perspectives

Perspectives Newsletter - December 2014. NSW has embarked on what Premier, Mike Baird, has called a once-in-a-generation series of mental health system reforms aimed to reduce the state’s over-reliance on crisis care in hospitals and to strengthen community-based support for people who experience mental illness.

Perspectives Newsletter - December 2014. David Meldrum from the Mental Illness Fellowship of Australia discusses the NDIS roll-out and how experience, hope and optimism, may have led us astray, with people affected by serious mental illness and their families the potential losers.

Welcome to the December edition of Perspectives, an online magazine where we present ideas, essays, and articles about what is happening in the mental health space.

Perspectives Newsletter - October 2014. Mental Health Australia’s Seven Point Plan for Action on Mental Health has been developed in consultation with the sector and lays the foundations for reform and provides tangible steps on where to go from here. The plan identifies the key areas where agreement and action is needed to reshape the way we address mental illness in Australia.

Perspectives Newsletter - October 2014. As the men around the nation ready their upper lips for the looming moustache season, the Movember Foundation continues its commitment to the mental health and wellbeing of Australian men and boys.

Perspectives Newsletter - October 2014. Now in its second year, the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has heard from thousands of survivors, many of whom have mental health issues, who have taken the extraordinarily brave step to recount some of their most personal and painful stories of child sexual abuse at the hands of various institutions. These stories will help inform debate, and later create policies, laws and practices that ensure - so far as possible - that the sexual abuse of children while in the care of an institution never happens again.

Perspectives Newsletter - October 2014. Calls to suicide crisis lines are increasing. When will they be funded as core infrastructure for suicide prevention?

Perspectives Newsletter - October 2014. Despite considerable expansion in resources for treatment and services for mental health over the past two decades there is no evidence for any improvement in the mental health of Australians. Professor Anthony Jorm calls for a National Strategy for the Prevention of Mental Disorders to address this imbalance and place more emphasis on preventative approaches rather than treatment.

Perspectives Newsletter - October 2014. The creation and continuing development of the concepts of recovery and wellbeing reinforce consumers’ self-care, self-management and self-determination as the foremost conditions to establish or re-establish a meaningful life. In this article, Consumer Advisor Lei Ning discusses how resilience and mindfulness are the essential ingredients for achieving wellbeing.

Perspectives Newsletter - October 2014. Young men in Australia are angry. At least many of them are. The impact is visceral, felt largely by our families and communities. Just look to rates of alcohol related violence seen every weekend throughout Australia. Dr Simon Rice discusses the need to ensure that mental health services are responsive, acceptable and more inclusive of Australia’s young men.