Secretary Loraine Lim (left) and Chair, Shelley Rogers (right) at the recent APS Branch forums in Melbourne

One of the benefits of membership with Australia’s premier professional organisation for psychologists is the opportunity to come together with others who share common interests. No matter how differently we practise or how diverse our client groups might be, we share study and training experiences, registration challenges, professional and ethical obligations, bodies of knowledge and a desire to make a difference.

I am very excited that the South Australian state committee is sending out its new format newsletter. This is a medium by which we can keep in touch with each other. There are also other ways that your local APS SA committee keeps in touch with you. I send you occasional emails about local matters such as consultations where your input is valued. The recent WorkCoverSA fee consultation is an example. Thank you to everyone who gave feedback to this. As you will be aware, in addition to the InPsych magazine, the APS National Office send you monthly emails to let you know about matters that concern the profession and what the APS is doing on our behalf. If you missed one, back issues can be found here.

Additionally, if you are a member of one of the dozens of active APS colleges or APS interest groups, or you are an active member of the APS Division of General Practising Psychologists (DivGPP) you will receive information directly through those groups about sectional interests and activities.

It is through the State Newsletter, though, that there is more scope for you as members to contribute and communicate with all other psychologists, provisional psychologists and psychology students in South Australia. Please read our newsletter! Write letters to the Editor. Submit articles and photographs. Tell stories.

This year is shaping up to be big, with lots of great CPD planned. More importantly, we need to be ready and prepared to respond to the challenges that might impact on us as a profession, and on our clients.

Shelley Rogers

Fires burn in the Adelaide Hills, January 2015

As bushfires burnt through the Adelaide Hills in January 2015, APS member and state rep for the Division of General Practising Psychologists Karen Lineham asked what we as psychologists could do to help.

Karen lives in the Mt Pleasant area and her partner runs the local pub. They had to evacuate but escaped any physical damage to their home or the hotel. Not the case for the many locals she and her partner have come to know in the area. Many of them recalled the bushfires of 1983 and this felt like a re-traumatisation. Or they had lost homes, stock or fencing in the ferocious fire that took CFS fighters more than a week to contain.

Karen's appeal reached Susie Burke, Senior Psychologist and co-ordinator of Disaster Response in the APS, who set in motion a number of helpful actions. Resources were immediately made available and Karen was able to distribute these, being in a prime position to speak to local farmers and health professionals.

Our communications with Susie have resulted in a number of positive outcomes, including a media release, APS resources and links to other articles disseminated via social media, an interview and distribution of resources via hotels and sporting associations - community meeting spots that (in the words of our treasurer) are in "just the right place for a quiet word". We plan to have these and more resources easily accessible to members on the SA Members page.

Few SA members are currently listed on the Disaster Response Network within the APS. The Red Cross have now asked APS to partner with them to offer disaster support groups for affected people in the Adelaide Hills, following a number of expressions of interest from locals and local organisations working on recovery in these areas. Please see the flyer that Shelley has emailed around and below for more details.

Karen is co-ordinating a stand at the Kersbrook Auction and Country Fair on Sunday 15 March with a focus on what psychology can offer following a disaster. Your support is welcome. Here is the doodle poll to enlist! (We had a lot of fun on the NPW stand under that umbrella!)

As a committee, we were very heartened by the response provided by Susie in National Office and would like to publicly acknowledge her here. Also to Karen for her quick appeal for help and for everything she has done since to support her community, and the wider communities affected.

The APS committee also approved a donation of $500 to the CFS Adelaide bushfire appeal.

We are seeking expressions of interest from suitably qualified mental health professionals interested in volunteering to run disaster support groups for people who have been affected by a disaster. Red Cross is planning to offer support groups to communities in the Adelaide Hills fire-affected regions, but also will consider doing so for any future disasters.

Please see the flyer and contact s.burke@psychology.org.au or drn@psychology.org.au. with your expression of interest and CV.

Darkle plays at the Holden St Theatres from 1-8th March 2015. More info and tickets here.

We don’t often hear about psychology being applied to artistic endeavours. Perhpas surprising given our science specialises in a deep understanding of human behaviour. Theatre provides an excellent vehicle through which this can be creatively expressed.

APS member and clinical psychologist Sharon Robertson has recently been involved as a consultant psychologist in Lazy Saturday Production’s Australian premiere of Darkle.

Darkle, written by British film and T.V. writer Bill Gallagher and winner of the Sunday Times Playwriting Award, is a clever and thought provoking theatrical piece. Fuelled by fantasy, three young people decide they must teach their lonely, tabloid-obsessed landlord a lesson - for being stupid. When they kidnap his beloved dog they set off a horrific train of events and farce eventually turns into tragedy. Combining quirky comedy with unspeakable cruelty, we are led to question which is better; patriarchal despotism or lawless anarchy?

As Sharon says: "Psychological theory provides a platform from which script interpretation and characterisation can take place. For this piece, the Jungian concept of the collective unconscious serves to hilight the presence and meaning of strong archetypes, and the Freudian defence mechanisms of displacement and sublimation give the cast interesting and believable reasons for their character’s odd behaviour."

Check out the Fringe website for ticket and venue information.