Dr. Naomi Badu
Lecturer, Bachelor of Community Services
Dr. Naomi Badu (née Gyamfi) is a mental health and disability researcher, educator, and practitioner with a multidisciplinary background in health, counselling, and social work. She holds a Ph.D. from the University of New England (UNE), Australia, where she developed the Recovery Knowledge and Attitudes Scale (R-KAS)—a validated psychometric tool designed to assess recovery-oriented perspectives among mental health professionals and students. Her research focuses on mental health recovery, disability studies, and health systems.
Dr. Badu has over ten years of combined teaching and research experience across Ghana and Australia. She has held research and academic support roles at the University of New England, including as a research assistant at the School of Health and unit marker in counselling and psychology programs. She has also contributed to postgraduate counselling education at Excelsia College in Sydney and played a key role in teaching (Counselling) and curriculum development for community services and disability studies programs.
She has authored over 25 peer-reviewed publications in high-impact journals such as BMC Psychiatry, International Journal of Mental Health Nursing, International Journal of Social Psychiatry, and PLOS ONE. Dr. Badu’s work is internationally recognized, with a Scopus h-index of 11 and a ResearchGate h-index of 15. She is a recipient of the Dean’s Award for Research Excellence at UNE and continues to contribute to advancing inclusive, recovery-oriented mental health and disability research.