Introduction

Members of AICAFMHA, AICAFMHA Patron, Winston Rickards, my fellow Directors, Company Secretary Sue Garvin. It is with great pleasure that I welcome you here this evening to this historic Inaugural Annual General Meeting and that I provide to you the Directors Report of the Australian Infant, Child Adolescent & Family Mental Health Association Ltd.

I would firstly like to introduce to you our Patron, Winston Rickards, who as many of you would know has been a strong supporter of the formation of the National Association since that initial meeting in Adelaide in 1995.

I would now like to introduce to you my fellow Directors:

WA: Paul Hudman
VIC: Suzie Dean
TAS: Patrick Fernado
NSW: Nick Kowalenko
Queensland: Michael Beech

Finally, I would like to introduce our Company Secretary Sue Garvin and AICAFMHA Senior Project Officer Sue McAllister.

Establishment of the association

The initial proposal for a national association was made at the Inaugural Child & Adolescent Mental Health Conference held in Adelaide in February 1995.

A steering committee was formed at the second national conference in Melbourne at the end of 1996to undertake development tasks and included professionals and consumers. Support for the development of the association was further confirmed at the third national conference held in Sydney in mid 1998.

I would particularly like to acknowledge the Inagural Steering Committee and its members. I will now the name the Steering Committee members by state:

WA: Paul Hudman
SA: Sue Garvin, Kylie Eddy and Phil Robinson, Beth Kaesler
Victoria: Winston Rickards and Suzie Dean
New South Wales: Nick Kowalenko, Victor Storm, Kym Scanlon, Bernadette Dagg
Queensland: Michael Beech
Tasmania: Annabel Hanke

A submission was made to the Commonwealth Department of Health and Aged Care Mental Health Branch at the end of 1998, for financial support in formalising the establishment of the association. Early in 1999, the Department agreed to support the development of the association by providing funds to carry out two national scoping projects; Mental Health Needs of the 0-2 years/perinatal Age Groups, and Children of Parents Affected by Mental Illness. The process of developing and completing these projects enabled the national association to formalise its position and incorporate in June 2000. The inaugural board of directors was established with representatives from the national steering committee.

Association establishment tasks and achievements

The funding from the Commonwealth Department of Health and Aged Care allowed a part time project officer to be employed in early 1998. The role of the project officer was to carry out the necessary tasks for incorporation, act as a support to the national steering committee, and to liaise with and support the project workers undertaking the two national scoping projects.

During the past two years, a number of foundation activities for the association have been undertaken. These include:

• Formalisation of the associations Constitution and Charter.
  The national steering committee elected to incorporate the association under the Corporations Law Act ensuring that regulations would apply nationally. A rigorous legal process resulted in the adoption of the Constitution, inaugural directors and members in June 2000. The Charter of the Association acts as a partner document to the constitution. It was developed during 1997 by the national steering committee in consultation with workers and consumers from around Australia.
  
• Compilation of a national database of persons and organisations involved or interested in infant, child, adolescent mental health issues.
  The association database is continually being updated and added to and is expected to become a valuable resource for the association and members alike.
  
• Establishment of a corporate image and national profile.
  The development of the association logo and title was an arduous task with issues of representation and functionality being primary concerns. During the past 12 months in particular, the name has become quite well known and the marketing/promotional activities undertaken to date have resulted in the association developing a significant national and international profile.
  
• Development of a national membership base.
  In October 2000, the association officially "opened for business". The special introductory membership offer was well received with the association’s members now totalling over 190, with good representation from people around Australia and including some New Zealand workers.
  
• Development and distribution of newsletters.
  There have been three issues of the association newsletter to date. These have been on a fairly ad hoc time schedule with distribution occurring as information was developed for circulation.
  
• Establishment of the association website.
  The website provides; information about the history of the AICAFMHA, current services and activities, membership, conferences, consumer interest items and email discussion and news lists. The site has proved to be a significant tool for promoting the association and keeping a wide range of people informed of the associations progress and activities. I would like to acknowledge the work of Sue Garvin, Company Secretary who has spent many hours putting the website together.

Achievements additional to these formation tasks have included:

• Implementation and completion of two national scoping projects.
  Additional project staff were engaged for the duration of these projects, the first of which was to identify major state and territory evidence-based initiatives addressing the mental health needs of the perinatal and 0-2 year old target group. This project involved a national survey of organisations and was completed in February 2000. The second project was designed to identify current major state and territory evidence-based initiatives in relation to how each jurisdiction was addressing the needs of children of parents with a mental illness, and future plans for work in this area. The report on this project was completed in February 2001. These projects were overseen by the Mental Health Promotion and Prevention Working Party.
  
• A survey of members and interested workers and consumers about future services of the association.
  The national steering committee, and subsequently the board, has been conscious through the entire developmental process of the need to develop services and products that will attract membership. The services survey, completed earlier this month, has provided vital information about the directions members would like the association to take.
  
• Organisation and management of the 4^th National Conference on Infant, Child and Adolescent Mental Health.
  Planning for the 4^th national conference began almost 18 months ago with the appointment process of a Professional Conference Organiser (Intermedia) and the establishment of the conference organising committee completed in February 2000. The organising committee and Intermedia have since worked steadfastly towards the conference and I think we can all see the outcome that has been achieved. I would particularly like to place on the public record the Board’s thanks to Sue Garvin, AICAFMHA Company Secretary and Sue McAllister, AICAFMHA Project Officer for the tremendous work that they have done in organising the 4^th National Conference. They have both worked well beyond what is reasonable and I personally have greatly appreciated the enormous assistance they have been to me. At this point I would also like to record the Board’s appreciation of both the Organising and Scientific Committee members who have worked hard bringing this Conference to fruition. I would particularly like to acknowledge the assistance of Professor Barry Nurcombe as Chair of the Scientific Committee.
  
• Consumer participation.
  Through all these activities, the association has been aware of the need to include consumers of mental health services in the development and implementation of services. This has been achieved on a number of occasions including consumer representation on the national steering committee during the early development of the association, and consumer participation in the development of the conference and related activities. The Board would like to acknowledge the work of Ms Karen Pirc, Queensland consumer who has been actively involved in the Organising Committee. Sue McAllister has provided AICAFMHA support to the Consumer activities for the Conference and again her contribution is acknowledged.

Future activities of the association

The year ahead for the association will be one of consolidation and development of services for members.

The special interest groups being held during the conference are an opportunity for the association to identify the key areas that workers and consumers see as requiring input at a national level. We expect that a number of ongoing special interest groups will come out of this process and the association is in a position to take a key facilitatory role in this. These groups will also provide opportunities for people to become actively involved in the association.

Consolidating and extending the existing membership base of the association is a primary focus as the association will be largely dependent on membership subscriptions for the coming year. ). In response to the survey completed over the past few weeks, the association will be developing a range of services for members to access, from electronically available databases on projects and intervention programs, to promoting consumer involvement and developing discussion papers.

The association is conscious of the need to keep membership fees to a minimum, and to achieve this, the primary focus will be on developing communication with members and other interested people through electronic means. We also recognise that this facility is not available to all people and we will strive to ensure that people who wish to be involved will not be excluded due to the unavailability of electronic facilities.

The development of subcommittees to the board of directors will provide another avenue for people to become actively involved in the association. Priority areas planned at this stage are in extending the level of consumer and young people’s involvement in the association and developing a focus on marketing and promotion of the association further enabling membership subscription fees to be minimalised.

The association will continue to explore opportunities for funded projects. This level of activity is seen to be an opportunity for both developing the information base of child and adolescent mental health as well as contributing to income. We look forward to the participation of a wide range of people in future projects undertaken.

Finally, the association will continue to work on developing opportunities for workers and consumers to meet and share ideas in forums such as this national conference. To this end, discussions are already underway for co-hosting the Third International Child and Adolescent Mental Health Conference in 2002. This will provide Australian workers a unique opportunity to showcase existing works on an international stage, as well as benefit from the experience of child and adolescent mental health workers from around the world.

I would like to add that information on all of the upcoming events and activities I have presented to you today will be available to you on the association website and that regular postings on the AICAFMHA News email list will notify you of updates.

I will now hand to Sue Garvin, AICAFMHA company secretary to present the year to date financial summary for the association.

Thank you.