. In addition, Dr MacAvoy was appointed Chairperson of the NSW Interdepartmental Committee on Drugs, and was later made Chairman of the National Drug Strategy Committee, which advised all States and Territories on drug-related matters. Dr MacAvoy has also been a consultant to the World Health Organisation on cocaine.

Dr MacAvoy returned to New Zealand in 1994 to take up the position of Chief Executive Officer of the Alcohol Advisory Council of New Zealand, an independent advisor to government on all matters relating to alcohol. Its primary functions are to promote the moderate use of alcohol and reduce alcohol-related harm.

In 1995, Dr MacAvoy became a member of the Board of Directors for the Swiss-based International Council on Alcohol and other Addictions, and was later elected its Deputy President from 1999 to 2006. The largest and oldest organisation of its type in the world, it brings together government, non-government and alcohol industry bodies in a bid to reduce drug-related and gambling problems.

Dr MacAvoy took up his current position as Chief Executive Officer of DrinkWise Australia in 2006.

Dr Andrew Rochford, Accident and Emergency, Sydney Royal North Shore Hospital

After winning renovation television series The Block with his partner Jamie in 2004, Dr Andrew Rochford has become a well-known face in the Australian media. In a world interested in health, fitness and well-being, Dr Rochford has made it his mission to demystify the medical world and help Australians gain a deeper understanding of how to develop and maintain a healthy lifestyle.

He joined Nine Network’s health program, What’s Good for You as the medical expert, is resident doctor for Woman’s Day and Australian Men’s Fitness and writes regular health-related columns for both publications. He also makes fortnightly appearances on Mornings with Kerri-Ann to talk about health and medical-related issues.

This year Dr Rochford has begun hosting a new medical-based program, Waiting Room, a reality series set in Sydney’s Royal North Shore Hospital where he works in Accident and Emergency. The program aims to debunk many of the myths surrounding health and medical practice.

Graduating from the University of Sydney Medical School with a Bachelor in Medicine (Honours), Bachelor of Surgery, and Bachelors Degree in Medical Science majoring in Anatomy and Neuroscience, Dr Rochford has a special interest in trauma, critical care and preventative medicine. Dr Rochford says all these medical specialties are intimately related to alcohol use in Australia.

Dr Rochford is married to Jamie and has a young daughter and newly born twins.