Thursday 2 August
PRESENTERS' BIOGRAPHIES
A - MEETING PLACE
The Honourable Martin Foley MP
Martin Foley MP has responsibility for the social justice portfolios of Housing, Disability and Ageing, Mental Health and Equality, as well as Creative Industries, in the Andrews Labor Government. Having previously worked in the public housing sector, community development and protecting the rights of working people, he has been the Member for Albert Park since 2007.
Martin holds a BA (Hons) in History and Politics from Monash University and a Master of Commerce (Hons) from the University of Melbourne. He is a member of the St Kilda Football Club and hopes to see a premiership in his lifetime. He is a cricket tragic destined to be stranded on a single century after too many innings.
Susan McLean Caring for kids in the online world
Susan is Australia’s leading expert in the area of cyber safety and was a member of Victoria Police for 27 years. She was the first Victoria Police officer appointed to a position involving cybersafety and young people where she established and managed the Victoria Police Cybersafety Project. She has completed advanced training in the USA in 2007, 2012 & 2015 including the Protecting Children Online Certificate from Fox Valley Technical College and has successfully completed the ‘University Certificate in Child Safety on the Internet’ from the University of Central Lancashire, United Kingdom. She also has qualifications from Netsmartz/NCMEC (USA) and NSPCC/CEOP (UK). In 2003 she was the Victoria Police Region Four Youth Officer of the Year. She has also been awarded The National Medal and the Victoria Police Service Medal and 2nd Clasp, and the National Police Medal.
She collaborates with a variety of international bodies and is a member of the Federal Government’s Online Safety Consultative Working Group. Susan provides regular advice and assistance to Australian families and schools in relation to online issues and this is always pro bono. She is often a conduit between a victim of online abuse (and their families) and Law Enforcement to ensure criminal activity is reported and investigated.
Claire Hayes (Ramsay Health Care)
What’s helpful about an adolescent inpatient admission? Sharing knowledge and supporting practice
Claire qualified as a Registered Psychiatric Nurse in 2010. She has worked across a variety of mental health settings, including older adult, acute and community care. She completed a Masters Degree by Research in 2012. Her research focused on organisational issues surrounding the merger of acute psychiatric services in the South-East of Ireland. From there, Claire relocated to Melbourne to work with adolescents and has been committed to this role for the last five years. She is currently undertaking her PhD, which explores and inpatient model of care, from clients and caregivers’ perspectives.
Adam Blake (Austin Health)
We don’t get nervous - we get prepared: Team huddles on the statewide child inpatient unit
Adam Blake commenced his Nursing career 9 years ago, gaining experience in neurology and the operating theatres before moving to post graduate opportunities in mental health. Since this time Adam has worked as an Associate Nurse Unit Manager in Austin Health's Acute Adult Psychiatric Unit and the Statewide Child Inpatient Unit. Between 2013 and 2016 Adam also worked with an international NGO as a mental health program coordinator in North Sulawesi, Indonesia, contributing to the international journal, Asia Pacific Psychiatry. Adam is currently the Acting Unit Manager for the Statewide Child Inpatient Unit.
Prof Eimear Muir-Cochrane
What’s so funny about peace for love and understanding? Contextual issues in the goal to reduce and eliminate restraint in mental health settings
Professor Eimear Muir-Cochrane is Chair of Nursing (Mental Health) at Flinders University and President of the Australian College of Mental Health Nurses and has been involved in mental health research and education for over thirty years. Eimear is passionate about trying to make a difference by researching aggression, seclusion, absconding and restraint and is recognised as an international expert in these areas supported by national and international grants. Eimear has published three books, a mobile optimised educational device (MOD), a MOOC, two monographs and over a hundred research articles. As President of ACMHN, Eimear is committed to a new membership strategy as well as advancing mental health nursing in Australia.
Robert Trett (NorthWestern Mental Health)- Chair | Jenny Wilkinson (Goulburn Valley Health), Dr Finbar Hopkins (NWMH), Robert Trett, Vrinda Edan (Centre for Psychiatric Nursing)
SYMPOSIUM: Pychotherapy essentials in mental health nursing
Robert Trett commenced his nursing career over 37 years ago and has been a qualified psychotherapist for 20 years. Robert has provided both group and individual psychotherapy in the public mental health sector for many years. He is trained and certified as a clinical supervisor and has provided supervision to nurses, registrars and allied health staff.
Finbar Hopkins has been teaching and facilitating individual and group clinical supervision for many years and believes it is becoming increasingly recognised as a core professional activity for mental health nurses. She is also committed to psychotherapeutic nursing practice, integrating both spirituality and attachment perspectives.
Vrinda is an experienced consumer worker with 20 years’ work in the consumer field. Vrinda uses a Human Rights framework, supporting consumers to regain choice and control in their lives. This approach is sustained by her role as Chair of the Board of the Victorian Mental Illness Awareness council (VMIAC), consumer academic and PhD candidate.
Jenny Wilkinson is a Mental health nurse consultant at Goulburn Valley Health and credentialed mental health nurse. The coordinator of graduate mental health nurse program at GV health and part of the graduate nurse coordinator group through NEVIL.
Brenda Happell (Happell Consulting and University of Newcastle)
When “all researchers are equal but some are more equal than others”: Collaborating with consumers in mental health research
Brenda Happell is a Fellow and Board Director of the Australian College of Mental Health Nurses and former Editor of the International Journal of Mental Health Nursing. Brenda's research interests include consumer participation in mental health services, physical health of people experiencing mental illness and mental health nursing education. Brenda led the introduction of the first known academic position for a consumer of mental health services worldwide. In 2017, Brenda was successful in securing a NHMRC grant to trial an innovative, nurse-led approach to addressing the poor physical health outcomes of Australians diagnosed with mental illness.
Tessa Maguire (Forensicare/Centre for Forensic Behavioral Science)
Co-authors: Michael Daffern (Forensicare/CFBS), Steven Bowe (Deakin), Brian Mckenna (Auckland University of Technology/CFBS)
What now? Suitable nursing interventions following aggression risk assessment
Tessa is a clinical nurse consultant at Forensicare and an adjunct lecturer in forensic mental health nursing at the Centre for Forensic Behavioural Science/Swinburne University of Technology. She is currently a PhD student and her research project is titled 'enhancing risk assessment and nursing interventions to prevent aggression and the use of restrictive interventions in forensic mental health units'.
Hosu Ryu (Royal Melbourne Hospital/NorthWestern Mental Health)
Transference in working with consumers with eating disorders
Hosu Ryu is a mental health nurse currently working as an Associate Nurse Unit Manager in the specialist Eating Disorder / Neuropsychiatry unit at Royal Melbourne Hospital. She has worked in both the private and public sector in general psychiatry and eating disorder services including The Melbourne Clinic and NorthWestern Mental Health. She is currently enrolled in a Masters of Advanced Nursing Practice at the University of Melbourne, and is planning to further research about countertransference in working with consumers with eating disorders as a topic for her minor thesis. She is also passionate about nursing education and e-mental health.
B- Silks Room
Rachel Gwyther & Lisa Spong (Department of Health and Human Services)
Talking underwater with a mouthful of marbles
Rachel Gwyther is a Senior Project Officer, Office of the Chief Mental Health Nurse, DHHS, Vic Govt. Rachel qualified as a registered mental health nurse in the UK. Since coming to Australia, Rachel has worked in an acute inpatient setting as a nurse, clinical nurse specialist and educator. She is a senior project officer in the Victorian Safewards team. Rachel is passionate about reducing restrictive interventions and workforce development.
Lisa Spong is a Senior Project Officer, Office of the Chief Mental Health Nurse, DHHS, Vic Govt. Lisa Spong is a senior project officer in the Safewards Victoria team in the Office of the Chief Mental Health Nurse, DHHS, Victoria and also works at Bendigo Health as the Reducing Restrictive Interventions (RRI) Coordinator.
Matt Donato & Teneale Turner (Melbourne Health)
Nursing interventions within the recovery model in the prevention of hospital admission
Matt Donato has been working as a Psychiatric Nurse since 1992. He has worked across many areas in Mental Health including CATT, Continuing Care and Youth Justice. He is currently working for ICT in the Age Persons Mental Health Programme.
Teneale Turner is an endorsed enrolled nurse working as a key clinician on ICT. Teneale has been working in this role for two years. Teneale stated at NWMH when ICT was a newly formed team and previously to this had worked in the aged care sector. She is working towards her Nursing Degree.
John Leete & Phyllis Colucci (Austin Health)
What a difference a day makes!
John Leete is a Registered Enrolled Nurse with over 30 years’ experience in hospital-based Mental Health in various settings. He is passionate about older veterans’ well-being and has co-facilitated supportive learning and longer-term management of PTSD via group work at the Heidelberg Repat over the past 5 years.
Phyllis Colucci commenced her nursing career in 1972. She is Registered Mental Health Nurse passionate about group work. She has a primary role in delivering a group-based day program for older veterans of various military backgrounds living with trauma related problems including PTSD at the Psychological Recovery Service.
Professor Kim Foster (NorthWestern Mental Health & ACU)
Practicing with EASE: strengthening relational recovery in mental health
Kim Foster is Professor of Mental Health Nursing and leads the Mental Health Nursing Research Unit funded by NorthWestern Mental Health and Australian Catholic University. She is widely published in mental health and in the field of families where parents have mental illness. She is an invited member of the Prato Research Group, a network of international researchers in parental mental illness. Kim has had a long-standing focus on effective interventions to improve the experience and outcomes of children and families where parents have mental illness, and the role nurses play in improving family outcomes.
Jeremy Le Roux & Dr Kerrie Clarke (St. Vincent’s Melbourne Footbridge Community Care Unit)
Peer support work in public mental health: Don’t see me as my diagnosis and I won’t think of you as a clinician
Jeremy is a Peer Support Worker at St. Vincent's Mental Health. Jeremy divides his time between direct Peer Support Work, and various internal and external projects. Jeremy has an innate understanding of the role of Peer Support and its efficacy. He has been researching changes in traditional relationships between clinicians and the lived experience workforce.
Kerrie Clarke is a Senior Clinical Psychologist at St Vincent's Mental Health. She has clinical expertise in working with people experiencing mental illness, particularly people experiencing psychosis. She is passionate about recovery-oriented practice from an individual and system perspective.
Minh Viet Bui (Melbourne Health)
Trauma-informed care in the aged persons mental health setting - benefits and barriers
Viet Bui is currently a graduate nurse in mental health at NorthWestern Mental Health. He completed his entry-to-practice nursing education at the University of Melbourne in 2016, and the graduate medical/surgical nursing program in 2017 at the Royal Melbourne Hospital in neurosurgery/medical. Viet has an undergraduate background in biomedical and neuroscience research. With an unwavering passion for neuroscience and mental health, he uses the opportunity as a mental health nurse to contribute to the improvement of consumer-centred care through evidence-based nursing practice in clinical settings.v
Cloris (Qing) He (NorthWestern Mental Health)
How mental health nurses can apply sensory modulation within adult acute inpatient units?
Cloris is currently working at North Western Mental Health (NWMH) in the 2018 Graduate Mental Health Nursing Program. She discovered an interest in Mental Health Nursing during her first Mental Health Clinical Placement at University. Cloris has completed the first rotation within the John Cade 1 Unit at The Royal Melbourne Hospital and is now currently in the middle of her second rotation at NWMH working in AMHRU within the Mid-West Area. Cloris is loving working as a mental health registered nurse and is also a first-time presenter at the 2018 Collaborative Mental Health Conference.
C- JR Room
Mena Love & Kate Locastro (Eastern Health)
Improving access to culturally responsive services for our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Community
Mena is a proud Arrente woman working as a Aboriginal Carer/Peer Worker and Aboriginal Family Adviser within the Mental Health Program at Eastern Health. Mena has been working in these positions for the past 18 months and has many years of lived experience as a carer.
Kate is a mental health nurse who has worked primarily within public mental health settings over the past 17 years. She has spent the last two years working on a clinical engagement project which aimed to improve access for Aboriginal and Torres Strait islander consumers to clinical mental health services.
Camuran Albanoi (Goulburn Valley Health)
Recovery-oriented practice supporting self-determination
In November 2013, Camuran commenced the role as Peer Support Worker at Goulburn Valley Health inpatient unit - Wanyarra. In 2015, the High Priority Discharge program was piloted by St. Vincent's Hospital, Melbourne and Goulburn Valley Health. Camuran joined this program as one of the sole Peer Support workers at its inception. Now the High Priority Discharge program is now embedded through DHHS funding, and in May Camuran accepted the appointment as Team Leader.
Kylie Boucher (Centre for Mental Health Learning)
What do mental health nurse early graduate programs across Victoria look like?
Kylie Boucher is a mental health nurse with a passion for education and the role it can play in developing workforce capacity and in contributing to a mental health system that is human-rights focussed, consumer-centred, responsive and innovative. She has worked in numerous MH inpatient settings and as a Clinical Nurse Educator. She worked for the Centre for Psychiatric Nursing before moving to her current role as the Senior Project Lead for the new Centre for Mental Health Learning.
Shane Bautista (NorthWestern Mental Health)
How mental health nurses can promote a healthy lifestyle to consumers living in a community care unit
Shane Bautista is a Graduate Mental Health Nurse at NWMH. Shane is also a consumer of mental health with a lived experience of depression and anxiety, which is why he became a mental health nurse. Shane has previous experience as a personal trainer and has a passion in using exercise to improve consumers’ mental health. His long-term career goal is to become a Mental Health Nurse Practitioner.
Joseph Lee & Sarath Vallabhaneni (NorthWestern Mental Health)
Dignity of risk - a balance of risk and duty
Joseph Lee and Sarath Vallabhaneni are two graduate nurses from the 2018 NorthWestern Mental Health Graduate Nurse Program. Both have completed their first clinical rotation at Sunshine Adult Acute Psychiatric Unit. Joseph is currently completing a second rotation at the Eating Disorders Program at Royal Melbourne Hospital and Sarath at Sunshine Aged Persons Mental Health Unit.
Jenny Wilkinson & Melissa Metcalf (Goulburn Valley Health)
Growing a workforce. A rural mental health service’s strategic plan of growing and sustaining a mental health nurse workforce. Goulburn Valley Area Mental Health Service (Innovations in practice)
Jennifer Wilkinson is a Mental Health Nurse Consultant Educator for Goulburn Valley Health.
Melissa Metcalf is a Senior Mental Health Nurse for Goulburn Valley Health.
Linda Mora & Nicola Garland (Orygen Youth Health)
Establishing a Clozapine service within an early intervention youth mental health service
Co-authors: Tahnee Bridson (National Centre of Excellence in Youth Mental Health), Enrico Cementon (OYH), John Cocks (OYH), Brian O’Donoghue (OYH/NCEYMH)
Linda has worked for many years in NWAMH across many areas of mental health such as: Adult Rehabilitation, Aged mental health, triage and currently works as the senior nurse/ clozapine coordinator for Orygen youth health EPPIC B region. Additionally, Linda is completing a Masters of Advanced Nursing at University of Melbourne.
Nicola completed a Bachelor of Nursing at the Christchurch Polytechnic Institute of Technology in Christchurch, New Zealand before moving to Melbourne Australia to commence her nursing career. Nicola completed her Masters of Advanced Nursing Practice (Mental Health) in 2016 and currently works at Orygen Youth Health as a Senior Nurse/Senior Outreach Nurse.
Elizabeth Currie (NorthWestern Mental Health & Australian Catholic University)
Physical healthcare attitudes, skills and knowledge of nurses working in acute mental health inpatient units
Liz is a mental health nurse, who has been working at Melbourne Health- North Western Mental Health in Melbourne, Australia for the past 17 years. She is also working part- time as a mental health lecturer for Australian Catholic University, Melbourne campus. Her experience has been varied across a number of mental health service settings, however more recently she has been employed as a Service Improvement Officer for NWMH in area of clinical risk management for the organisation. Academically, Liz is completing her research dissertation on physical health care for consumers with serious mental illness, which she is extremely passionate about. She is a strong advocate for consumers and carers within mental health services and believes this supports her teaching with the undergraduate nursing students.