Catherine Franklin

Dr Cathy Franklin is Director of the Queensland Centre of Excellence in Intellectual Disability and Autism Health. As a psychiatrist and researcher, she has spent two decades improving health and mental health outcomes for people with intellectual disability and those on the autism spectrum through clinical care, service innovation, education and applied research.

Cathy is recognised as an Australian expert in her field, serving on the RANZCP Committee for the Section of Psychiatry of Intellectual and Developmental Disability, and the Executive Committee of the Australian Association of Developmental Disability Medicine.

As an ardent advocate, Dr Franklin’s submission to the Queensland Parliament Mental Health Select Committee in 2022 helped raise the profile of this area of need. The Committee subsequently made a recommendation that was accepted, leading to a Queensland Government $51.5M investment over four years to establish a Centre of Excellence and 12 intellectual and developmental disability mental health teams statewide.

Cathy's research centres on improving health outcomes for people with intellectual disability and those on the autism spectrum. She has expertise in Down syndrome and is an international expert in Down syndrome regression disorder.

Cathy has successfully led successful applications to secure over $11M in competitive research and project funding in the last seven years. She also led her centre's partnership in the University of New South Wales consortium that secured $23.9M (2022-2026) to establish the National Centre of Excellence in Intellectual Disability Health.

Key projects Dr Franklin has led include the co-designed EASY Health project ($3.2M 2020-2026), which introduced Australia's first online education for mainstream clinicians featuring actors with disabilities. Now available across Queensland Health and mandated in national Medicare Urgent Care Clinics, this education is transforming clinician perspectives and improving equitable access to healthcare.

Cathy is also Chief Investigator on the Bridge to Better Health project, a $1.4M NHMRC-funded initiative building primary care nurses' capacity to deliver healthcare and improve outcomes for people with intellectual disability.

Cathy helped establish the Down Syndrome Medical Interest Group-Australia and co-chairs the Regression and Mental Health workgroup of the Down Syndrome Medical Interest Group-USA. She leads her centre's contribution to the international Down syndrome consortium led by Massachusetts General Hospital.

In 2020 she was awarded the Mater Research Sister Regis Dunne award for Outstanding Contribution to research relative to opportunity and in 2025, the Women in Technology "Lifting Communities" award.