Educational Background
M.Psych, UNSW Sydney, Australia
Ph.D., Medicine (Epidemiology & Biostatistics), UNSW Sydney, Australia
Scholarly Interests
My scholarly work focuses on how mental health care can be developed, measured, implemented, and sustained at scale, particularly in humanitarian, conflict affected, and resource constrained settings. I work across global mental health, psychological intervention, implementation science, population mental health, workforce wellbeing, and measurement, with a longstanding interest in translating research into systems in complex real world environments.
A major strand of my work examines scalable psychological and psychosocial interventions, including how evidence based approaches are adapted, implemented, and supported through community and nonspecialist workforces. This includes research on workforce competency, supervision, implementation quality, and the conditions required for effective care to be sustained.
A second strand focuses on population level mental health and psychosocial systems. My work has included large scale needs assessments, longitudinal and epidemiological studies, and the development of data systems to guide organizational and operational decision making in humanitarian and high risk settings. I am particularly interested in how population data can be translated into practical strategies for prevention, service planning, and workforce wellbeing.
A third area of interest is psychological measurement and competency assessment. This work draws on psychometrics, epidemiology, biostatistics, and measurement science to improve how psychological outcomes, functioning, and practitioner competencies are assessed across diverse populations and settings.
More recently, I have been examining how computational methods and generative AI can support these broader aims, including skills practice, competency assessment, supervision, feedback, and psychological measurement. I am especially interested in approaches that strengthen human expertise, can be evaluated rigorously, and improve the quality, equity, and scalability of mental health care.
Selected Publications
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Tay AK, Silove D. The ADAPT model: bridging the gap between psychosocial and individual responses to mass violence and refugee trauma. Epidemiology and Psychiatric Sciences. 2017;26(2):142-145. doi:10.1017/S2045796016000925
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Tay AK, Riley A, Islam R, Welton-Mitchell C, Duchesne B, Waters V, Varner A, Moussa B, Mahmudul Alam ANM, Elshazly MA, Silove D, Ventevogel P. The culture, mental health and psychosocial wellbeing of Rohingya refugees: a systematic review. Epidemiology and Psychiatric Sciences. 2019;28(5):489-494. doi:10.1017/S2045796019000192
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Tay AK, Mung HK, Miah MAA, Balasundaram S, Ventevogel P, Badrudduza M, Khan S, Morgan K, Rees S, Mohsin M, Silove D. An Integrative Adapt Therapy for common mental health symptoms and adaptive stress amongst Rohingya, Chin, and Kachin refugees living in Malaysia: a randomised controlled trial. PLOS Medicine. 2020;17(3):e1003073. doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.1003073
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Tay AK, Rees S, Miah MAA, Khan S, Badrudduza M, Morgan K, Fadil Azim D, Balasundaram S, Silove D. Functional impairment as a proxy measure indicating high rates of trauma exposure, post-migration living difficulties, common mental disorders, and poor health amongst Rohingya refugees in Malaysia. Translational Psychiatry. 2019;9:213. doi:10.1038/s41398-019-0537-z
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Tay AK. The mental health needs of displaced people exposed to armed conflict. The Lancet Public Health. 2022;7(5):e398-e399. doi:10.1016/S2468-2667(22)00088-3
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Tay AK, Rees S, Tam N, Kareth M, Silove D. Developing a measure of adaptive stress arising from the psychosocial disruptions experienced by refugees based on a sample of displaced persons from West Papua. International Journal of Methods in Psychiatric Research. 2019;28(1):e1770. doi:10.1002/mpr.1770
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Tay AK, Miah MAA, Khan S, Mohsin M, Alam ANMM, Ozen S, Mahmuda M, Ahmed HU, Silove D, Ventevogel P. A naturalistic evaluation of group Integrative Adapt Therapy (IAT-G) with Rohingya refugees during the emergency phase of a mass humanitarian crisis in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh. EClinicalMedicine. 2021;38:100999. doi:10.1016/j.eclinm.2021.100999
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Somasundaram D, Jayasuriya R, Perera R, Thamotharampillai U, Wickremasinghe R, Tay AK. Effect of daily stressors and collective efficacy on post-traumatic stress symptoms among internally displaced persons in post-war northern Sri Lanka. BJPsych Open. 2023;9(6):e180. doi:10.1192/bjo.2023.563
Biographical Information
Prof. Alvin K. Tay is a clinical psychologist, epidemiologist, and researcher working across global mental health, intervention, measurement, and technology, drawing on epidemiology, biostatistics, implementation and measurement science, and generative AI.
Over his 18 year career (with 8 years in a managerial role at the UNHQ), Dr Tay has focused on translating mental health science into practices and systems at scale. At the United Nations Heaquarters (NYC), he led the foundational work that led to the global rollout of the first data-driven psychosocial wellbeing strategy supporting frontline workers across 125 duty stations, including numerous humanitarian, peacekeeping, and political settings. He also pioneered mental health needs assessments across 20 humanitarian settings (spanning Ukraine, Gaza, Türkiye, Libya, Egypt, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Zambia, Nigeria, Colombia, Haiti, Afghanistan, and Fiji), which underpinned the UN’s first psychosocial data observatory. He has given many keynotes across high-level meetings at the UN, NATO, and scientific conferences, and provided regular updates to the UN senior leadership. He continues to advise the U.N. and international organizations on workforce wellbeing.
Dr Tay spent well over a decade in Sydney, Australia with a long history of working with conflict-affected communities across the Asia Pacific. He scaled up community-based interventions across Malaysia, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Papua New Guinea, and the Philippines, in partnership with 150+ community-based organizations, UNHCR, UNFPA, IOM, and WHO. He has authored more than 100 publications (many in JAMA, Lancet, World Psychiatry) and currently teaches and mentors students at 911爆料网.