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Sunrise Behavioural Health exists to provide high-quality behavioural health solutions to people with developmental disabilities, traumatic brain injuries, and mental health concerns. We are an NDIA (National Disability Insurance Agency) approved provider since July 2016. 

Our experienced team of professionals is keen to assist persons with developmental disabilities, mental health concern and other related concerns using the cutting-edge research in their practice to achieve the best treatment outcome for each client. We offer a wide range of behavioural & mental health services to children and adults with developmental disabilities and including those with challenging behaviours. The overriding goal of our services is to enable each individual with a critical skill set to live an independent and dignified life as a valued member of society.

Jay (Rajesh) Sharma
BCBA. clinical director

Jay has over 20 years of professional experience in education, disability and mental health sector in India, the USA and Australia. He has completed B.A. (Hons) Psychology, B.Ed (Intellectual Disability) M.A. Applied Psychology ( Clinical Psychology), M.A. Applied Psychology ( Applied Behaviour Analysis), Master of Social Work, and a Diploma in Training & Development. Jay is also a Board-Certified Behaviour Analyst (BCBA), trained in the USA in a University-based program accredited by the Association for Behaviour Analysis International (ABAI). He is also a Social Worker registered with Australian Association of Social Workers (AASW).  He has worked in senior roles with Queensland and Victorian Government departments.

He has designed, delivered, implemented, & supervised positive behaviour support (PBS) and  applied behaviour analysis (ABA) based interventions for all age groups including young children with autism and adults with developmental disabilities and other mental health conditions. He has been a member of advisory boards/groups with non-profit organizations and managed positive behaviour support services in large-scale organisations. Jay’s areas of expertise include behaviour assessment, designing and developing, and implementing therapeutic interventions for a wide range of clients with a developmental disability, mental health diagnosis, and other psychosocial disabilities.

He also has strong research interests in behavioural interventions and clinical innovations to support people with psychosocial disabilities. Jay enjoys coaching, supervising students pursuing their education in applied behaviour analysis, mentoring, and empowering carers, support staffs & health professionals with evidence-based interventions and support strategies. Along with his colleagues Dr Jahirul Mullick and Tsuyoshi Imasaka, Jay has recently authored book chapters on behavioural treatments of intellectual disability and ADHD

Dr Rupak Dasgupta
Senior Psychiatrist

Dr. Rupak Dasgupta is a senior psychiatrist who has vast experience in different areas of psychiatry.

He has worked as a psychiatrist both in public and private and has worked across three different continents. He graduated from India, completed his Diploma in Psychological medicine and then moved to United Kingdom where he completed his basic psychiatry training leading to the award of Membership of Royal College of Psychiatry. He then moved to Australia and completed his fellowship and is the member of Faculty of Adult Psychiatry of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatry. He is currently employed in a public hospital in Melbourne and has been in leadership roles both in public and private systems.

He is associated with us purely in an advisory and honorary role and is not associated with the profit in business in any way. We benefit from his advice and the relationship that we have developed with him over past few months and try to incorporate some of the recommendations he may make.

 

Murray Dawson-Smith
principal advisor / consultant

Murray has held senior management positions in the Community sector for over 35 years and the past 22 years in the disability sector. The roles held include Chief Executive Officer of VICRAID, Chief Executive Officer, Active Property Services Management (now known as Active Community Housing), Chief Executive Officer, Amaze (formerly Autism Victoria), Chief Executive Officer of Distinctive Options and currently Director of Live Work Relate providing Support Coordination and Behaviour Support to individuals with complex behaviours. At Sunrise Murray provides strategic oversight and guidance to sustainable business growth and development. Murray also oversees the company’s policy frameworks and its alignment with broader NDIS Quality and Safeguard Commission requirements for the provision of disability services.

Madhu Sharma
executive manager-administration & finance

Madhu has been an accomplished educator. She has taught in India, USA and Australia in both government and non-government schools for more than two decades.  Since late 2019, She has been over seeing our business operations and finance. Other than working in education sector, she has worked as a resource officer with Queensland Department of Disability. She has attended many professional development courses in disability, inclusion, human rights of people with disability, trauma informed practices management, and finance. She also has sound knowledge and skills in positive behaviour support. She carries a small case load of behaviour support as a behaviour support practitioner other than her management duties of administration and finance.

Tsuyoshi Imasaka
BCBA, behaviour support specialist

Tsuyoshi Imasaka has completed Bachelor (B.Sc) and Honours degree majoring in psychology, and Master of Education in Applied Behaviour Analysis (ABA) at Monash University. He joined the team at Sunrise Behavioural Health as a behaviour support practitioner in July 2019. Tsuyoshi gained the credential of Board-Certified Behaviour Analyst (BCBA) in 2020.  He is also a provisional psychologist. Tsuyoshi works closely with families, disability service providers and agencies to design, develop and implement behaviour support plans informed by comprehensive functional behaviour assessments. Tsuyoshi also has extensive experience in identifying and addressing restrictive interventions / practices consistent with DHHS-RIDS policies and NDIS Quality & Safeguard Commission requirements.

Tsuyoshi has keen research interests in behavioural intervention strategies in supporting individuals with ASD, ADHD and other mental health concerns. He has published research in a peer-reviewed journal and intends to expand his research interest in evaluating and optimising clinical outcomes in Sunrise Behavioural Health. Recently, Tsuyoshi completed a book chapter on treatment of ADHD along with his colleagues Dr. Jahirul Mullick and Jay Sharma at Sunrise Behavioural Health.

Dr. Frances Lewis
behaviour support practitioner

Dr Frances Lewis has a BA/BSc (Psychology Honours) from the University of Melbourne.  Her PhD from the University of Melbourne investigated developmental trajectories of attention in primary school aged children. Dr. Frances supports clients of all ages.  Dr. Frances Lewis is also a provisional psychologist. Her areas of professional interest include anxiety in children, particularly in the school setting, developing, and implementing behavioural interventions and support strategies for a wide range of disabilities and psychiatric diagnoses.

Ms. Taniya Jayasinghe
counsellor & behaviour support practitioner

Taniya has completed Bachelor of Arts in Psychology. She has master’s degrees in counselling & Education. In the year 2020, she graduated with Master of Education in Applied Behaviour Analysis (ABA) from Monash University.She is a trained counsellor and a professional member of Australian Counselling Association (ACA). She hopes to gain the credential of Board-Certified Behaviour Analyst (BCBA) in near future. Taniya has strong interest in positive behaviour support (PBS), early intensive behavioural interventions (EIBI) and providing counselling support services to individuals across lifespan. Recently, she was awarded ‘The Ambassador for Peace Award’ by Universal Peace Federation.

Prachi Mehta
senior behaviour therapist

Prachi has an undergraduate degree in psychology. Prior to working with Sunrise Behavioural Health, Prachi had worked as an Assistant School Counsellor in India. She completed her master of education (M.Ed) degree in applied Behaviour Analysis (ABA)  from Monash University. Prachi is on her pathway to become a Board-Certified Behaviour Analyst (BCBA)in near future.

Dina Argitha
senior behaviour therapist

Dina is a licenced clinical child psychologist in Indonesia since early 2018. With a growing interest in behavioural analysis, Dina completed a Master of Education in Applied Behaviour Analysis (ABA) at Monash University.  She believes all children canlearn irrespective of their disability status, to be able to help them achieving their goals based on their milestones is one of her honours. Dina provides ABA program supervision and direct behaviour therapy services.

Carolyn Camarillo
Senior behaviour therapist

Carolyn is a senior behaviour therapist who combines her knowledge and skills from applied behaviour analysis (ABA), child development, physiotherapy, and special education in achieving optimal outcome for each child she serves. She has completed a master’s degree in special education at Torrens University Australia. Other than special education, she has completed undergraduate degree in physiotherapy and numerous hours of professional development in ABA and special education. Carolyn has worked overseas as aphysiotherapist and a special education teacher for children with autism. Carolyn says, “the best thing about going to work, is getting to see how proud my clients and their families are when they successfully learn a new skill”. She loves to witness how much a child can accomplish in such a short time, as well as watching those skills generalize into real-life scenarios and the community.In her spare time, Carolyn loves traveling, reading, baking, and playing the ukulele.

Ye Han (Freya)
behaviour therapist

Freya has an undergraduate degree in Fine Arts. She is currently enrolled in master’s degree in applied Behaviour Analysis (ABA) at Monash University. She is on her pathway to become a Board-Certified Behaviour Analyst (BCBA) in near future. Freya is a highly preferred therapist to work with Mandarin speaking individuals and  families and provides consistent direct support with therapy implementation.

 

Feixuan Lu (Macaria)
Behaviour Support Practitioner

Feixuan Lu is a behaviour support practitioner and provisional psychologist at SBH. She finished her 4 years of Psychology study at the University of Melbourne and the Monash University. She also has a degree in Masters of Counselling form the Monash University. She has experience of working with both adults and children.

Angeline Rodriguez
behaviour Support Practitioner

Angeline has an undergraduate degree in Physiotherapy and a Master’s in Conselling. Prior to coming to Australia, she was a practicing physiotherapist and clinical mental health consellor overseas. Much of her work involves cognitive- behavioural and behavioural therapies in order to improve the wellbeing of neuro- divergent children (such as those with Autism), and adolescents with mental health conditions (such as depression and anxiety). Angeline is currently studying to become a Clinical Psychologist, and is taking her Graduate Diploma in Psychological Science at Deakin University. She is also presently working towards a Registered Behavioural Technician credential. In her work with Sunrise Behavioural Health, Angeline integrates her skills and perspectives from physiotherapy, counselling, and psychology. 

Research and Evaluation Team

Our research and evaluation team works closely with our clinical governance team to ensure that our practitioners are well-equipped with cutting-edge research and innovative clinical practices to support our clients’ complex needs. Our researchers have extensive experience in conducting and evaluating large-scale research projects and supporting institutions, schools, and businesses with our clinical and research acumen.

Dr Jahirul Mullick, PhD.
consultant-behaviour specialist & research

Dr. Jahirul Mullick is Assistant Professor in Wenzhou-Kean University, a Sino-American institution of higher education. He is also a Research Fellow at the Neurodiversity Research Centre (proposed) in Wenzhou-Kean University. He taught in Monash University and RMIT University in Australia before taking up the new assignment in Wenzhou-Kean. He completed his PhD from Monash University and attained his postgraduate degree, Master of Education in ABA from the same institute. Dr. Mullick has a strong interest in the theory and practice of applied behaviour analysis (ABA), positive behaviour support (PBS) and inclusive education. He is also keen on contextualizing behavioural principles to meet the learning and behaviour support needs of the persons with ASD, ADHD, intellectual disabilities and beyond. Other than providing direct behavioural services (PBS and ABA), Dr. Mullick has been working on developing contextually fit positive behaviour support framework for Schools at Sunrise Behavioural Health based on cutting-edge research and best clinical practices. His areas of research are: policy and practice in special and inclusive education, positive behaviour support, leadership practices, and applied behaviour analysis. He has authored several research articles and book chapters in the past fifteen years.

Dr. Saiful Malak, PhD.
consultant-educational / therapeutic services & research

As a special education professional, Saiful has over 16 years of experience in disability, therapeutic intervention, early years schooling, inclusive education, and teacher preparedness. He has mixed working experience in both developed and developing countries context. His academic qualifications include Bachelor of Special Education (Honours), Master of Education (Special Education), Master of Education (concentration: special education; inclusive education) and PhD. He completed his PhD from Monash University. In his PhD thesis, he investigated critical aspects of student behaviour in mainstream schools. He is one of the core members of the Lead Team of a highly competitive international research grant (CAD 1.2 million) called KIX EUROPE, ASIA, and the Pacific REGION to undertake a collaborative research on Gender and Inclusive Pedagogy funded by the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), Canada. This project is being implemented in five countries: Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, Vietnam and Timor-Leste. Saiful’s role in this project includes Gender and Inclusive Education Expert and International Focal Point. He is the South Asian representative for Consortium of Inclusive Teacher Education and Development (CITED) https://www.monash.edu/cited/members. He is experienced in RCT based Impact Evaluation of a variety of educational interventions. Saiful has been teaching disability and special education related courses in the Department of Special Education, Institute of Education and Research, the University of Dhaka for past 14 years. He is experienced in planning and implementing early interventions for children with autism and other disabilities. He has a strong interest in intervention-based research and publications. His academic career also includes development of a scale for measuring teacher’s attitudes towards student’s inappropriate behaviour. He has published numerous Book Chapters and research-based papers in globally reputed journals.

Dr Aditi Lohan, PhD. Consultant-Behaviour Specialist & Research

Dr Aditi Lohan was conferred a PhD in Clinical Psychology from The University of Queensland in 2017, and has extensive experience in leading, managing and implementation of large research projects. Aditi’s specific research and professional interests are in the areas of parenting, couple and child relationships; family dynamics; developmental disabilities; chronic illnesses; early intervention and evidence-based interventions. Aditi has extensive theoretical and practical knowledge of the Triple P- Positive Parenting Program and is an accredited provider of various Triple P levels including Group Triple P, Group Teen Triple P, Discussion Group Triple P, Discussion Group Teen Triple P and Triple P/Teen Triple P Seminars.

Prior to joining Sunrise Behavioural Health, Aditi led a team of researchers at Relationships Australia Queensland in her role as the Manager of Research, where she was responsible for planning, monitoring, leading, coordinating and conducting multiple high impact research projects in areas such as, family dispute resolution, relationship counselling, problem gambling. Aditi is passionate about using her research knowledge and skills to make a positive contribution to the community, particularly to the lives of vulnerable and disadvantaged groups. Aditi is a member of the Australian Psychological Society (APS).

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