The CMHN Collab 2024
The Centre for Mental Health Nursing (CMHN) recently delivered their annual conference The Collab.
This conference celebrates and showcases the specialist practice of mental health nursing, and brings together mental health nurses, researchers, nursing academics, nursing students, people with a lived experience and people working in the mental health and health services communities. It is an important meeting point for grass roots mental health nurses and the consumer community to come together and support each other, celebrate the successes and discuss the challenges of work being done in the mental health sector.
The 25th Anniversary of The Collab was attended by over 600 attendees across the two days. This year was a bumper conference with over 100 presentations on the program, 56 of those being first time presenters, 12 co-produced presentations and 30 exhibitors in the marketplace, providing delegates with an opportunity to engage and receive the most up to date information in relation to the mental health sector.
The Collab was delighted to have Victorian Minister for Mental Health, Ingrid Stitt in attendance on the morning of day one to deliver the opening address. Anna Love, Chief Mental Health Nurse kicked off the first of 4 wonderful keynote presentations, followed by Helena Roennfeldt – Lived Experience Researcher at University of Melbourne, Rhonda Wilson – Professor of Mental Health Nursing RMIT / President of Australian College of Mental Health Nurses, and Rose McCrohan – Mental Health Nurse Practitioner, Community Alcohol and Drug Nurse Practitioner at Curran Place Uniting’s Adult and Mother Baby Withdrawal Service. Read more about our keynote presenters here.
Adrienne Lipscombe from VACCA hosted a meet up for First Nations Nurses in the Chillout Space providing an opportunity for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Nurses to purposefully connect and share their experiences as Mental Health Nurses.
This year, The Collab saw the return of Delta Therapy Dogs and Laneway Learning who delivered a range of fun workshops including, no needles knitted pillows, perfume making and mindful doodling. Nearly 300 attendees peddled for yummy fruit smoothies with the guys from Bike n Blend and nearly 250 people attended the 25th anniversary celebration party on Thursday night. Guests enjoyed a chance to connect with friends and colleagues and reflect on the discussions of the day whilst listening to the lovely jazz tunes of Ben and Luca over a glass of bubbly.
For the first time, The Collab was proud to auspice a special pre-Collab Consumer day event designed by and for the consumer workforce: Celebrating Consumer Perspective Work: our Successes, our Challenges and our Impacts. Members of the lived experience consumer community engaged in an informative day of guest speakers, networking, and discussing important issues currently impacting the Consumer Mental Health workforce. The Centre for Mental Health Nursing team also launched the Abolitionist Perspectives report.
