News & Events

We have invited Helen Kelly and Emma Wellington as presenters for the February 2020 forum. Helen will present on The First Royal Commission into Mental Health in Victoria in 1886 and Emma will discuss the current Royal Commission.

In November CPN's Consumer Academic and advocate, Indigo Daya put a call out for volunteers to come together and write letters of love, hope and solidarity for the people who will spend Christmas in Psychiatric units across Victoria.Initially a small group of 19 (most of whom were also people with lived experience in Mental Health) came together in early December and spent an afternoon writing over 200 cards that were to be distributed to 10 Mental Health Units in Victoria.From there, Indigo’s December Letters Project went viral and dozens of volunteers created and attended similar events across the country and produced over 900 cards that were distributed throughout Australia.

Well hasn’t 2019 flown by! The CPN team have been keenly supporting mental health nurses across Vic to do your best work.From facilitating change with key nurses, to providing grass roots training, to evaluating innovative programs, to leading and contributing at conferences, realising good experiences and outcomes for consumers has been our aim.This Newsletter highlights the ground breaking contributions of the consumer academic team at CPN, under the stellar leadership of Cath Roper.We hope you take a moment to consider the good work you have done this year; wishing you a delightful Christmas and a Happy New Year from us all.

A broad range of research underway was on show at the 2019 Society for Mental Health Research conference. This year had a particular focus on non-medicinal interventions such as social psychiatry, dietary interventions, and pharmaceuticals. In addition to this was the novel work of the impressive Brain Park center which seeks to utilize VR technology and gamified neuropsychological tools to work on issues such as Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and Addictive Behaviors. Other areas of focus were brain imaging of different disorders and techniques for reducing discrimination through school, workplace and online psycho-educational programs.

The CPN’s Consumer Academics recently attended the Service User Academia Symposium(SUAS) in Wellington, Aetoroea (New Zealand). Consumer Academic Hamilton Kennedy has reflected on their takeaway messages.

In Australia, when someone has a lived experience of the mental health system, they are typically referred to as a ‘consumer’. When they work in that system in a specified consumer role, they are often said to be providing a ‘consumer perspective’. However, what it actually means to use this perspective in our work is harder to define.Members of the Consumer Academic Program at the Centre for Psychiatric Nursing, University of Melbourne, wanted to have a conversation exploring definitions of consumer perspective and how we use it in our work. To continue reading click here

We’re seeking expressions of interest from nurses and consumers to participate in a new research project. Do you have experience of restrictive practices and aggression in mental health inpatient services? You may be interested in participating in this project.

The CPN Consumer Academic Program team will be hosting a booth at the VMIAC Conference. For more information visit bit.ly/VMIACconference

CPN's Consumer Academic Program has won a TheMHS award at the 2019 Mental Health Service Awards of Australia and New Zealand program for service to mental health.

CPN Consumer Academic, Hamilton Kennedy explores the lived experience of madness and how failure can bring us closer to what we desire in this article 'Making an art of failure' featuring artwork from another CPN academic Rory Randall.

Consumer leaders know all too well the connection between language, power, policy and the lived experience of mental health issues and services. Whether it is “mental illness”, “recovery”, “madness” or being “managed”, words are powerful tools that can help or hurt.This is the message consumer leaders Cath Roper, Wanda Bennetts, Alison Hall and Simon Katterl brought to the Royal Commission into Victoria’s Mental Health System. Wanting to know how to think and communicate respectfully about mental health, the Commission chose to listen to those who know first-hand the importance of language.By using open dialogue strategies and a “You can’t ask that” forum, the Commission and consumer leaders discussed the impacts of framing, alternative ways of understanding our experiences, the personal meaning we give words and the ethics of who gets to use them. Training from consumer leaders provided an important opportunity for staff to ask questions and reflect on the effect that they can have in their individual roles. Staff came away with concrete actions. Kerin Leonard, Director, Community Engagement, Royal Commission into Victoria’s Mental Health SystemWe hope the work can assist the Commission to elevate the voices of consumers in their future work and recommendations.

The 2019 Collab Conference has wrapped up. Check out the photos from the two day event.

Strenghtening the workforce recruitment, expansion and retention!

Handy hints when attending a conference!

CPN's Consumer Academic, Cath Roper's article Ethical Peril, Violence and “Dirty Hands”: Ethical Consequences of Mental Health Laws has been published in a special issue of the Journal of Ethics in Mental Health.Cath discusses the ethical situations of people governed by mental health laws, clinicians working under mental health laws and analyses the 'harder to see' forms of violence experienced by people exposed to these mental health laws.

Wednesday 10 July was the inaugural International Safewards Day! Safewards is an internationally recognised mental health model that aims to make mental health facilities safer for everyone. The model highlights for staff how they reduce conflicts and the need for restrictive interventions by recognising triggers which can put patients and staff at risk.

The countdown is officially on! Tickets still available.

CPN Director, Associate Professor Bridget Hamilton was the Inaugural winner of the 2018 VMIAC Consumer Awards ‘Ally’ category back in October. VMIAC CEO Maggie Toko explained the new award was launched to honour work of allies who “don’t do it for us, they do it with us and they make sure we’re out in front, they stand by us”.

The program for the 20th Annual Victorian Collaborative Mental Health Nursing Conference is now available!

CPN Clinical supervision: looking backward, looking forward

On Monday 11 February 2019, the CPN were thrilled to host Rai Waddingham as she presented her thought-provoking session ‘Rethinking empowerment and recovery (overcoming disempowerment and oppression) to the Mental Health nursing, academic and research community.Rai who has spent a good portion of her life in and out of psychiatric hospitals, now sees herself as a survivor. She is a freelance trainer, writer and an active member of a variety of UK based committees.The session explored the critical perspectives on the concepts of recovery and empowerment in mental health, ways in which these concepts play out in modern mental health services and oppression and disempowerment within mental health services.Taking inspiration from other civil rights movements, she discussed ways we can work together to recognise and overcome these issues.Feedback: “Rai was an awesome presenter, mediating the session brilliantly, drawing out the points people were making and underlining useful concepts”“Excellent training about oppression found within treatment and recovery. Rai offered her personal view and also enabled an honest discussion.”“Rachel was an inspiring speaker and has given me much to think about and pass on in every aspect of my work.”

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This new, open-access resource aims to inform and support the implementation of co-production initiatives specifically within the Victorian mental health context.

A series of short videos about who we are & why we're passionate about working in mental health.

Contingent of Victorian Safewards trainers & researchers attend EVIPRG Congress; A/Prof Bridget Hamilton to Chair international Safewards Community of Practice

Phase One of the CPN’s rollout of Psychotherapy Essentials to community MH nurses is on track for the first half of 2018.

This year's 'Graduate Survey' of Victorian public mental health services is a 'preliminary step' to further CPN research into graduate MH nurse program offerings across the state.

2017's Symposium in NZ attended by contingent of CPN-affiliated consumer academics; 2018's to be hosted by the CPN in Melbourne

Dr Peckham's keynote "The Talking Cure is Biological" was very well-received at the 2017 Collab Conference. View the video here in full.

Cath Roper and Prof. Bernadette McSherry discuss the legal framework and lived experience of involuntary treatment in Australia

CPN Nursing Lecturer Dr Finbar Hopkins awarded PhD for thesis exploring maternal representations from pre-pregnancy to early motherhood.

Resources to help MH services & practitioners assess the degree to which their practice promotes autonomy & self-determination for service users