Kelley Stone began studying her Postgraduate Diploma in Psychology externally through CQUniversity back in 2007. She moved away from her original research topic, instead focusing on the rate of depression in people with coeliac disease.

Progressing her research component in 2008, Kelley then started submitting her manuscript to journals at the start of 2009. She completed her internship in Community Mental Health in Tenterfield, NSW.

CQUni alumnus Kelley Stone stays cool, calm and collects publication outcome after years of effort

"It took three years, six journals and eight edits to get accepted for publication in December 2011," she says.

"Previous research has found a higher rate of depression in people with coeliac disease than the general population.

"My research looked at the rate of depression in people with coeliac disease in Australia and associated variables.  The results were that stress and comorbid (simultaneously occurring) medical illness are associated with depression in people with coeliac disease.  These are both established risk factors for depression in the general population."

Though growing up on the south coast of New South Wales, Kelley considers Brisbane as her home town, and that's where she completed a mature age entrance exam to complete her undergraduate Psychology degree at UQ.

"Growing up I wanted to be a dancer.  My mother is a psychologist and I thought being a psychologist would be depressing.

"I began a degree in dance at QUT when I was 21 but due to various injuries I was unable to continue after first semester.  I started studying Psychology because I wanted to continue with tertiary study once I had started.

"Initially I planned to go into Organisational Psychology or something in the Human Resources field post grad.  However as I studied I found the clinical field more interesting."

Kelley moved to Longreach in October 2011 to work for the Royal Flying Doctor Service.  She provides psychology services to the communities of Alpha, Jericho and Longreach in her role as a clinical counsellor.

"In the future I would like to do my Master of Clinical Psychology with a view to gaining my clinical registration," she says.