Newsletter

Read about our Distributed Advocacy Day, plans for World Mental Health Day, a Menslink breakfast and EAGALA

This week the Mental Health Australia Board came to Canberra, there was a Carer Gateway Advisory Group meeting and the National Rural Health Alliance annual dinner

It’s World Suicide Prevention Day, read about the activities being held to mark this important day. Also, you can download our submission to the Department of Health on priorities for mental health reform as well as the outcomes of this week’s NMHCCF meeting

This week we are planning a Distributed Advocacy Day, welcoming a new Board Member and attending a range of forums and events

Perspectives Newsletter - September 2015.

Perspectives Newsletter - September 2015. We hear a lot about what we can do to prevent physical illnesses, but most of us rarely think about the sorts of things we can do to protect and promote mental wellbeing. The Act-Belong-Commit campaign is a world first mental health promotion program developed by Curtin University in Western Australia. The campaign is unique in that it targets the whole population and is focussed on mental health, rather than mental illness.

Perspectives Newsletter - September 2015. Australia’s first royal commission into family violence will wrap up public hearings after four weeks of evidence from victims, advocates and support services. We’ve learnt that the impacts of early experiences of family violence and child abuse are often both significant and long-term. However, until recently, society has continued to ignore and stigmatise the daily challenges often experienced by the five million Australian adults living with the effects of childhood trauma and abuse.

Perspectives Newsletter - September 2015. A new National Mental Health Plan and reform of the system that goes with it, can only occur if everyone plays a substantial part in the process. Reform must be designed in tandem with the mental health sector and must be led by First Ministers. In this article, Mental Health Australia CEO Frank Quinlan outlines the issues facing governments and the sector in regards to responding to the National Mental Health Commissions Review, and implementing the NDIS .

Perspectives Newsletter - September 2015. Most people now know that mental health problems are common and disabling. It is no different in the workplace, where the annual costs to the economy are often cited in be in the billions. Unfortunately, there may not be many people in a workplace who would know how to offer help to a co-worker who is developing depression, troublesome anxiety or a substance use disorder. Fortunately there are more programs becoming available to train employees in how to offer help a co-worker.

Perspectives Newsletter - September 2015. When a mental health crisis occurs, often the first people on the scene are the police. However, in reality, the need for trained mental health professionals as first responders is also key. In this article, Kym Ryan, CEO of the Australian College of Mental Health Nurses discusses a new plan by NSW Police to ensure mental health nurses are part of any first response to reported mental health related crises.