July ebulletin

MHWA news and updates

Welcome to the Mental Health Workers Alliance email update.

Forming local alliances, coordinating best practice among colleagues across the industries, and educating the public are just a few of the commitments made by front line workers at the Mental Health Workers Alliance conference. The 22 June event showed people around NSW are geared up to take the lead in moving the work of the MHWA to the next level and are prepared to make the most of the support on offer. Police, doctors, nurses, community, health and emergency workers said it was vital to maintain momentum on MHWA activities and suggested a range of other actions including:

• building strong networks to address specific site issues

• writing to local members requesting their support

• emailing local papers and speaking to editors

• identifying speakers from the Alliance to address local groups

• engaging and including community groups

• using pamphlets and posters to raise awareness of the issues

• including ideas for organising activists on the MHWA website

The Mental Health Workers Alliance has been established by the NSW Nurses' Association, the Police Association of NSW, the Australian Salaried Medical Officers Federation (NSW), the Health Services Union NSW, and the Australian Services Union (NSW) in response to ongoing concerns among our members about the entrenched resource deficits in mental health services across NSW.

• ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

All Aboard Call To Frontline

Dr Anthony Llewellyn, Consultant Psychiatrist Hunter New England Area Health Service - addressed delegates at the MHWA Conference and provided an overview of MHWA activities thus far.

There has been a successive and systemic ignoring of the mental health of our nation by our Federal Government, our State Governments and by ourselves the people, said Dr Anthony Llewellyn at the MHWA Conference in Sydney on 22 June 2005. Dr Llewellyn said government showed a genuine interest in ways of improving the mental health system but said very serious problems in the mental health system were not due to a failure of policy, but the failure of Australian governments to implement policy. ³The central reason for the stress on the mental health system is that the burden of mental illness and associated disability is not matched by investment in prevention, care and rehabilitation,² he said. He told the conference it was now important the MHWA involve as many frontline workers as possible. ³We are seeking your assistance in further progressing the aims of the alliance by forming local networks of active workers to identify short-fallings in the system and advocate for change,² Dr Llewellyn said. ³The more people we bring on board and the more we influence our local communities, the public and ultimately the politicians, the more progress we will see.² To read the full text of Dr Llewellynıs speech, please click http://www.labor.net.au/campaigns/mhwa/news/Speech.html

• ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Psychiatry Training Area Specific - A one-size-fits-all style psychiatry training model being proposed for NSW is "fundamentally flawed and risks making training in psychiatry in NSW worse rather than better", says Dr Anthony Llewellyn. In an MHWA meeting with parliamentary secretary for mental health Ms Cherie Burton on Thursday 9 June Dr Llewellyn said there was a concern that the Medical Training and Education Council (MTEC) proposal would invest too much power in the central body coordinating training "at the expense of placing resources where they are required - at the workplace." The Hunter region was among those who would suffer if unable to develop its own initiatives, he said. "This has the potential to disrupt many of the good things already in place for training in the Hunter and will prevent us from addressing some local unique problems, such as rural placements and a large group of overseas trained doctors who need educational support." Ms Burton requested a copy of the Hunter submission and a letter outlining its concerns. Other issues raised in the meeting included: the mental health budget; an update on the funding status for two health CNCs at St Vincent's and homelessness health funding for Matthew Talbot; intentions for Rozelle Hospital; the Cumberland arts project; and workforce development.

http://www.labor.net.au/campaigns/mhwa/news/cheriemtg.html

• ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Auditor-General's Report - Performance Audit: Emergency Mental Health Services, NSW Department of Health
The inadequacy of services for mentally ill people in emergency departments was the issue that prompted the formation of the MHWA. Emergency departments were the intersection of mental health services that highlighted the common concerns of police, doctors, nurses, ambulance officers and community workers.

While the Report recognised that some improvements had been achieved, the audit found that "the increase in demand for emergency mental health services has offset many (and perhaps all) of the gains from funding increases."

The full text of this important report can be found at:
http://www.audit.nsw.gov.au/perfaud-rep/Year-2004-2005/MentalHealth-May2005/mentalhealth-contents.html

• ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Cumberland Centre Project - Redevelopment of the land surrounding Cumberland Psychiatric Hospital should include an arts precinct that features Outsider Art - a theme that has a direct correlation to mental health and rehabilitation, according to a group called The Cumberland Centre Project. The CCP says the project would provide affordable housing and job creation for the mentally ill, theatre and visual arts for clients, consumers and patients of mental health services, plus a range of other benefits. The Cumberland Centre Project met with the MHWA in May and asked for the Alliance's support.

• ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Alliance Across The Airwaves - Triple J's Hack program has spent a week looking at the unofficial mental health system and the people who look after the mentally ill when the health system fails them. Through interviews with MHWA members and others in the industry, Hack revealed that it was police who were often the first point of contact for the critically mentally ill and that prisons had become the new asylums. Listeners heard that a lack of resourcing and the shortage of hospital beds were creating a "revolving door for patients, who are turned out of hospital before they have been properly treated". Also naming Sydney's Matthew Talbot hostel as one of the biggest unofficial mental health centres in the country, Hack provided a glimpse of the daily crises confronting its staff. To listen to Hack's take on mental health visit http://www.abc.net.au/triplej/hack/notes/archive_June2005.htm

• ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Workers Say No To IR Changes - Whatever industry you work for your rights at work are likely to be seriously undermined by the Howard Government's planned industrial relations changes.

Come and enjoy your right to spend time with your family before John Howard takes it away with our free family day out...

Sunday, August 7th 2005
11am - 2:30pm Sunday August 7th 2005
The Overflow, Sydney Olympic Park

Featuring

• The Hooley Dooleys

• Tim Freedman

• Kid Confucius

• Free activities for the kids; and

• Much much more

ALL DAY PARKING available - $3 per hour, up to maximum $15 per day. To guarantee a spot, pre-book by phoning Ticketek 132849 ($15 plus booking fee)

FREE PUBLIC TRANSPORT to and from the event - on CityRail services and Sydney Olympic Park Major Event Buses.

For more transport info, go to www.131500.com.au or call TRANSPORT INFOLINE 131500.

For more information click here.

• ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Almost, But Not Quite? - For those on intranets who are unable to access the MHWA weblinks, please contact agarvey@nswnurses.asn.au to request any individual items be sent as an attachment.

If you have received this message in error or would like to be removed from this list, please contact agarvey@nswnurses.asn.au

• ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

LaborNET is proudly created, designed and programmed
by Social Change Online for the Labor Council of NSW
[Credits] [Site Matters]