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

News in Brief - Issue #4.12 (24/07/2004)

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

AICAFMHA News

Registration for the 5th AICAFMHA/14th TheMHS Conference on the Gold Coast from 1-3 September is open. Download a registration brochure or register online at http://www.themhs.org/ .
AICAFMHA encourages interested individuals to register also for the AICAFMHA/ADGP pre-conference workshop on 31 August titled: Primary Care, Youth and Family Mental Health. This full day workshop will examine the relationship between primary care, mental health promotion, prevention and early intervention initiatives and child and adolescent mental health services. Practical and systematic ways of enhancing the primary care sector to respond more effectively to youth and family mental health in collaboration with specialist providers will be generated. CPD points will be available to participating GPs.

AICAFMHA members can renew their subscription to the association by completing the membership application form at http://www.aicafmha.net.au/membership/index.htm . Forms can be faxed or posted in or you can phone 08 8132 0786 to provide contact and credit card details.

The COPMI Project update is now online at http://www.aicafmha.net.au/copmi/project/updates/index.htm .

AICAFMHA members receive 10% off ACER Press publications by quoting their membership number when ordering. Selected titles are described below for your consideration.

Creating Resilient Families Andrew Fuller ACER 2004 0 86431 6194     $39.95 Creating Resilient Families is a set of 40 illustrated advice sheets that offer parents practical solutions to the problems they deal with in raising children aged 10-18 years of age.
From the everyday debate over pocket money, homework and bedrooms to the serious issues of relationships, depression and youth suicide, Creating Resilient Families offers parents practical solutions to common problems of parenting teenagers. Based on Andrew Fuller's popular book Raising Real People, each topic is a laminated blackline master, for use by schools, which can be reproduced or handed out to parents. Each sheet is illustrated by Andrew Priestley, whose humorous, and even surprising, take on the subject will enhance the appeal of these sheets to parents. Full of humour and insight, psychologists, counsellors and parent educators will also find these advice sheets indispensable.
Raising Real People Creating a Resilient Family Andrew Fuller ACER Press 2002 A964BK $26.95 Raising Real People has a refreshing emphasis on the parent 'being there for children', rather than on the need to adopt particular parenting 'skills.' This puts the focus of the parenting task on the quality of the relationship between parent and adolescent.
Andrew Fuller identifies the parenting practices in well-functioning families that work with adolescents, as well as looking at practices that don't work. At the same time, he illustrates the changing fashions in parenting theory, and the different social expectations and pressures that make each generation's task different from that of the previous generation. Andrew's approach is light-hearted and supportive of parents. His awareness that adolescence is a time of delight, as well as being anxiety-provoking for parents, is humorously illustrated in the advice sheets around 38 typical, and some more difficult, parenting issues.

What?s On?

3rd NATIONAL CONFERENCE
Hosted by: The Queen Elizabeth Centre
Melbourne
1st & 2nd October 2004
THE CRITICAL EARLY CHILDHOOD YEARS:
Rethinking current interventions and strategies
View registration brochure.

ISPCAN 15th International Congress on Child Abuse and Neglect. The four-day Congress will be held in Brisbane from 19 September. Follow the link below for more information and to register: http://www.congress2004.com

Mentoring Conference 'STAND BY ME' early-bird registration deadline has been extended for another two weeks. Early-bird deadline is now August 2nd.
THE INAUGURAL NATIONAL MENTORING CONFERENCE:
www.icms.com.au/standbyme
August 31 - September 2; 2004

The Engaging Fathers Project of the Family Action Centre at Newcastle University is presenting a 1 day conference and 2 day training workshop.
Bringing Men In: How to engage with men for the benefit of everyone in the family on November 29th (conference),
30th and December 1st (training workshops) 2004.
For further details and registration form please visit our website (currently being updated): www.newcastle.edu.au/engagingfathers , Go to "News".
Any further enquires contact: Janine.Bendit@newcastle.edu.au

An updated flier on the Paediatric Consultation Liaison Conference 2004 is now available on the Conference website at:
http://www.wch.sa.gov.au/cl_conf_2004/

Bringing the Pieces Together
Creating a Picture of Health
Health Promotion Conference 2004
Mount Gambier
November 11th & 12
Call for Abstracts
Deadline for submission of Abstracts 13th August 2004
For more information visit the web site www.hpc2004.sa.gov.au

Mental Health News

The first Update for the MH-CoPES Project is now available.
View here.
For more information:
email: mhcopes@tpg.com.au
www.nswcag.org.au

The Winter 2004 issue of Exchange is now online at:
http://www.kids.nsw.gov.au/exchange
Exchange is the magazine of the NSW Commission for Children and Young People.
Doing a youth participation "stocktake"?
Ever felt like it's time to do a "stocktake" of your organisation's or group's youth participation activities?
http://www.kids.nsw.gov.au/exchange/18/participation.html

New Website for Families/Carers
'People Power' is a new lobby group that aims to empower groups such as
- families
- consumers
- people with disabilities, chronic and mental illnesses and their families/carers
- the aged
- volunteers in communities
- rural communities
- individuals and communities who practice self-help.
For more information go to: http://www.peoplepower.org.au/Index.htm

WHAT WORKS in PROMOTING CHILDREN'S MENTAL HEALTH: the evidence and the implications for Sure Start programmes
This paper focuses upon the prevention of what can broadly be called mental health problems in children and on intervention at the early stages of such problems. It summarises the currently available evidence on the effectiveness of preventive and early intervention programmes and service approaches, and the implications for Sure Start programmes.
To view this paper go to: http://www.surestart.gov.uk/_doc/0-114CFB.doc

What Works in Promoting Children's Mental Health? The evidence and the implications for Sure Start settings - Research brief
It is well established that the mental health of children is crucial for their healthy overall development, and that the prevention of mental health problems and disorders, and early intervention, are the most likely approach for ensuring health, well-being and social inclusion in adult life. A number of systematic reviews of the literature have brought together the evidence on the effectiveness of currently available interventions in the treatment of mental health problems and disorders in children (Fonagy et al, 2002). This evidence shows that, for the most part, treatment of established disorders has limited effectiveness and is more successful in the earlier stages of manifest problems. This paper summarises what is known about the most promising approaches in prevention and early intervention.
To view this information go to: http://www.surestart.gov.uk/_doc/0-34D33E.pdf

Resources

rtcUpdates are brought to you by the Research and Training Center on Family Support and Children's Mental Health in Portland, Oregon.
CONTENTS OF THIS UPDATE:
** DISCUSSIONS--Getting Your Money's Worth
** FOCAL POINT--Summer Issue Now Available
** RTC PUBLICATIONS & PRODUCTS--Recently Produced & Newly Available Downloads
** SELECT RTC PUBLICATIONS CD-ROM--Our Most Popular and Recent Publications Now on CD
** DATA TRENDS--Recent Research Summaries
** REGARDING TRANSMISSION OF VIRUSES
** FROM THE WEB--Online Information and Sites of Interest
There is some great reading in this issue.
View here.

From ABC Health Updates:
BIGGEST SUICIDE RISK IS WITH EARLY THERAPY (Health News: 21/07/2004)
http://www.abc.net.au/science/news/health/HealthRepublish_1158843.htm

BRAIN INJURY IN CHILDREN: A NEGLECTED EPIDEMIC? (All In The Mind: 17/07/2004)
What happens when little heads hit hard surfaces? New evidence is challenging long-held beliefs about the plasticity of young brains, and their needs years after childhood injury.
http://www.abc.net.au/rn/science/mind/stories/s1152770.htm

GEORGE NEGUS TONIGHT: Parenting special
Thursday 29 July, 6.30pm, ABC TV
Thursday's program is a special feature on parenting - the world's hardest job. http://www.abc.net.au/gnt/

Clinical psychology in general practice: a cohort study
Robyn F Vines, Jeffrey C Richards, Don M Thomson, Margaret Brechman-Toussaint, Michelle Kluin and Louise Vesely.
Med J Aust 2004; 181 (2): 74-77.
http://www.mja.com.au/public/issues/181_02_190704/vin10194_fm.html

Time to care: A comparison-how couples and singles allocate time to children
Households provide their members with both financial support and caring services. In sole parent households, the vast majority of which are headed by women, the functions of earning money and caring for children fall to one individual.
http://www.sprc.unsw.edu.au/dp/DP133.pdf

From Pregnancy to Early Childhood: Early Interventions to Enhance the Mental Health of Children and Families. Volume 1 Report
http://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/html/content/pregnancy_early_childhood_report.pdf
By Jacqueline Barnes and Annemarie Freude-Lagevardi. Sponsored and funded by the Mental Health Foundation, January 2003. This report reviews a wide range of evidence on early interventions in preventing mental health problems in pre-school children, such as psychotherapy and support with parenting skills, examining which methods are most effective. Sponsored and funded by the Mental Health Foundation, September, 2002. There is also a second volume of tables
http://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/html/content/pregnancy_early_childhood_tables.pdf

I Want to be Your Friend...But I Don't Know How: Whole Schools Approaches to Children's Mental Health
http://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/html/content/want_to_be_your_friend.pdf
London, The Mental Health Foundation, June 2001.

The Mental Health Needs of Young People with Emotional and Behavioural Difficulties. Bright Futures: Working with Vulnerable Young People
http://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/html/content/emot_behav_diffs.pdf
A report commissioned by The Mental Health Foundation and written by Dr Ted Cole, Edward Sellman, Professor Harry Daniels & Dr John Visser, University of Birminghamn August 2002. Identifies the mental health needs of children and young people experiencing emotional and behavioural difficulties (EBD) in English special schools for pupils with EBD and pupil referral units (PRUs)

The Mental Health of Looked-After Children. Bright Futures: Working with Vulnerable Young People
http://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/html/content/looked_after_child.pdf
A report commissioned by the Mental Health Foundation based on research by Jo Richardson, Focus, Royal College of Psychiatrists, August 2002.

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

Last Modified: 24-07-2004 16:55:31