I am delighted and also honoured to have been appointed as CEO for the National Centre for Action on Child Sexual Assault. There is nothing more crucial than a safe future for Australia’s children and the opportunity to work with child and adult survivors, service providers and partners, advocates and governments to make this a shared goal, to tackle the problem of child sexual assault together and to promote healing.

The National Centre is a critical recommendation from the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse (the Royal Commission). It has a key role that is separate and independent from government.

The National Centre is a partnership between three leading national organisations with a long standing commitment to supporting children, young people and adults to heal from child sexual abuse. They are the Blue Knot Foundation, the Australian Childhood Foundation and the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Healing Foundation (The Healing Foundation).

You can find out more about the centre here https://www.ncacsa.org.au/

This week Mental Health Australia, Community Mental Health Australia and the Mental Illness Fellowship of Australia provided a joint submission to the Parliamentary Joint Standing Committee on the National Disability Insurance Scheme Inquiry into the Capability and Culture of the National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA). This submission outlines issues relating to the capability and culture of the NDIA, with reference to operational processes and procedures. It raises the lack of psychosocial disability specific skills, knowledge and experience amongst NDIA and partner staff, the lack of assertive outreach, inconsistent assessment outcomes, planning which does not support recovery, pricing that does not support recovery focused service delivery and the need to expand psychosocial services outside the NDIS. It also outlines the impact of these operational processes and procedures on the experiences of people with lived experience of psychosocial disability and carers/families. The submission acknowledges the significant progress in recent years in relation to the responsiveness of the NDIS to people with psychosocial disability, particularly through development of the NDIS Psychosocial Disability Recovery-Oriented Framework and calls for its implementation to be expedited.

Fantastic full time career opportunity for a senior candidate that has experience in the Not For Profit sector. The role will suit someone with existing community program development skills along with strategic, relationship management and presentation experience.

Reporting to the CEO, the role requires someone who is successful at creating and strengthening community relations with groups that align with R U OK? strategic priorities. There will be a focus on regional and rural Australia.

R U OK? is a harm prevention charity dedicated to creating a world where we are all connected and protected from suicide. We’re a small dynamic team and welcome a person who is a passionate team player, has initiative, is prepared to travel domestically and loves their work as much as we do. A hybrid working arrangement is on offer with two/three days per week based in our Millers Point office. The candidate will ideally be Sydney based however we welcome interstate interest.

To learn more about the role and how to apply please click on the link below

This National Carers Week, Carers Australia wants people to know what it means to be a carer. Under Australian law, a carer is someone who provides unpaid support to another person who needs it because of a disability, medical condition, mental illness, drug addiction, or old-age-related frailty. Carers support family members, friends or persons in the community. The term does not include disability support workers, aged care workers or other paid carers. Did you know that around 1 in 10 people in Australia are carers? There were around 2.65 million carers when Australian carers were last counted in 2018, and it’s estimated that more people have become carers during the pandemic. The true number of carers is even higher due to a lack of awareness of and identification of carers.

Tomorrow (Saturday 22 October) marks the fourth anniversary of the National Apology to Victims and Survivors of Institutional Child Sexual Abuse. Minister for Social Services Amanda Rishworth commemorated the occasion at an event today with survivor support workers at Relationships Australia in Adelaide. The National Apology was a result of the five-year Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse initiated by former Prime Minister, the Honourable Julia Gillard. More than 17,000 survivors came forward in response to the Royal Commission and nearly 8,000 of them recounted their abuse in private sessions. The apology that followed honoured the courage of survivors and advocates who spoke out to expose abuse in institutions, often at great personal cost.

Chief Minister of the Northern Territory, Natasha Fyles, and Minister for Mental Health and Suicide Prevention, Lauren Moss, says the Territory Labor Government is investing $50 million to build and expand existing infrastructure for mental health in the Territory. The funding includes a wide range of services, including a new 18 bed inpatient unit and Stabilisation and Referral Area in the Top End. An additional investment of $9.3 million will also see the establishment of universal aftercare services, meaning all Territorians who are discharged from hospital following a severe mental health episode will receive follow up care. 

headspace has today welcomed the Evaluation of the National headspace Program, documenting the service is cost-effective, well designed, aligned to the mental health needs of young people, and has a reach and take-up that has increased over time. The evaluation also reports headspace successfully supports the participation of young people in the design and delivery of headspace services, a key focus of the organisation to ensure the service is welcoming and inclusive to all young people. Previously independently evaluated in 2009 and 2015, the Evaluation of the National headspace Program is focused predominately on service delivery through headspace centres from 1 July 2015 to 30 June 2020.

The Albanese Government is delivering on our election commitment to restore bulk billed video telehealth psychiatry consultations, through a $47.7 million investment in the October 2022-23 Budget. From 1 November, Australians living in rural and regional areas and other eligible patients will once again have easier and more affordable access to critical mental health supports. In December 2021, the Morrison Government cut the ability for psychiatrists to deliver bulk billed telehealth consultations, in rural and regional areas. Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, people in rural and regional Australia had higher rates of mental health related hospitalisation and suicide than those living in cities. The cut of the previous loading meant many patients were forced to pay gap fees or give up treatment and some psychiatrists ceased to provide services in rural areas.

The Liberals and Nationals have announced $6 million for a new Carers Support Group Resources Fund and a Social Enterprise Start-up Fund to improve the lives of carers and those they care for. Speaking at the launch of Carers Week at Luna Park today, Shadow Minister for Disability, Tim Bull, said the Support Group Resources Fund will provide up to $5,000 to every carer support group statewide to be used for a range of purposes. “We know the groups’ needs vary from community to community, in some cases communities might need to purchase resources to share amongst members, others may need to fund outings, engage a guest speaker or a variety of other needs,” Mr Bull said.

All Australian governments have today agreed to work together to deliver on our shared vision to end gender-based violence within one generation, with the release of the National Plan to End Violence against Women and Children 2022-2032 (National Plan). The National Plan provides the blueprint to end family, domestic and sexual violence. The Commonwealth, states and territories - along with victim-survivors, experts, frontline services and other stakeholders - contributed to the plan and committed to realise a nation where all people feel safe. In Australia, one woman dies every ten days at the hands of their former or current partner. One in three women has experienced physical violence since the age of 15 and one in five has experienced sexual violence.

The Federal Government’s announcement today that it is restoring bulk billed telehealth psychiatry consultations for Australians living outside metro areas is a promising first step towards improving the accessibility and affordability of mental health services for all Australians, the peak body for psychiatrists in Australia says. Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists (RANZCP) President, Associate Professor Vinay Lakra, said the Federal Government’s reinstatement of Medicare Benefits Schedule (MBS) Item 288, as promised before the election, should be seen as the beginning of wider reform to provide affordable access to psychiatry. “The removal of bulk-billed telehealth compounded existing economic inequities by burdening patients with unaffordable gap-fees and out-of-pocket costs and while affordability is still a major issue across the board, this reinstate  ment is a step in the right direction,” Associate Professor Lakra said.

Please find attached: CHILDREN’S MENTAL HEALTH NURSES BEGIN AS NEW WCH LEGISLATION INTRODUCED (SA)Premier, Peter Malinauskas, and Minister for Health and Wellbeing, Chris Picton, say specialist mental health nurses dedicated to South Australia’s youngest patients have started work at the Women’s and Children’s Hospital, as preparation for the new hospital takes a major step forward. An extra six mental health nurses have begun work in areas of most need, just three months after a fast-tracked recruitment drive was launched at the WCH to address the growing issue of children’s mental health across the state. The new positions form a key part of the Malinauskas Government’s election pledge to deliver an additional 60 nurses and doctors to ease critical workforce shortages at the WCH.

Are you a carer? Know someone who is? Morning teas, expos, talent shows, museum tours, and much more are being held in towns and cities all over Australia. If you happen to be running your own event, there’s still time to register it on The Carer’s Week website calendar.

The scholarship, provided through a partnership between Relationships Australia and the ANU, will support a PhD candidate in their investigation of how to better include children and young people in the design, delivery, and evaluation of community services. 
The scholarship is valued at $21,640 and is available to prospective or continuing domestic ANU students receiving an approved HDR Base stipend scholarship. Apply before submission close on October 31st. 

The Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care (the Commission) is seeking feedback on the Accreditation scheme for the National Safety and Quality Mental Health (NSQMH) Standards for Community Managed Organisations (CMOs).

The Commission has released a discussion paper to provide information to support stakeholders to participate in this consultation, please find the document attached. This discussion paper provides information on the operation of the Australian Health Services Safety and Quality Accreditation Scheme and seeks stakeholders’ views on the accreditation methodology that best suits the CMO sector, within the bounds of that scheme.

The NSQMH Standards for CMOs will be released in November 2022. The NSQMH Standards for CMOs describe a nationally consistent safety and quality framework that all community managed organisations providing mental health services can apply when delivering mental health care. Where implemented, consumers and carers should be able to be confident they are accessing a mental health service that is safe and of high-quality.

CMOs implementing the NSQMH Standards for CMOs will develop their own practice governance frameworks. How this looks will depend on the mental health service’s size, as well as risks and complexities associated with the services it delivers. Implementation requires a whole-of-service approach.

We invite you to provide your feedback via a written submission or participation in a focus group. Please visit the website - https://www.eventbrite.com.au/o/australian-commiss… to register to attend an information webinar of focus group. 

The consultation period is open now until 11.59pm (AEDT) Friday 9 December 2022.

If you have any questions about the accreditation scheme discussion paper or the consultation process, please contact the mental health team at: mentalhealth@safetyandquality.gov.au

Held exclusively online from 14-18 November 2022, PACFA’s Safety Through Diversity Conference will be a ‘collaborative festival of ideas,’ discussing the most important counselling, psychotherapy and Indigenous Healing Practices themes of our time.

On each of the 5 days, a stellar line-up of speakers/ ‘key collaborators’ will spark conversations with attendees around themes of the day:

Day 1, 14 November – Indigenous Healing Practices

Day 2, 15 November – Diversity in Gender, Body, Kinship and Sexuality

Day 3, 16 November – Psychotherapy, Counselling and the Politics of Mental Health

Day 4, 17 November – Research and the future of the profession

Day 5, 18 November – Wrap up – Bringing it all together towards the future

Practising counsellors, psychotherapists and Indigenous Healing Practitioners can accrue up to 6.5 Category A CPD hours per day.

Registration opens 19 October. Visit bit.ly/PACFACONF22 for more information and to sign up for updates.

The Black Dog Institute will hold its Summit on Self Harm at Doltone House in Sydney on November 10th. This full day event will bring together leading international researchers, clinicians, and lived experience experts to share insights on self-harm. Click the link below to register your interest and be alerted as soon as the program becomes available.

Nearly 1 billion people live with a mental health condition. But mental health remains one of the most neglected aspects of healthcare. Some countries have only two mental health workers for every 100 000 people. The social and economic repercussions are profound.
Anxiety and depression alone cost the global economy an estimated $1 trillion per year.

We must strengthen the capacity of health services to offer quality care to those in need, in
particular young people. This includes community-based services and integrating support for mental health into broader health and social care. Investing in mental wellbeing means investing in healthy and prosperous communities.

We must also address stigma and discrimination – and break down the barriers that prevent
people from seeking care and support. And we must prevent the root causes of mental health conditions, including violence and abuse.

The United Nations is commited to working with partners to promote mental wellbeing.
WORLD MENTAL HEALTH DAY 2022 - Make Mental Health & Wellbeing for All a Global Priority. 3

As we mark World Mental Health Day, let us make it a global priority and act urgently so that
everyone, everywhere has access to quality mental health care.

The Commonwealth Department of Health and Aged Care (the Department) is developing the National Health Literacy Strategy (NHLS), which will aim to improve the health literacy environment in Australia as well as individuals’ self-care capabilities. The objective of the NHLS is to provide an evidence-based health literacy environment, where health information is person-centred, accessible and culturally and linguistically appropriate, and to improve health literacy skills of all Australians. The NHLS was announced as one of the early priorities in 2021-22 under the National Preventive Health Strategy 2021-2030.

To facilitate consultation, the Department has published a Consultation Paper which includes a draft NHLS Framework. This Framework has been developed based on feedback gathered through targeted consultations with a diverse range of stakeholders and consumers, and based on reviews of national and international evidence. The feedback received from this consultation will then be used to inform a draft NHLS, which will subsequently be released for consultation in early 2023.

The Consultation Paper is now live on the Department’s Consultation Hub. We ask that you please review and respond to questions on the Consultation Hub to provide feedback on the Framework, including the aims, vision and principles.

The paper will be available online for comment for a four-week period and will close on 09 November 2022 at 11:59pm.