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promoting mental health for young Australians
Australian Infant, Child, Adolescent and Family Mental Health Association Ltd
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AICAFMHA E-News in Brief Issue #5.02

News in Brief - Issue #5.02 (26/02/2005)

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

AICAFMHA News

Project updates for both the COPMI (Children of parents with a mental illness) Project and NYPS (National youth participation strategy) Project are now online. Review these fortnightly updates to keep in touch with the latest news from the projects and for ways that you can be involved.

What?s On?

"From Parents to Children: The impact of parental mental illness on their children" is the title of a conference to be held in Athens, Greece on September 23-25, 2005. Further details are available from their website http://www.parentsonchildren.gr/

Gold Coast Mental Health Forum Sunday, 13th March 2005 Bond University - Cerum Theatre View program and details.

Children's Issues Centre Conference
The title of the conference is Children and Young People as Citizens: Participation, Provision and Protection, and will be held from the 7th - 9th of July, in Dunedin (Venue: St David Lecture Theatres, University of Otago). The title/themes of the conference are fairly broad, and we do traditionally keep it this way as our conferences generally set out to be of relevance / interest to and attract people from a wide range of sectors and disciplines from health, law, education, social work etc - from those involved in research, policy and practitioners in the field who work with and in the interests of children and young people, from government and non government/community organisations. We are also developing a programme that will include the wider participation of children and young people.
Registration brochure will be available by the end of March by which time we will have confirmed a large part of the programme and will also have confirmed the costs.
Website http://www.otago.ac.nz/cic/

The Duke of Ed Youth Forum.
This has been held twice before and both times it has been fantastic. You get to have your say on how the program is run, what else is needed to make things work more smoothly and best of all there are heaps of other people trying to achieve the same goals as you.
They also have a leadership course, an outdoor ed course and campout and the Forum day itself where there will be speakers to help out.
Applications have to be in by mid March, you can get them from the website: www.dukeofed.org.au/Vic and following the links. Hope to see you there.
Hayley Gilbert, Promotions Officer

National Youth Roundtable 2005: A voice for Australia's youth
Applications for membership of the National Youth Roundtable 2005 are now open. If you're aged between 15-24 you can apply to be part of this prestigious group of tomorrow's leaders. Applications close 11 March 2005 at 5pm. Application forms and information on the Roundtable are available online at http://www.thesource.gov.au, or by emailing roundtable@thesource.gov.au or by calling 1800 624 309 (free call).

Risk Assessment - a risky business or an answer to uncertainty?
A chance for social service workers to have your say!
Can risk assessment really predict risk?
Does it guide workers and back up their choices?
Can they increase accountability and consistency in social services?
My name is Kelly Lester and I am currently enrolled in a PhD in the School of Social Work and Policy Studies at The University of Sydney. I am interested in the opinions of people who have worked, or are currently working in, an Australian organisation involved in child protection work in some direct capacity.
Is this you?
My project is called "Social Service Workers' Perceptions of the Use, Ethics, Accuracy and Purposes of Risk Assessment in Child Protection". The use of risk assessment, and different risk assessment models, is growing across the Western developed world. Many statutory child protection agencies now have some kind of formalised risk assessment. But what do worker's actually think about these systems? What do you think?
If you would like to tell me about your experiences and thoughts on risk assessment please follow the link below or email me at kles0238@mail.usyd.edu.au for more information. This short survey will be online for you to respond to until the end of February 2005.
http://www-faculty.edfac.usyd.edu.au/projects/sswsurvey/

Mental Health News

The latest newsletter from the QLD KOPING Forum is available online. This newsletter contains information about activities in the children of parents with a mental illness field occurring in Queensland.

Raising Children Network
New website at http://www.raisingchildren.net.au/
This national parenting information website is a government funded resource that grew out of research into what parents and practitioners want and need (from the national Parenting Information Project.) It is part of the Australian Government's commitment to ensure every Australian child has the best possible start in life by supporting parents in their most important role.
In approximately 10 month's time, this non-profit website will be populated with a complete range of in-depth information and tools for the full diversity of Australians caring for children aged 0 to 8 years old.

Oklahoma: The state is spending too much money on nonviolent offenders who have mental illnesses or substance abuse problems or both, according to the findings of a year-long, state-sponsored study. The study, released last week, shows that direct costs to the state for imprisoning these inmates totals $3 billion annually, with an additional $5 billion lost in productivity. In addition to this finding, the state task force that released the report recommended that prevention and early-intervention services be available, particularly for children in families where there is mental illness, substance abuse or domestic violence. (The Associated Press, 2/21/05)

The ORYGEN training calendar 2005 is now available. Hard copies are available by contacting Sandra Biggs Ph: (03) 8346 8213 Email:sbiggs@unimelb.edu.au.

Lifetime Effects: The High/Scope Perry Preschool Project
This study-perhaps the most well-known of all High/Scope research efforts-examines the lives of 123 African Americans born in poverty and at high risk of failing in school. From 1962-1967, at ages 3 and 4, the subjects were randomly divided into a program group who received a high-quality preschool program based on High/Scope's participatory learning approach and a comparison group who received no preschool program. In the study's most recent phase, 97% of the study participants still living were interviewed at age 40.
Additional data were gathered from the subjects' school, social services, and arrest records. The study found that adults at age 40 who had the preschool program had higher earnings, were more likely to hold a job, had committed fewer crimes, and were more likely to have graduated from high school than adults who did not have preschool. Additional findings are detailed in the project's final report.
Report on The High/Scope Perry Preschool Study Through Age 40
http://www.highscope.org/Research/PerryProject/perrymain.htm
Cost benefit analysis
http://www.highscope.org/Research/PerryProject/Perry-SRCD-2003.pdf

Resources

From ABC Health Updates:
GREAT MIND CHANGERS (PART 1) - JEAN PIAGET ON CHILDRENS' MINDS (All In The Mind: 19/02/2005)
This week, a chance to travel back in time with the first of two retrospectives on great historical experiments that redefined psychology. Jean Piaget is perhaps the 20th century's best-known child psychologist. His work was to pave the path for our understanding of the complexities of the developing mind, and how we approach learning in the classroom. But where did Piaget's own journey begin?
http://www.abc.net.au/rn/science/mind/stories/s1261421.htm

FIRST PERSON: 'Dibs in Search of Self', by Virginia M. Axline Weekdays, Monday 28 February to Friday 11 March, 10.45am, Radio National
Dibs will not talk. He will not play. He has locked himself in a very special prison. And he is alone. Psychologist Virginia Axline's remarkable account of how Dibs learned to reach out for the sunshine, and for life, is based on her case notes.
http://www.abc.net.au/rn/talks/firstper/

Australian youth facts and stats
This site is seeking to provide a one-stop information service where youth service providers, practitioners such as youth workers and health workers, policy-makers and educators, and young people themselves, can 'go first' to quickly find reliable data, sorted by subject matter and continuously updated. This resource has been funded by the Telestra Foundation and the Australian Clearinghouse for Youth Studies (ACYS) is actively seeking feedback about the site. It can be found at
http://www.youthfacts.com.au/

From RTC Updates:
CONTENTS OF THIS UPDATE:
**PORTLAND FAMILY STRENGTHS CONFERENCE-Proposal Deadline Approaching Fast!
**FEATURED DISCUSSION-Systems of Care 20 Years Down the Road
**NATIONAL WRAPAROUND INITIATIVE-New Products
**SEEKING RESEARCH PARTICIPANTS
**ARTISTIC CONTRIBUTIONS FOR FOCAL POINT
**RTC PUBLICATIONS & PRODUCTS-Recently Produced
**DATA TRENDS-Recent Research Summaries
**FROM THE WEB-Online Information and Sites of Interest
View online.
#109: Low Income Mothers Coming to Primary Care: Depression and Reports of Problems with their Children (January 2005)
Topic: In this article, the researchers investigate the links between maternal depression among women who have a scheduled appointment with a primary care physician, and their reports of problems with their children. Based on the data from this sample, the researchers conclude that prevention or successful treatment of major depressive disorder among mothers receiving primary care could reduce the risk of negative child outcomes by as much as 55%.
http://www.rtc.pdx.edu/pgDataTrends2005.htm