News Release:
UNE projects on show at mental health meeting
| Date 10/3/04 No 046/04 "Confident Kids" is just one of the community-based mental health programs from the University of New England that will be highlighted at next week's NSW Rural Mental Health Conference. The conference at UNE, convened by New England Area Health Service (NEAHS) and managed by the UNE Conference Company, will include five presentations by UNE mental-health educators and practitioners. Dr Margaret Brechman-Toussaint, from UNE's School of Psychology, will discuss "Confident Kids", a project aimed at helping shy and anxious children cope with their first year of school. "The program enhances the self-sufficiency and resourcefulness of parents by providing them with the skills and confidence to teach their children to manage and overcome fears and worries," she says. The program, funded by the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia, and under Dr Brechman-Toussaint's direction, will run this year in Armidale, Tamworth, Port Macquarie, Moree, Narrabri and Inverell. This, the 9th NSW Rural Mental Health Conference, will begin with a reception on Monday evening (15 March) and continue till Thursday 18 March. Eminent speakers will include Professor Beverley Raphael, Director of the NSW Government's Centre for Mental Health, Professor Brian Kelly, Director of the NSW Centre for Rural and Remote Mental Health, and Dr Jean Starling, Head of the Department of Psychological Medicine at The Children's Hospital, Westmead. One of the keynote addresses will be by Professor Ian Falloon, from the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioural Sciences at the University of Auckland in New Zealand.
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Dr Alan Avery, coordinator of Mental Health Nursing at UNE, will discuss the application, in regional NSW, of the "mental health ecology" model, which focuses on social and environmental aspects of mental health. "Promoting mental health and wellness in rural areas is something that is critical but quite challenging," he says, "and therefore a collaborative approach is needed. This conference is an opportunity to promote such collaboration. In education and research on mental health services I work closely with NEAHS. Knowledge sharing (especially in terms of understanding what services are available, new practice initiatives, and education and research being undertaken) is a primary focus of proposed partnerships with NEAHS." Dr Brechman-Toussaint will report on the success of collaborative pilot projects, funded by the Australian Government, in which Clinical Psychology interns from UNE have been working with GPs in the New England region for the early diagnosis and treatment of mental health problems. The theme of the conference is "On the road again . . . .", highlighting the necessity, despite rapid advances in technology, for mental health workers in rural and remote areas to spend much of their time on the road. Media contact: Dr Margaret Brechman-Toussaint, School of Psychology, UNE, Armidale (02) 6773 3135, Dr Alan Avery, School of Health, UNE, Armidale (02) 6773 3641, or Jim Scanlan, Public Relations, UNE, Armidale (02) 6773 3049. |
