John Mercer

A Chronic Condition Psychologist, Dr Mercer holds a PhD from the School of Population and Global Health at the University of Melbourne and a Masters in Psychology from Monash University.

He has been a practicing psychologist and Member of the Australian Psychological Society for 14 years, and currently works in Tasmania’s public health system.

After moving to Tasmania in 2002 Dr Mercer was a lecturer with the University of Tasmania and remains a practicing psychologist with the Launceston General Hospital.

His psychology work has been with people with a range of complex chronic health conditions, while his research work at the LGH has been in the area of obesity intervention.

Dr Mercer has been working with metabolic/bariatric populations for more than a decade, and with support from the Clifford Craig Foundation has been assessing and working with pre and post bariatric surgery patients.

Recently, he developed an innovative ‘Psychodietetic’ weight management program, to work in conjunction with surgical and pharmacotherapy interventions.

His passion for working and researching in the obesity field emerged from seeing some individuals achieve excellent weight loss outcomes, but relatively poor mental health outcomes.

Dr Mercer works closely with interdisciplinary specialists and allied health teams, and provides training and consultancy around psychological management of chronic health conditions and obesity.