Survey responses and other submissions still wanted for the project. Deadlines have been extended to this Wednesday 25th April2012.

For more details visit http://esvc000237.wic014tu.server-web.com/7edf5b95-a4a4-45d7-803b-561f46b3a89e.aspx

A program aimed at tackling homelessness among Sydney men has delivered dramatic results while producing significant public savings, according to a Mission Australia report being launched today.

Mission Australia’s Michael Project – a three-year initiative funded by a private donor – provided the men with quick access to a range of dental, mental health, literacy and numeracy, self-esteem and fitness support services.

It tested the theory that access to health, education and social supports can help homeless people improve their wellbeing, social and economic participation, and access to sustainable housing.

While thousands of men using seven homeless services participated, 106 were followed over 12 months in the most extensive longitudinal research exercise involving homeless people undertaken in Australia.

The research – led by Professor Paul Flatau of Murdoch University and the Centre for Social Impact and Dr Lucy Burns of the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre  – found that after a year in the program the men:

• Reduced their hospitalisation rate from four to 1.7 times that of the general population.
• Reported they were half as likely to feel isolated from the community and were three times more likely to be employed.
• Were much more likely to be housed, with 42 per cent were in sustainable accommodation 12 months after entering the program.

In addition, the men were also far less likely to access health and justice services.

See: http://www.missionaustralia.com.au/daily-news/3847-report-finds-new-homeless-service-model-saves-money-changes-lives-

MEDIA RELEASE: PRIME MINISTER
MINISTER FOR MENTAL HEALTH
MINISTER FOR HOUSING
CANBERRA

13 APRIL 2012
The Council of Australian Governments today agreed help improve the care and support provided to people living with severe and persistent mental illness and complex care needs
through a new National Partnership Agreement.
The Gillard Government will provide $200 million to help address gaps in state and territory mental health systems.
This Labor Government is committed to delivering major reform in mental health.
Today’s announcement builds on our $2.2 billion mental health package announced in this year’s Federal Budget, delivering on a key election commitment to make mental health a key second term priority for the Government.
States and territories play an integral role in providing acute care, housing, education and social supports for people with a mental illness.
The signing of the National Partnership will mean more services and better support for people with a mental illness who frequently present at emergency departments.
Today’s agreement will also help more Australians living with mental illness to secure and maintain stable accommodation and support to keep well and break the hospital cycle.
Under the NP, Commonwealth funding is being provided for the following projects:

• Australian Capital Territory will be provided with $2.8 million for the adult mental health step-up step-down early intervention support program and the supported accommodation outreach project targeting men with serious mental illness and recent experience of involuntary institutional care.
• New South Wales will be provided with $57.6 million for three projects: the housing and accommodation support initiative plus; in-reach support boarding house residents with mental health issues; and, the mothers with mental illness and their children: mental health community support program which includes intensive, family focussed support to mothers with mental illness and their children.
• Northern Territory will be provided with $3.6 million to increase accommodation and
  support for people with severe and persistent mental illness in Alice Springs and
  Darwin.
  Queensland will be provided with $51.5 million for the supported recovery –coordinated accommodation and support project which includes long-term social
  housing and support services
• South Australia will be provided with $14.2 million to expand the assessment and crisis intervention service teams and develop a community walk in centre, which will enable
  people to present to a mental health clinician in a community location, rather than a GP or emergency department.
• Tasmania will be provided with $6.6 million to provide packages of care for people with severe and persistent mental illness, including individualised and intensive support
  to access and maintain accommodation, education and employment support.
• Victoria will be provided with $37.3 million for four projects: mental health outreach support and care coordination to people experiencing homelessness as a result of
  enduring mental illness; mental health support for secure tenancies enabling people with severe mental illness to maintain accommodation; psychiatric assessment and
  planning units; and a mental health hospital admission risk program pilot which will focus on providing short term coordination of mental health services.
• Western Australia will be provided with $26.1 million for individualised community living packages and the expansion of community intervention services that respond to
  the needs of children and their families.
  While there have been significant improvements to state and territory programs, there is still considerable variation in the type of services available across the country.
  Improving links between the state and territory and Commonwealth mental health systems will deliver better treatment for people living with severe and persistent mental illness and
  help them to stay well and lead functional lives.

See : Projects under the National Partnership Agreement Supporting National Mental Health Reform

The full media release is below.

THE HON. MARK BUTLER MP

Minister for Mental Health and Ageing

Minister for Social Inclusion

Minister Assisting the Prime Minister on Mental Health Reform

MEDIA RELEASE

11 April 2012

BOOST TO MENTAL HEALTH HELP OVER THE PHONE OR ONLINE

More Australians living with anxiety or depression will soon be able to access the help and support that they need over the phone, or online, with $15.4 million made available today for telephone and web-based counselling programs.

As part of the Gillard Government’s commitment to better mental health services, the Department of Health and Ageing today issued an open and competitive Invitation to Apply for Funding (ITA) to suitably qualified organisations to deliver telephone counselling, self-help and web-based programs.

Services that might be funded include psycho-social help lines, online counselling, web-based self-help, peer support resources, self-directed online treatment programs and therapist- assisted treatment services.

The ITA will close on 15 May 2012.

Minister for Mental Health and Ageing, Mark Butler, said the investment in telephone and web-based counselling demonstrated the Government’s commitment to providing innovative and accessible mental services to Australians no matter where they live.

“The nature of these services means therapy can be undertaken at a time that is convenient to the user and much of it can be done anonymously, which respects people’s privacy and helps reduce the stigma attached to seeking help,” Mr Butler said.

“They can also be accessed from home, removing the need for travel, and are therefore of particular benefit to people living in rural and remote areas, or who are unable to travel to obtain face-to-face services.”

Many of the telephone and web-based counselling services funded under this round and the new virtual clinic will be accessible through the Government’s mental health portal. The portal will provide consumers with a single site to access evidence-based online mental health and crisis support services—which is due to be up and running in mid 2012.

One-in-five Australians (3.2 million) aged between 16 and 85 years experience mental illness in any given year. Only one-third of them seek help.  Evidence suggests that for those with mild to moderate disorders, online psychological services are effective.

Produced in consultation with Children of Parents with a Metal Illness (COPMI), the online surveyinvestigates parents’ concerns and seeks ideas for how services can be improved.

Results from this confidential study will be published in a special SANE Research Bulletin later this year, to lobby for improved understanding and support for families where a parent is living with a mental illness.

Visit www.sane.org to access the survey and let us know about your experience.

The SANE Helpline – 1800 18 SANE (7263) – is available if you want to discuss any issues raised by the survey.

“..The latest workforce information on the AIHW‘s Mental Health Services in Australia website (available at http://mhsa.aihw.gov.au/resources/workforce/) shows the number of psychiatrists (including psychiatrists-in-training) per 100,000 people increased at an average yearly rate of 1.4% between 2005 and 2009.
The number of nurses who work principally in mental health increased at an average yearly rate of 1.5% over the same period,‘ said AIHW spokesperson Mr Brent Diverty.
The website provides workforce information on psychiatrists, psychiatrists-in-training and nurses who work principally in mental health care..”

Read full article here.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/national/health/new-report-cuts-review-wait-time-for-mentally-ill-20120314-1v3mk.html#ixzz1p8MJk54v

I noted 3rd Aust Postvention Conference entitled ” Hope, Meaning and Direction – Aust Postvention Perspectives”

This is a conference that brings together those bereaved by suicide and individuals and organisations working in the field of suicide postvention.

To find out more view the program

http://www.hotelnetwork.com.au/__data/page/1436/SNAP_Reduced_Program_@_28_Feb_2012.pdf

Registration is also available online

http://www.hotelnetwork.com.au/conferences/Conferences/postvention/2012/registration/registration

Nellie Worringham gave a moving account of her own experience of self-injury and some of her experiences of therapy, as well as appealing to clinicians to understand self-injury from the perspective of consumers. She brought us into her world for a time through her diaries, inviting us to imagine her experience instead of avoiding it, to give us “a glimpse of the life on the ‘other side’, in the ‘other mind’”.

“When I open up my body, the yellow fat is the first thing I see. The bubbles of blubber that consume me. The blood runs out – a vein has been severed. My mind runs free for a moment. I make another cut, and now I can see the dark muscle underneath the fat. When I tense my leg, I can see the dark object moving. I cut again, and the muscle parts, although it’s tough, it doesn’t want to be separated. Now the blood is pulsing. The blood takes over my mind. I follow the flow and stare at all of the towels on the floor, saturated with blood. After a while, I start to feel faint. I put pressure on the cut. The blood seeps through the bandages I wrap tightly around my leg. It does this for hours. But then finally the blood clotted. And the bleeding stops, for now, anyway.”

“The blade penetrating innocent skin. If only that was enough… Just one step further… The blade severing the delicate veins and pulsing arteries. If only that was enough. Really, just one step further. The blade parting reluctant muscles. If only that was enough. Maybe just one step further. The blade dulling as it grinds through defiant bone. If only that was enough. Just one step further. I’m sure, this time, that will be enough”

“These fears and insecurities leave me breathless. The thought of confinement makes my chest feel tight. I imagine I am being constricted by a giant python, with each gasping breath for air, my chest is squeezed that little bit tighter, making the subsequent breath even more frantic and panicked. The amount of air needed to provide life to my body is much more than what my lungs are struggling to gasp for. When you talk to me, and prove you care, I feel like the snake loosens its grip ever so slightly. I catch a glimpse – see a flash – of a vision of me escaping the snake’s deathly hold. But then you are gone again, as quickly as you came. And the snake resumes its merciless task.”

“You are still here, even when I’ve closed myself completely in the dark. You almost make me feel like we can both share the dark, until I’m strong enough to walk, with you by my side, into the light. I don’t understand why you stick around for me, and seem to want to share these painful journeys with me. We haven’t shared one yet, but I’m getting closer to trusting you enough to let you into my world. If I let you in, I wonder if, together, we will eventually find an end to this fight. I think this alliance, you and me, is what I’ve needed to give me the strength to walk into the light.”

Nellie had a number of comments on what has been important for her in therapy. “I believe that it is vital for people who self-injure to have their say in treatment, rather than being treated like a child who is incapable of making any form of decision.” Nellie talked about the importance of a strong and stable relationship with a therapist who “understands that the road is likely to be long and rocky”. Without this stable relationship, “no matter how many therapies you try, recovery will be much more elusive”. The length of group programs may also have an impact on progress – a program that is too short may leave participants feeling let down. Nellie also asked us to consider some of her most negative experiences, including a group therapist who was “rigid and didn’t seem to see the patients as individuals”. Another therapy group she was involved in broke down because of participants dropping out and staff resigning. This provoked further discussion in question time about training for therapy and the need for support for stability in therapeutic teams.

Nellie ended by appealing to clinicians to remember that consumers that deliberately injure themselves are “often just the average girl you’d pass on the street. The well groomed, articulate young person, who underneath, is suffering immensely. Next time you engage with one of us, try to step into our shoes for a couple of minutes, or even seconds. I am your daughter, your sister, your best friend, your next-door neighbour. I’m the girl that you see down at the shops, who has grown up in a loving, middle-class family. Please take the time to get to know me, really listen to the words I say to you, and think out of the box if I don’t seem to be able to express myself with verbal words. Give me a pen and paper. Don’t do what so many others have done, and automatically judge me because I have injured myself. I’m not here to manipulate you, or make you feel bad. I’m hurting and I need your attention right now. Please remember that I am a human being, who is just as deserving as the stroke victim in the cubicle next door. When you are making a decision which will impact on the rest of my life, please remember these things.”

His powerpoint presentation is available on TheMHS website or you can download it here.