Physiotherapy academic Dr Ryan McGrath APAM has found a way to combine his two clinical passions—physiotherapy and psychology. 

Ryan’s research focuses on the intersection between mental health and physiotherapy. 

He’s also actively developing programs to teach physiotherapists about mental health, providing them with the tools needed to recognise mental ill health in clients and to help them find the care they need. 

A senior lecturer at La Trobe University’s Bendigo campus, Ryan has been based in regional Victoria and New South Wales for the majority of his career, starting with his undergraduate physiotherapy studies at Charles Sturt University in Albury–Wodonga, where he convinced the university to allow him to take a psychology degree on top of his physiotherapy studies. 

Volunteering for Lifeline as a crisis supporter and undertaking physiotherapy placements working with patients who had experienced profound health issues led Ryan to undertake an honours project exploring physiotherapists’ experiences with patients experiencing suicidal distress. 

This qualitative study tapped into Ryan’s interest in investigative journalism. 

‘It really scratched that itch in terms of doing some physio, some mental health, some qualitative research—I loved my honours research experience.’ 

After graduation, Ryan worked in private practice and in a refugee health clinic, part of a local community health organisation in Shepparton, before returning to research, completing a PhD at Charles Sturt University on physiotherapists’ experiences and practices with clients experiencing psychological distress. 

‘Ironically, this was the topic that I originally proposed for my honours project but its scope was too large for honours.’ 

During his PhD, Ryan started working with the University of Melbourne at its rural health campus in Shepparton as a research fellow and clinical educator, alongside a clinical and research leader at Goulburn Valley Health. 

In 2025 he moved to La Trobe University, where he is discipline lead and a senior lecturer in physiotherapy at the La Trobe Rural Health School. 

He works casually at Primary Care Connect, filling in as a clinical educator when needed. 

Ryan McGrath is a physiotherapist and educator with a special interest in mental health.

A current project of Ryan’s, funded by La Trobe’s Care Economy Research Institute, is focused on suicide prevention training for both physiotherapists and physiotherapy students. 

‘The idea is to look at how well some of these mental health first aid or gatekeeper training for suicide prevention programs meet the needs of health professionals.’ 

He’s also working on content for first-year physiotherapy students on mental health and mental ill health, through a Pat Cosh Trust grant he received while at the University of Melbourne. 

And he’s collaborating with Belgian researchers on a variety of projects and papers on anxiety, depression and suicide as well as the definition of mental health physiotherapy and education requirements for physiotherapists in mental health. 

Ryan says being aware of a patient’s mental health is relevant to all physiotherapists and it has extra importance in regional and rural Australia, where access to mental health professionals is limited, with long wait times for mental health services. 

‘I think a lot of physios don’t realise the impact they have in terms of improving quality of life and providing mental health support for the patients they see.’ 

Through his membership of the APA’s Mental Health national group, Ryan has found a number of mentors who are similarly passionate about the importance of mental health in a physiotherapy context. 

‘We do different things—we each try to drive the profession forward in a different way—but being able to connect with physios who share these areas of interest has been the most important thing.’