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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 #4.10

News in Brief - Issue #4.10 (19/06/2004)

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

AICAFMHA News

The 5th National Infant, Child & Adolescent Mental Health Conference will be held from 1-3 September 2004 on the Gold Coast, in conjunction with the 2004 TheMHS Conference. The conference theme is 'Harvesting Hope: Across the lifespan'. Pre-conference workshops will be held on 31 August 2004.
Registration available now at http://www.aicafmha.net.au/conferences/goldcoast2004/index.html .
AICAFMHA members receive a discount on early bird registration.
Early bird registration closes on 16th July 2004.

This fortnight's COPMI Project update is now available online. The resource list has again been updated. View at http://www.aicafmha.net.au/copmi/project/updates/index.htm .

Membership information for the 04/05 financial year is now online. View at http://www.aicafmha.net.au/membership/index.htm . AICAFMHA members receive a discount on ACER Press publications, conference registration and other benefits. Support the association by joining now!

What?s On?

National Child and Family Services Conference!
2nd to 4th August 2004
Sydney Convention & Exhibition Centre
'Knowledge into Action!: Effective Practice for Child and Family Services'
Information and registration at www.acwa.asn.au/conf2004/
To have a registration brochure sent to you please e mail your full contact details - name and organisation, telephone, fax, e mail and postal - to acwa2004@mob.com.au

31st Annual Meeting of the FETAL AND NEONATAL PHYSIOLOGICAL SOCIETY
September 11-15, 2004
"Il Ciocco" International Centre - Castelvecchio Pascoli (Tuscany), ITALY
Visit the official web site: http://www.alfaservice.com/FNPS2004/index.htm

Mental Health News

"The Health of Aboriginal Children and Young People - Volume 1 has recently been released (June 2004).
The Western Australian Aboriginal Child Health Survey is the most extensive survey of Aboriginal families ever undertaken. After five years in the planning and two years in the field, the findings will be released in five volumes over the next 18 months.
More than half of the 130 surveying staff were Aboriginal. The team spent two years working across the state to gather a random sample of more than 5200 Aboriginal children. This huge task involved knocking on more than 139 000 doors.
The survey included interviews with 11 300 family members, 2000 families, and more than 3000 teachers. It involved one in five Aboriginal children in Western Australia."
Available at http://www.ichr.uwa.edu.au/research/divisions/pop/projects/waachs/

"Young people's health in context"
Candace Currie, Chris Roberts, Antony Morgan, Rebecca Smith, Wolfgang Settertobulte, Oddrun Samdal and Vivian Barnekow Rasmussen, eds.
Health Policy for Children and Adolescents, No. 4
The Regional Office for Europe of the World Health Organization, 2004 Available online (248 pp.) at:
http://www.euro.who.int/eprise/main/who/informationsources/publications/
catalogue/20040518_1

Prevalence, Severity, and Unmet Need for Treatment of Mental Disorders The WHO World Mental Health - Survey Consortium
Ronald C. Kessler, PhD, Department of Health Care Policy, Harvard Medical School, T. Bedirhan Ustun, Global Programme on Evidence for Health Policy, World Health Organization, Geneva , Switzerland
JAMA, June 2, 2004-Vol 291, No. 21 2581
Available online as PDF file [10p.] at: http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/reprint/291/21/2581.pdf

Resources

From ABC Health Updates:
HEALING THE MIND (Health Report: 14/06/2004)
Australian research seriously questions how money is being spent on mental health and whether we are getting value for money.
http://www.abc.net.au/rn/talks/8.30/helthrpt/stories/s1129964.htm

ALL IN THE MIND: ADHD Debate Hots up in WA
Saturday 19 June, 1:30pm, Radio National
Western Australia has been coined the ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) capital of Australia, with an estimated 4.5 per cent or 18,000 children on dexamphetamine medication. Australia has the world's third highest rate of psycho-stimulant consumption in the world. It's a trend that has some very worried and has prompted a major parliamentary enquiry in WA. But will an enquiry compound the confusion? Are children being over, under or misdiagnosed? Where do you draw the line in the sand when it comes to identifying a child with the condition? This week, All in the Mind wades into the complex debate.
http://www.abc.net.au/rn/science/mind/

DEPRESSION (GNT: 03/06/2004)
Life being the pain in the butt that we know it can be, all of us feel a bit down from time to time. So how real or imagined is this thing we call depression? The fact is that clinically diagnosed depression can develop into a particularly debilitating medical illness, which could affect as many as one in five Australians at some stage or other during their lives. It doesn't matter if you're rich or poor, have had a blessed life or a run of genuinely bad luck, clinical depression does not discriminate. It's been referred to as the common cold of psychiatric illness, but nevertheless it often goes unnoticed and even untreated. We look at the lives of three Australians who know what it's like to be in the depths of depression.
http://www.abc.net.au/gnt/profiles/Transcripts/s1124543.htm