This month, with an upcoming re-shuffle of state cabinet, we’re encouraging you to remind the government of the value of mental health having its own minister and commission, especially as lobbying is underway to do away with the mental health Minister and merge the Mental Health Commission back into the Department of Health.

There has been fantastic response this weeks WA Mental Health Conference and, while registrations for the main conference have sold out, there are still tickets available for a number of the special conference events.

If you are not yet a member of WAAMH we are offering you, in recognition of the conference and throughout March, the opportunity to give membership a go for just 25% of the annual fee.

This month we are also encouraging you to give us your feedback about eNews by completing a brief survey at the bottom of the page.

Rod Astbury
Chief Executive Officer
WA Association for Mental Health

The WA Mental Health Conference will be held this week, 10-11 March at Fraser's Kings Park. Registrations for the main conference, Youth Wellbeing Breakfast and the Workplace Wellness Symposium have now sold out, but tickets are still available for:

• Mental Health Postcards Art Exhibition
• Recovery Stories by Candlelight 
• Free Virtual Conference attendance  - for regional residents unable to come to Perth or people who are housebound and unable to attend in person. 

WAAMH is opposed to the Australian Medical Association's (AMA) campaign for the government to remove WA’s dedicated Minister for Mental Health and merge the Mental Health Commission back into the Department of Health. Help us tell Premier Barnett to keep mental health as its own portfolio. Click here for talking points, contact details and suggested social media posts for your contact with the Premier or your local member.

This month's blog, 'Across government agreement, recovery is within NDIS remit', discusses changes to NDIS rules that now include ongoing psychosocial recovery supports within the remit of NDIS funded supports. Read here for more information. 

The State Government has recently announced $200,000 in grants
for suicide prevention training programs, including education for high risk groups. For more information, click here.

Mental Health Commission of Australia CEO, David Butt, and John Mendoza from Connetica Consulting Pty Ltd, briefed WA’s mental health sector at the Mental Health Industry Briefing and Discussion Forum, hosted by WA Primary Health Alliance (WAPHA) on Friday, 5 February. Mr Butt briefed on the Commonwealth Government’s recently announced reforms and Mr Mendoza on the Mental Health mapping project that WAPHA and the Mental Health Commission have jointly engaged Connetica to undertake. For the full article, click here.

Information about new mental health laws including inpatient treatment orders, community treatment orders and patient rights can be accessed via the Mental Health Commission's interactive eLearning module. 
To access the module, click here.

Beyond the Fragments: Preventing the Costs and Consequences of Chronic Physical and Mental Diseases, is an Australian Health Policy Collaboration paper outlining the challenges of making our health systems fit for 21st century conditions. The paper focuses on the needs of people with chronic and complex conditions that often involve concurrent physical and mental health problems. A case is made for a new policy framework which incentivises the development of integrated care and outlines a plan of action with the Primary Health Networks. Read here for more information. 

Data released by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) showed that Australians spent an estimated $8 billion on mental health related services in 2013-14. The direct financial impact on Australian business is in the vicinity of $11 billion every year, largely due to absenteeism ($4.7 billion) and reduced productivity ($6.1 billion) from unwell workers still attempting to work. Read here for more information. 

Unity Centre for Behavioral Health from Oregon are joining with four major health institutions in the US to improve the experience of emergency mental health care. Founded on the values of hospitality, hope, and recovery, Unity's centre is designed to reduce agitation and maximize comfort, from the use of reclining chairs (instead of hospital beds) to the building's calming architectural layout. Open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, the centre will offer crisis stabilization, medication, crisis counseling, family support, peer support, and a team of qualified social workers and transition-of-care. Read the full article here.

Read this article in The Conversation that discusses why workplaces need to move beyond promoting mental health awareness and start changing the way work is designed to prevent psychological harm. To read the full article, click here.

According to mental health researchers at City University London, mental health service users saw the relationships with their care coordinators as being central to their recovery and felt that care plans were largely irrelevant. Read the full article here.

WAAMH, together with HelpingMinds, last week called upon the state government to reverse the recently announced changes that will increase rents for 77 percent of public housing tenants, and further disadvantage people with mental illness, their families and carers. 
Read the media release here.

Our friends at the Aboriginal Disability Justice Campaign have worked tirelessly to end indefinite detention under mental impairment laws.
Check out their new website and sign up to their newsletter here.

Many people with mental illness are detained right now in our prisons and hospitals without a release or review date. Not only does WA’s CLMIA law fail to meet human rights standards, but indefinite detention can worsen mental health. WAAMH is coordinating a submission to a national senate inquiry on this issue. Email cmckinney@waamh.org.au to find out more and to join this campaign.

Mental Health Week is a national and annual event, and engages with around 15,000 people in WA. Our exciting schedule of events, materials and activities during Mental Health Week provides sponsors with an opportunity to promote their products, services and brand through cause-related marketing to a large portion of the WA community. To find out more about sponsoring Mental Health Week this year, click here. 

Mental Health Consultant, Jo Kirker, has launched a campaign called ‘Mental Illness – It’s Not Who I Am’ to de-stigmatise mental illness and show that many people of all ages experience it, but it is not who they are. People can take part in the campaign by sending Jo up to 7 square photos, each with its own caption. The first caption should state your experience and end with ‘but it’s not who I am’. Jo won’t state your name, but you can share the final video to your own Facebook page. See the Jo Kirker Consultancy Services Facebook Page here or email jokirker@bigpond.com for more information. 

Swell, an online recovery toolkit for people with mental distress and the people who support them, are looking for peer recovery stories. Swell is developing content for mental health workers and will have 60 life challenges in 10 domains. Each challenge includes a two-page article on what works, a conversation guide and a peer recovery story.  

Each story should be half to a full page, submitted by Monday 21 March 2016 and discuss your experience of struggling with and overcoming one of the following challenges:

• Housing: finding a suitable place to live; managing the household; dealing with landlords and neighbours; physical and emotional safety at home.
• Work: finding work; disclosing lived experience; negotiating work conditions; succeeding in the workplace.
• Income: sticking to a budget; getting out of debt; saving for the future; making money go further.

All people who submit a story will get a free login to the Swell resources and, if your story is published, you will receive a NZD $100 Amazon gift voucher and a free copy of ‘Madness Made Me’ by Mary O’Hagan. Visit www.swelltoolkit.com or email info@swelltookit.com for more information.

The workshop will address the question ‘how can outcome measurement lead to better practice’? It will use stories as a guidepost for creating conversations about the realities of embedding measurement in your organisations.

• Date - 8 April 2016
• Location - Lotteries House, Conference Room, 2 Delhi Street, West Perth
• Price - Members: $195.00 / Non-members: $225.00 / Scholarship pre-approval required: $19.50
• Register here. 

Wungen Kartup is offering a free day of respite for Aboriginal family members who care for a loved one with a mental health issue. The day includes morning tea, lunch and information about carer supports and groups.

• Date - third Wednesday of each month
• Location - Wungen Kartup DeGray House, Art & Activity Centre Mooro Drive, Claremont
• Price - free
• For more information, or to register contact Robyn Smith on Robyn.Smith4@health.wa.gov.au or 9235 2400.

WRAP is a peer-led recovery-oriented course that enables individuals to develop their own coping skills and strategies to maintain wellness over five key areas - hope, personal responsibility, education, self-advocacy and a strong support system.

• Date - Begins of 16 March, 5pm - 8pm, for 4 weeks  
• Location - Ruah City West Training Room, 67 Plaistowe Mews, West Perth
• Price - $40
• To register or for more information email wrap@ruah.com.au or phone: 9485 3939

The Social Hackathon will tackle:

• How do we bridge the gap between research and clinical implementation?
• How do we reduce the time to implement new treatments?, and;
• How do we improve the access to those treatments by clinicians and individuals living with mental illness?

Teams will have access to a diverse range of mentors including world-renowned psychiatrist Professor Norman Sartorius.

• Date- 20 to 21 May 2016
• Location - Spacecubed, Reserve Bank, 45 St Georges Terrace, Perth
• To find more information on this event, click here.

Meeting for Minds Forum 2016 is an opportunity for research institutes and the lived experience community to engage in a process of mutual enrichment. The 'Synergies' forum will involve building a case for implementing a co-design platform involving people with lived experience of mental illness and their carers in all neuroscience research.

• Date - 27 May 2016
• Location - B Shed, Victoria Quay Waterfront, Fremantle
• To find more information on this event, click here.

The Australian College of Mental Health Nurses (ACMHN) are calling for abstracts for their WA Branch Winter Symposium. The theme of the symposium is 'From the ground up: innovations in everyday mental health nursing practice'. This call for abstracts invites presenters to consider the fundamental aspects of the mental health nursing role, which is vital to the ongoing development of the profession in an ever changing practice context. Presenters will be provided an opportunity to showcase innovative models of care, projects, and practices that promote improved outcomes for mental health consumers and their families. Abstracts submission close on 18 March 2016, and more information can be found below.

• Symposium Date - 24 June 2016
• Location - Bentley Technology Park, Bentley WA
• To find more information on this event, click here.

WAAMH member, Portland Broome, is currently recruiting two senior roles with a mental health focus. Click the below links for further details:

Head of Mental Health
Manager - Dementia Services

Please take our 20 second survey and provide us with your feedback on how we can improve our eNews.
Click here to take our survey.