AICAFMHA:
promoting mental health for young Australians
Australian Infant, Child, Adolescent and Family Mental Health Association Ltd
ABN 87 093 479 022
COPMI Project Update - 08/05/2003
Draft Principles and Actions for Services and People Working With Children of Parents With A Mental Illness
This document (which in past updates I was calling 'the COPMI green paper') was released for comment on April 29th, and is downloadable from this site. Please read it and circulate it widely amongst your network.
An evaluation survey for the document will be available online on or around 1st June 2003. You are invited to provide feedback on this document at any time prior to 1st September 2003, either via the online survey or directly to me via e-mail fudgee@wch.sa.gov.au, by phone (08) 8161 6859, or via Post Office Box 387, Stepney, South Australia 5069.
Resource materials pilot testing
Throughout May, over 650 children, young people, parents and families across Australia will be involved in the first phase of pilot testing of our booklets, posters and pamphlets. Many thanks to all our participants, to the key contact people in various sites who are assisting with distribution of the materials and data collection and to Tracey Kay and Graham Martin, the hard-working people from The University of Queensland who are conducting the evaluation.
RANZCP
The COPMI project has supported a call by some psychiatrists for the RANZCP to develop a position paper regarding services to members of families in which a person with a mental health problem also has childcare responsibilities or contact with dependant children. Phil Robinson and Nick Kowalenko will be presenting a paper on the COPMI project at the RANZCP Congress in Hobart in May and Adrian Falkov will also be making a presentation at that forum. They hope to follow-up their presentations with an article in the "Australasian Psychiatry" journal. Many thanks to the 'COPMI champions' who are assisting in placing COPMI issues on the RANZCP agenda.
Upcoming evaluation report
Congratulations to Erica Pitman and Stephen Matthey who have had a paper accepted for publication regarding the SMILES program (see details below). As many of you are aware, evaluation publications regarding work of this kind are rare so "well done" to them both for putting in the time and effort required to see this work through to publication.
Pitman, E. & Matthey, S. (in press). The SMILES Program: A group program
for children with mentally ill parents or siblings.
American Journal of
Orthopsychiatry (accepted April 2003).
Downloadable resource
'Supporting Families with Parental Mental Illness: A Community Education
and Development Workshop'.
Developed by the British Columbia Schizophrenia
Society in November 2002, this resource is described as "A Training Tool for
Communities to Organize Services to Support Families".
It's introduction
states that it contains information for "anyone with some experience in adult
education to hold a community event that will inform audiences as to the issues
involved in supporting families with parents with a mental illness".
It is downloadable from http://www.bcss.org/resources/SupportingFamilies.pdf
Project Contacts during May
I'll be taking leave from May 9th to 30th inclusive so any queries regarding the project during that time should be directed to Sue Garvin, AICAFMHA Company Secretary on (08) 8132 0786 or secretary@aicafmha.net.au. Elissa Hoskin will be providing some administrative support to the project over the next few weeks and will be in the COPMI office on Fridays during May.
My next update will therefore appear in June.
Elizabeth Fudge
Project Manager,
COPMI Initiative
Ph (08) 8161 6859
Fax (08) 81616983
fudgee@wch.sa.gov.au
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