AICAFMHA:
promoting mental health for young Australians
Australian Infant, Child, Adolescent and Family Mental Health Association Ltd
ABN 87 093 479 022
Speakers
Professor Henry Brodaty
Professor of Psychogeriatrics, University of New South Wales, Director of
Aged Care Psychiatry at Prince of Wales Hospital and founding head of its Memory
Disorders Clinic. He is also chair of the Research Foundation of the Alzheimer's
Association of Australia. Henry will address issues in provision of care for
older people and will contribute to the 'clinical innovation in psychiatry' forum
that is aimed at GPs and Psychiatrists.
Dr Anthony Ang
Consultant Psychiatrist, National University, Singapore; he has played a major
role in the establishment of psychotherapy training. He has also worked and
trained extensively in London (NHS, Maudsley Hospital and University College).
He has a major interest in the interface between psychotherapy, culture and
spirituality, bringing a Chinese cultural background to mental health from a
Christian and Taoist perspective. He has previously contributed to public
events in Australia and has been highly regarded as an engaging speaker with a
refreshingly different perspective on mental health. He will address cultural
and spiritual issues in clinical practice and contribute to our 'clinical
innovation' forum.
Professor Graham Vimpani
Head of the Discipline of Paediatrics and Child Health at the University of
Newcastle and Clinical Chair of Kaleidoscope:Hunter Children's Health Network.
He has a background in community paediatrics and a longstanding interest in
promoting healthy child development and wellbeing through child-focused social
policy including population-based early intervention strategies that address the
support needs of families with young children. His research interests have
spanned childhood injury prevention, child protection, the impact of lead on
child development, the evaluation of home visiting, health outcomes in adolescent
boys and the links between socio-economic inequality and child health. He is
Chair of the Board of NIFTeY Australia (the National Investment for the Early
Years) - a cross-sectoral advocacy body designed to promote greater awareness
of the importance of the early years of life and has been a member of the
Ministerial Partnership for the Stronger Families and Communities Strategy and
the Australian Council for Children and Parenting. He was a member of the
Steering Committee of the Australian Research Alliance for Children and Youth
and currently a member of its research committee. He was awarded a Centenary
Medal for services to early childhood research and development. Graham will
address issues of early childhood and development with a view to interventions
which promote positive life outcomes.
Dr Tracy Westerman
Dr. Westerman is the founding Managing Director of Indigenous Psychological
Services (IPS), a private company developed in late 1999 for the specific purpose
of providing specialist mental health services for Aboriginal people. Her thesis
involved the development of the first culturally validated psychological test and
assessment protocols to identify Aboriginal youth at risk of depression, suicide
and anxiety. As such, she is widely sought out as a consultant in the area of
Indigenous mental health within the public and private sector throughout
Australia. Her current role with IPS involves clinical consultation; direct
clinical work; training to indigenous and non-indigenous practitioners; research
in Aboriginal communities, and major contract management. In 2002 Dr. Westerman
was awarded the NAIDOC award for "National Scholar of the Year" and currently
holds an NHMRC Post Doctoral Research Fellowship (2003-2006) to investigate
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) in Aboriginal populations. Her
extensive list of presentations includes many keynotes addresses in Australia
and overseas.
Eric Vernberg
Associate Director, Clinical Child Psychology Program
Director, Child and Family Services Clinic
Ph.D. from University of Virginia and completed internship at Children's
Hospital National Medical Center, Washington, D.C.
Research Interests:
Overall, my research is based on a developmental approach to understanding
the relationship between youngsters' experience with violence and other
traumatic events and their behavioral and psychological responses to
interpersonal conflicts and prosocial events. Based on this understanding, I
design interventions to help children maintain (or regain) developmental
trajectories for healthy self-regulation and personal competence by reducing
exposure to social toxins, strengthening protective factors, and providing
empirically-supported psychological interventions. Current research initiatives
include:
Comprehensive violence prevention interventions in public schools
Children's recovery from severely traumatic experiences
Impact of relocation during early adolescence on peer relations and
psychological adjustment
Psychiatrically disordered children's reactions to violent movie scenes
School-based comprehensive mental health services for children with
serious emotional disturbances
Professor Graham Martin
Professor and Director of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, University of
Queensland and Clinical Director, Royal Children's Hospital & Brisbane North
District Child & Youth Mental Health Services. He has a strong interest in
mental health promotion, early intervention and suicidality. He is the National
Project Advisor, Auseinet, the Australian Network for Promotion, Prevention and
Early Intervention for Mental Health, the Project Director, Keep Yourself Alive
national general practitioner training program (funded under the National Youth
Suicide Prevention Strategy), the Project Manager, Early Detection of Emotional
Disorders in Young People (National M. H. Strategy) and the Immediate Past
National Chairman, Suicide Prevention Australia (National Chairman 1995-2001).
Author or co-author of 16 books, 12 commissioned reports and over 50 journal
articles.
Professor Brett McDermott
Brett McDermott is an Australian medical graduate and trained in Psychiatry and
Child Psychiatry in the UK and Sydney. Current appointments are the Director of
the Mater Child and Youth Mental Health Service in Brisbane and Associate
Professor of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at the University of Queensland.
Professor McDermott is also an Honorary Research Fellow at the Telethon Institute
of Child Health Research in Perth WA, was the Foundation Director of the Child
and Adolescent Eating Disorders Team at the Princess Margaret Hospital for
Children and a By-Fellow at Churchill College, Cambridge University. Professor
McDermott has published over 70 abstracts, journal articles and book chapters.
Some clinical and research interests include children and adolescents with
eating disorders, emotional trauma in children and service provision implications
of tertiary child mental health services.
Dr Adrian Falkov
Dr Adrian Falkov is a child & adolescent psychiatrist in the Department of
Psychological Medicine, Children's Hospital Westmead. Prior to this he was a
consultant at the South London & Maudsley NHS Trust in London and most recently
with the Bedfordshire & Luton Trust prior to his appointment in Australia.
He has a longstanding interest in children's understanding of parental mental
illness and the links between parenting, parental psychiatric disorder and child
maltreatment.
In 1995 he undertook a study of child fatalities (Part 8 Reviews) assessing
the association between parental psychiatric disorder and fatal child abuse. He
co-ordinated the Dept of Health sponsored development of multi-agency training
materials to improve awareness, knowledge & skills about the impact of parental
mental illness on children, entitled 'Crossing Bridges.' He has established
family mental health liaison services with colleagues in Adult mental Health
Department and has undertaken specialist assessments for Court Proceedings.
He is a member of the Children of Parents with a Mental Illness (COPMI) National
Reference Group and chairs the NSW COPMI network.
Margaret Fleming
Margaret Fleming RPN, FFNRCSI, MSc has worked in mental health services in
Ireland for the past 31 years. She is a Fellow of the Faculty of Nursing, Royal
College of Surgeons of Ireland and holds an MSc in Health and Social Services
Management from the University of Ulster, Northern Ireland. At present she is
working as Clinical Co-ordinator with Monaghan Community Mental Health Team,
which is a multidisciplinary team providing mental health services to a rural
population in County Monaghan. Margaret and her team work in close collaboration
with Primary Care Services and voluntary and statutory agencies. She has been at
the forefront of designing, planning and restructuring this new service model
now known both nationally and internationally as The Monaghan Model. She has
been actively involved in establishing a resource centre, which is service user
driven and also in the development of a mental health promotion programme for
young adults. This programme has been accredited by Mental Health Europe as
best practice in mental health promotion for young adults. Margaret is the Irish
project leader with the "Whole Life Project" which is a joint project between
the National Institute for Mental Health in England (NIMHE) and the World Health
Organisation (WHO) Collaborating Network. She is also currently working as a
consultant with the World Health Organisation involved in the restructuring of
mental health services in Albania.
Helen Glover
Helen Glover uses her professional and lived experience to expand and challenge
the concepts of recovery within mental health service delivery. Helen has spoken
and lectured internationally on the challenges and opportunities of the provision
and development of recovery- orientated mental health services and worked
primarily within Australia and England where she has worked with fellow
professionals and those that use services and their families to promote practices
that support wellness.
In 2001 Helen was commissioned by the National Institute for Mental Health
England (NIMHE) to write it's discussion papers on " Developing Recovery-
Orientated Services for Mental Health Services in England". She challenges
readers and audiences to think beyond current practices and to push individual
and systemic change towards providing environments that promote recovery for
individuals. Helen has been a co researcher in an Australian study, Recovery
from Schizophrenia from a consumer perspective.
Jack Yatsko
Jack Yatsko is the Director of Training for the International Center for
Clubhouse Development (ICCD). He holds a masters degree in social work and has
worked in the field of mental health since 1986. Jack played a major role in
the development of Friendship House, Hawaii, where he was Vocational Coordinator
and subsequently Director. In 1998, he became a faculty member of the ICCD and
in 2002, Director of Training with responsibility for Clubhouse training around
the world. Jack will be presenting in partnership with a Clubhouse member.
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