Recognition and Respect: Report on Mental Health Carers 2012

The Mental Health Council of Australia has released its annual report on mental health carers, 'Recognition and Respect: Report on Mental Health Carers 2012'.

The Report surveyed over 500 mental health carers and provides an insight into the lives of of people who regularly care for someone with a mental illness.

You can download the full report here.

*******

The 14th International Mental Health Conference "OPENING DOORS" will be held at Outrigger Inn, Surfers Paradise on Monday the 5th and Tuesday the 6th of August 2013.  Optional workshops will be held on Wednesday the 7th of August. Call for Abstracts are now open.
Visit the website here

The conference will focus on a range of mental issues including Depression, Schizophrenia, Bipolar Disorder and Dementia.

*******

Managing the Impacts of Bullying: Prevention, Policy and Practise

The Australian & New Zealand Mental Health Association would like to invite you to attend the No 2 Bullying Conference which is being held at the Outrigger Surfers Paradise on the Gold Coast from Wednesday 22nd to Friday 24th May 2013.

We are now accepting abstracts for what will be a very significant event on such an important topic.  Please visit the conference website http://www.no2bullying.org.au to submit your paper.

The theme for the Conference is “Managing the Impacts of Bullying: Prevention, Policy and Practice", the conference will examine bullying from School to Workplace and the new phenomenon of Cyberspace.

The Bullying Conference program will include material on:

• ·        Building coping strategies for all parties involved
• ·        Costs of bullying: Communities and Companies
• ·        General health to Mental health: effects and rehabilitation
• ·        Interventions
• ·        Identifying and measuring bullying
• ·        Risk factors
• ·        The law and bullying
• ·        Types of bullying

If you have any questions please email conference secretariat at register@no2bullying.org.au

Suicide in Rural & Remote Areas of Australia Report Lauched

The report was requested by the Australian Suicide Prevention Advisory Council (ASPAC) and funded by the Commonwealth Department of Health and Ageing. This report will assist the Council in their formation on advice to the Minister for Mental Health and Ageing.

The report was launched at the Australian Rural and Remote Mental Health Conference in Adelaide, you can download a copy here.

Left: Minister for Mental Health and Ageing, the Hon Mark Butler MP, and Dr Kairi Kolves, Senior Research Fellow AISRAP, at the launch of the report in Adelaide on Tuesday 20/11/12

Capacity building in rural and remote areas is hampered by the lack of availability of trained supervisors

Capacity building in rural and remote areas is hampered by the lack of availability of trained supervisors for clinical psychology and other mental health students in rural and remote locations.

Difficulties also exist with the current mental health workforce who are qualified to practice yet are unable to access a supervisor to provide the support required to deal with often complex and clinically challenging mental health issues.

Training to improve the quality of supervision and the number of appropriately trained supervisors has the potential to reduce burnout and declining retention rates.

The Codes and guidelines paper issued by the Psychology Board of Australia indicated that, under the National Accreditation rules which took effect in July 2010, there will be an increased emphasis on student supervision. More flexible rules will allow increases use of distance methods including teleconference quality video to assist training for those in remote settings. Notably, supervision will now be required for all practising psychologists, no longer just for students, thus the demand for supervision training is expected to increase significantly.

For the Mental Health Nursing profession, participation in clinical supervision is an essential requirement for completion of the Credentialing process, as specified by the Australian College of Mental Health Nurses, and is regarded as a benchmark to maintain standards of practice.

Outcomes from a program funded by the Department of Health and Ageing will be described  including the development of a self-directed supported training syllabus to prepare mental health professionals for the role of clinical student supervision.

Prof Russell Hawkins, James Cook University will present this paper at the 4th Australian Rural and Remote Mental Health Symposium, 19 - 21 November 2012, Adelaide, SA

The role of basic environmental factors in the development of psychiatric morbidity: introducing environmental mental health assessment tools

Dr Gelaye Nadew

Psychiatric morbidity is linked to complex interactions of social, environmental and biological factors. Social and biological factors have been given comparatively better attention while environmental issues are paid a partial consideration, especially when considering rural and remote communities. Hence the role of basic environmental health in the development of mental illness in rural and remote population is not understood.

This presentation will explore the link between mental illness and basic environmental health issues affecting rural and remote populations and introduce an environmental mental health checklist. Mental health professionals have established the role of excessive and unrelenting day to day stress in the development of psychiatric conditions such as depression and anxieties. In rural and remote Australia many of the day to day stresses are generated by issues associated with environmental health.

People living in rural and remote Australia have greater environmental health stressors than the metropolitan population.  Identifying the link between these basic environmental health issues and development of mental illness will lead to more effective and comprehensive psychological intervention.

The process of addressing these problems demands the need for collaboration and partnership with various departments and community service providers who traditionally played little or no role in mental health care. For this to occur, mental health professionals need to extend mental health assessment to include basic environmental factors. This presentation highlights issues that need to be covered and introduces environmental mental health assessment tools. 

PUTTING PEOPLE FIRST: MENTAL HEALTH NEEDS AND INITIATIVES IN AUSTRALIAN RURAL AND REMOTE COMMUNITIES.

 

Dr Gelaye Nadew and co-author Mrs Tania Wiley, Combined Universities Centre for Rural Health, University of WA will present this paper at the 4th Australian Rural and Remote Mental Health Conference in Adelaide from November 19th to 21st 2012

Visit the conference website for full program details http://anzmh.asn.au/rrmh

Childhood Trauma and Neural Development. Indicators for interventions with special reference to rural and remote environments

Advances in Neurobiology and Neuropsychotherapy in understanding the development of the young brain have demonstrated the need for early intervention to address childhood trauma and subsequent detrimental neural development.

The prevailing paradigms of psychopharmacological and cognitive based interventions as first line interventions for treatment of childhood trauma are confronted with a growing body of neurodevelopmental and neurobiological research that points toward the fundamental development of the right hemisphere during the last trimester pre natally and the first two years post natally.

Violation of basic needs (attachment, orientation and control, self-esteem enhancement and self-esteem protection and pleasure maximization and distress avoidance are explored in terms of neural development and developmental dysfunctions.

Since neurologist Paul MacLean postulated the Triune Brain Theory, research into neural development indicated the key functions of gene expression, synaptogenesis, neural plasticity, neural pruning and enriched environments and the detrimental effects of childhood trauma.

One of the most fundamental aspects of effective interventions (enriched environments) is the facilitation of secure attachment. Violation of secure attachment (especially in the very early stages of neural development) leads to the formation of protective (avoidance) neural loops - implicit memory systems which express especially in the limbic structures, right prefrontal cortex, anterior cingulate and orbito frontal areas.

The implications of these neural facilitations for therapeutic interventions are discussed. Specific reference is made to early intervention and challenges in rural and remote areas to provide effective service delivery. Specific strategies for early intervention are proposed.

Dr Julie Rowse, Ballarat Health Services - will speak at The 4th Australian Rural and Remote Mental Health Conference,in Adelaide on November 19th to 21st 2012

PUTTING PEOPLE FIRST: MENTAL HEALTH NEEDS AND INITIATIVES IN AUSTRALIAN RURAL AND REMOTE COMMUNITIES.

A Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT)Program in a Rural Community Mental Health setting

In Australia the recent development of draft guidelines for the treatment of Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) will set a standard for the provision of services for people with this disorder. It is therefore timely to review programs that are in place and consider how these programs fit with the proposed new national guidelines for the provision of comprehensive services informed by the recovery framework.

Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT) is an evidence based treatment for BPD. Clients with this disorder have complex, multi-axial problems, are difficult to engage in treatment and intense transference and counter-transference issues can lead to clinician burnout.These problems are compounded when clinicians are working in isolated rural and remote areas.

This paper will describe the challenges and opportunities encountered in providing DBT treatment as part of community mental health services in a rural area. The DBT program has evolved over the past ten years to provide treatment for adults diagnosed with BPD as well as a DBT informed program for youth aged 14-24 years with emerging disorders of the self.

Clinical outcome data from both the adult and youth cohorts from the past three years of the program will be presented which shows reductions in service utilisation and improvements in quality of life. These outcomes indicate that DBT is a promising treatment that can be offered utilising the resources of a rural community mental health service.

Ms Rebecca Graham, Country Health SA LHN will speak at The 4th Australian Rural and Remote Mental Health Conference, in Adelaide on November 19th to 21st 2012

PUTTING PEOPLE FIRST: MENTAL HEALTH NEEDS AND INITIATIVES IN AUSTRALIAN RURAL AND REMOTE COMMUNITIES.