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AICAFMHA:
promoting mental health for young Australians
Australian Infant, Child, Adolescent and Family Mental Health Association Ltd
ABN 87 093 479 022

AICAFMHA E-News in Brief Issue #4.01

News in Brief - Issue #4.01 (31/01/2004)

AICAFMHA News / What's On? / Mental Health News / Resources / Back to E-News index

AICAFMHA News

Congratulations to the Chair of the AICAFMHA Board of Directors, Mr Phil Robinson, who was recognised during the Australia Day honours, awarded a Public Service Medal. The award was for "outstanding service to child and adolescent mental health" and the award text makes significant mention of his activities in AICAFMHA. To read about it, go to http://www.ocpe.sa.gov.au/default.asp?idL1=20&idL2=26&idL3=64&idL4=1281 or on the AICAFMHA website.

Additional details about the 5th AICAFMHA and 14th TheMHS Conference have been included on the website. Visit the site for information on the Call for Papers (abstracts due 5th March 2004) and sponsorship. Any subscribers with suggestions on possible sponsorship options are welcome to contact the AICAFMHA Office on 08 8132 0786 or at garvins@ozemail.com.au, or download and forward the relevant sponsorship package/s and application form available online.

Activity on the National COPMI Project has been ongoing. View the latest project update online. Includes details of the project produced tool: 'Baby Care Plan'.

What?s On?

Conference on Globalisation, Families and Work: Meeting the Policy Challenges of the Next Two Decades,
April 1-2 2004, Brisbane Convention Centre.
www.familiesaustralia.org.au
Organised by Families Australia, a national peak organisation dedicated to promoting the needs and interests of families, this international conference is an outstanding opportunity to hear the leading international and Australian experts debate the important issues confronting families in the twenty-first century. Sessions include Perspectives on the Future of Australian Families and Work; The Economics of Caring; Changing Families; Policy and Values, Past and Future.

3rd World Conference on Mental Health Promotion sponsored by the Clifford Beers Foundation,the Mental Health Foundation of New Zealand, the World Federation for Mental Health and other international partners.
Intercamhs has assisted in the development of this meeting, which will be held September 15-17, 2004 in Auckland, New Zealand.
To learn more about the conference, submitting presentations and registering to attend, please see the Clifford Beers website: www.charity.demon.co.uk.

Perspectives on Recovery Conference (Australian Mental Health Consumer Network)
Date: 2nd & 3rd August 2004
Wanganui River Gardens
Yeronga, Brisbane, Queensland
http://www.amhcn.com.au
Call for Papers.

9th Biennial Australia-Aotearoa (New Zealand) Community Psychology Conference
Mills Reef winery, Tauranga, Bay of Plenty, New Zealand
July 5th to 7th 2004
For more information, regular updates and online registration: http://psychology.waikato.ac.nz/people/nev/ComPsych.htm
Call for Papers available.

Internet, Media, and Mental Health 2004 conference, 21st - 24th April 2004.
Carlton Crest Hotel, Brisbane.
'Information, Influence and IT' will focus on the overlaps between media and internet, internet and mental health, and mental health and the media.'
http://www.immh04.im.com.au

Building a Comprehensive Early Childhood Development System
May 25, 2004, Quebec City
This conference, organized by the Centre of Excellence for Early Childhood Development, in collaboration with the Society for Prevention Research, is intended for policy and service planners, and child development researchers.
http://www.excellence-earlychildhood.ca/news.asp?lang=EN&menu=noMenu&doc=38

5th National Intensive Family Services Practice Symposium
31 March 2004 to 2nd April 2004
Sydney - Swiss Grand Hotel Bondi Beach
'In partnership with Families: Stepping off the Roundabout"
See www.mob.com.au/ifs2004 for program and registration.

GP & PHC Research Conference
2 - 4 June, 2004 Sheraton Brisbane Hotel;
full details of the CALL FOR ABSTRACTS, including online submission: http://www.phcris.org.au/events/conference_frameset.html

Mental Health News

Launch of the New Multi Media training resource: "Being Seen and Heard: The Needs of Children with Parents With Mental Health Illness"
Training tool for all professionals
The CD-ROM includes hand-outs for use as part of a professional training session.
Cost: Ł30.00 + Ł5.25 VAT (including postage and packaging). Available from Book Sales, The Royal College of Psychiatrists, 17 Belgrave Square, London SW1X 8PG. Tel: 020 7235 2351 ext. 146. See www.rcpsych.ac.uk/publications.
http://www.rcpsych.ac.uk/press/preleases/pr/pr_510.htm

The NSW Commission for Children & Young People has released a new resource to help involve children and young people in meetings where decisions are made about their lives. Meeting together - deciding together, developed in conjunction with children and young people, can be downloaded from their website at http://www.kids.nsw.gov.au/publications/taking.html .

Mental Health Council of Australia: Out of Hospital, Out of Mind At the November MHCA Board meeting, the Board agreed to move forward with the study "Out of Hospital, Out of Mind, Mark II". The Board also requested the survey for this study be distributed electronically and as widely as possible. To this end, I would like to inform you that the survey is now "live" on the MHCA website and can be accessed through the following link http://www.mhca.com.au/survey/ Alternatively, you can refer your members to the general MHCA website at www.mhca.com.au and locate the survey under "Hot Topics".

You are invited to visit Education Queensland's Suicide Prevention website.
Access the site here: http://www.learningplace.com.au/default_community.asp?orgid=19&suborgid=361 The Suicide Prevention website can also be accessed via The Learning Place web site (www.thelearningplace.com.au) under Professional Learning Communities -> Inclusive Education or by searching for suicide at The Learning Place.
The website has been established to assist Education Queensland personnel to access appropriate information concerning suicide, suicidal ideation and self harm with intent to suicide of young people.

Resources

From ABC Health Updates:
BRAIN STRUCTURE CHANGES SEEN IN DEPRESSED TEENS (TV News: 29/01/2004)
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/s1033751.htm
Teenagers with depression may have abnormal brain structure, Canadian researchers report. Imaging studies show that adolescents with major depression tend to have a small hippocampus?.

The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare Child Protection Australia 2002-03 shows that the number of child protection notifications in Australia increased by over 60,000 from 2001-02 to 2002-03, from approximately 138,000 to 198,000 cases. Numbers rose in five of the eight states and territories. However the large increase is largely due to changes in counting rules in NSW. In addition the Queensland Child Protection Report was also released in early January.
http://www.families.qld.gov.au/department/cpreview/activities/cmc_report.html
http://www.aihw.gov.au/media/2004/mr040122.html
http://www.aihw.gov.au/publications/index.cfm?type=detail&id=9771

Families socio-economic status can compromise children's health by age 14, a landmark Australian study shows. Children from lower socio- economic backgrounds have poorer mental health and learning difficulties. And they are more likely to have adopted an unhealthy lifestyle by the age of 14. The results are revealed in long-term research on health inequalities which started with more than 8000 expectant mothers in 1981. The University of Queensland and Mater Hospital longitudinal study was the only one of its kind in Australia and one of only a few in the world which monitored child health from the pre-natal period to adulthood according to Professor Jake Najman who heads the study, which is published in the Journal of Social Science and Medicine.

Information about Australia's welfare is available for 2003: Australia's Welfare No. 6. Australia's Welfare is the most comprehensive and authoritative source of national information on welfare services in Australia. Topics include welfare services expenditure, the welfare services labour force, children's and family services, child protection, housing assistance, services for homeless people, ageing and aged care services and disability services. Australia's Welfare 2003 also features special chapters on informal care and indicators of the welfare of Australia's population.
http://www.aihw.gov.au/publications/index.cfm?type=detail&id=9629

Towards National Benchmarks for Australian Mental Health Services
http://www.mentalhealth.gov.au/resources/reports/benchmark.htm
Towards National Benchmarks for Australian Mental Health Services. By Kathy Eagar, Philip Burgess, and Bill Buckingham. ISC Discussion Paper No 4. Canberra, Commonwealth Department of Health and Ageing, 2003

rtcUpdates for January 2004!
rtcUpdates are brought to you by the Research and Training Center on Family Support and Children's Mental Health.
Once again, there are some excellent articles of interest in this update. View here.
For example:
One new Data Trends summary is available from the Florida Research and Training Center this month. Summary 93 describes a recent article from the Archives of General Psychiatry, "Prevalence and development of psychiatric disorders in childhood and adolescence."
http://rtckids.fmhi.usf.edu/rtcpubs/datatrends/datatrendshp.htm
At any given time between the ages of 9 and 16, one child out of six will develop an emotional or behavioral disorder, with many of them developing comorbid disorders. These are some findings of the latest longitudinal research from the Great Smoky Mountains Study (GSMS).

From Adelaide University Library News:
Community Mental Health Evaluation Initiative
http://www.ontario.cmha.ca/cmhei/instruments/instruments.asp
The Community Mental Health Evaluation Initiative (CMHEI) was conceived in 1997, and is the first multisite evaluation of community mental health programs in Canada. It was planned and is being conducted with the involvement of a range of participants, including government, community providers, family and consumers. It is designed to provide information relevant to policy. Of particular interest are the instruments and manuals used in the process http://www.ontario.cmha.ca/cmhei/instruments/instruments.asp

Goal Attainment Scales
http://www.the2professors.com/measurement/sources/gas.pdf
From the Outcome Evaluation for the Human Services web site http://www.the2professors.com/ developed by Drs. Mindel and Dangel of M & D Research and Evaluation. It is a collection of resources assembled to assist human service organizations in evaluating the effectiveness of their programs and to help them identify resources that will enable them deliver services in a more effective manner.

Persistence, Onset, Risk Factors and Outcomes of Childhood Mental Disorders
http://www.statistics.gov.uk/StatBase/Product.asp?vlnk=10498&
Pos=&ColRank=1&Rank=272
This longitudinal study is based on two surveys carried out by the Office for National Statistics among children living in private households in Great Britain. The first survey covered children aged 5 to 15 and was carried out in 1999. The second survey followed up a sample of those from the original survey (all those with a disorder and a third of those with no disorder) approximately three years later in 2002.

Promising Practices in Children's Mental Health
http://www.mentalhealth.org/cmhs/ChildrensCampaign/practices.asp
On this page you will find three series of monographs on Promising Practices in Children's Mental Health. The most recent, the 2001 Series, contains three volumes. The 2000 Series includes three volumes and the 1998 Series, which was released in early 1999, includes seven volumes. They are all produced by the Comprehensive Community Mental Health Services for Children and Their Families Program of the Federal Center for Mental Health Services in the United States.

Factsheets new on Auseinet site:
for full details go to http://www.auseinet.com/factsheets/index.php

Young people and families...connecting, disconnecting and reconnecting.
http://www.mission.com.au/cm/Resources/SocialPolicyDocs/SPR04_Youth%20Scope.pdf Tips to assist young people and their families to manage conflict and minimise harm during stressful times.

What is recovery?
http://www.mhrecovery.com/definition.htm A definition and explanation of the components of recovery, compiled by the Ohio Department of Mental Health

Beyond baby blues: how can I help myself
http://www.beyondblue.org.au/postnataldepression/pdf/help_myself.pdf Practical suggestions to help women who are suffering from postnatal depression.

Beyond baby blues: survival tip sheet for men
http://www.beyondblue.org.au/postnataldepression/pdf/information_for_men.pdf A guide for fathers whose partners are experiencing post natal depression.