Sydney
Workshop | 20th February 2019 View Program Here
Conference | 21st - 22nd February 2019 View Program Here
The Mental Health & Suicide Prevention Forum has partnered with Lifeline Australia to bring you a solutions focused 2019 program featuring Australia's leading clinicians, academics, mental health professionals and persons with lived experience - championing strategies for mental health reform and suicide prevention to provide the best outcomes for those affected by suicide and Australians experiencing mental illness.
The national conference features Australia’s leading clinicians, academics, mental health professionals and persons with lived experience, championing strategies for mental health reform to provide the best outcome for those experiencing mental illness and affected by suicide.
Pre-Conference Workshop: Reforming Mental Health and Suicide Prevention
What will it take to be a mentally healthier nation? How can we bend the curve on suicide and self-harm? How to improve access to care and the quality of care in your setting?
Workshop Overview:
The journey of mental health reform in Australia is a long and discontinuous one. Closing the old stand alone psychiatric hospitals and moving to a community based model of mental health care has not resulted in better mental health or improved quality of life for all of those in our community with severe mental conditions. Good care for the nearly 700,000 Australians with a severe condition, remains something of a lucky dip.
Mental health reforms in primary care and specialist care, only began in the late 1990s. A succession of new programs – Better Outcomes, Mental Health Nurse Incentive Program, Better Access and many others – have provided improved access to care for many people experiencing high prevalence mental health conditions, but again the evidence relating to improved outcomes is mixed. Simply put, too few Australians with a need for mental health care access any care and those that do, only some gain sustained improvements and enjoy contributing lives.
This two-part workshop will begin with a 1-hour presentation that will look at what can be done to ‘bend the curve’ on mental illness and suicide and self-harm in Australia and create a more mentally healthy and resilient communities. It will set out what can be done at a policy level, within the health sector and other sectors, and at a practice or service level.
The second part of the day (the workshop) will examine developing regional or service-level integrated approaches to improving access to mental health and the quality of care. Practical examples from around the world will be presented, analysed and considered for how they can be applied in local Australian contexts.
