Dear  

Correction email: New additions in the Advocacy and recommendations at the National Mental Health and Health Ministers meeting and workforce issues section.

Welcome to the March 2025 FCAP Newsletter

Advocacy and recommendations at the National Mental Health and Health Ministers meeting and workforce issues

Further to College becoming a signatory to the Statement of Priorities for the Health and Mental Health Ministers Meeting released by Mental Health Australia (MHA), feedback from the FCAP Committee was included in the statement, to ensure the mental health needs of children and adolescents were highlighted including the need for improved models of care to better support young people’s mental health needs.

Planning is also underway to update the FCAP workforce document of 2018 to reflect the significant increase in demand in the post Covid period and to also include a return-on-investment component. It is expected that this will serve as an advocacy piece into the future taking into consideration the population increase, the geographic distribution of where children and young people are located (e.g. newer suburbs without existing services or staff establishment) and those with special needs and priority groups. 

Advocacy for CAP workforce has come to a critical point particularly in light of the psychiatrists resignations in NSW. Our thoughts are with the NSW-based members of our faculty and hope for a positive resolution at the forthcoming arbitration starting next week on 17^th March. This has highlighted the current systems issues and inequity in specialist CAP access. While there is significant interest in our advanced training, the College's advocacy needs to focus on ensuring adequate supervision opportunities for trainees, which depends on recruiting and retaining child and adolescent psychiatrists in the public system.

Report: Building mental health and wellbeing in Australia and New Zealand through early support for infants, children and their families

The report Building Mental Health and Wellbeing in Australia and New Zealand through Early Support for Infants, Children, and Their Families, developed by the Faculty of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry committee (FCAP) and the Section of Perinatal and Infant Psychiatry Committee (SPIP), is available for dissemination and implementation. The purpose of this report is to promote the mental health of infants and young children in Australia and Aotearoa-New Zealand. This report is expected to continue to serve as a key advocacy document for child and adolescent psychiatry, particularly in shaping future models of care for infants, children, and their families.

IACAPAP Conference

The International Association for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Allied Professions (IACAPAP) has selected the College’s bid to host the 2028 IACAPAP conference in Auckland, New Zealand. Preliminary planning has started for this event, but the full scope of preparation will start following the 2026 conference from 1 – 4 July 2026 in Hamburg, Germany
https://iacapap.org/events/world-congresses.html

Child and Adolescent Psychiatry International Relations (CAPIR) Update 

Over the past year, CAPIR has made significant strides in advancing child and adolescent mental health (CAMH) training and support globally. Key initiatives included the Cambodian Online Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Introductory Training (CO-CAPIT), providing 11 online sessions to 87 participants across Cambodia. Feedback was highly positive, and a follow-up evaluation is planned.

In Ukraine, CAPIR contributed to an online conference on PTSD and mental disorders in children caused by the war, held on 21 November 2024, offering specialist presentations and a live Q&A.

The Online Pacific Health Exchange (OPHELIA) program successfully completed its 2024 Fundamentals series with over 130 attendees. This multidisciplinary program received strong feedback for building confidence in addressing CAMH issues. The Ophelia advanced workshops also continued to engage Pacific healthcare workers, with strong evaluations. The Ophelia program for 2025 will run from 26 March. CAPIR also participated in the Vietnam Psychiatry Association joint meeting (October 4-6, 2024) in Hanoi, focusing on CAMH awareness.

FCAP Conference

The FCAP 2025 conference will be held in Hobart, Tasmania from 17 to 20 September 2025. The preconference workshop this year is being hosted by the ADHD Network. The call for abstracts is open, we look forward to seeing as many of our members as possible at the conference.

Seminars/Orations

Please see below the details of two Orations both in hybrid format –14^th Winston S Rickards Oration (promoted by FCAP Victoria branch) on 14 April & 5^th Flo Levy Memorial Oration (organised by FCAP NSW Branch with UNSW and South Eastern Sydney Local Health District) on 30 April.

You are invited to the Fourteenth Winston S. Rickards Memorial Oration, details as follows: 

The Fourteenth Winston S. Rickards Memorial Oration

“The State as the Corporate Parent: Raising or Managing?
How to turn around the ‘post care’ life trajectories of Young People raised in State Care”

delivered by Paul McDonald M Social Work Dip Youth Work
CEO of Anglicare, Victoria
Founding Chair of the successful ‘Home Stretch’ campaign
Winner of the ‘Pro Bono Judges Choice Award for Influence’, Pro Bono Impact 25 Awards

Date and time: Monday, 14 April 2025 at 7.30 pm

Location: Ian Potter Auditorium, Kenneth Myer Building
30 Royal Parade, Parkville (next to Dr. Dax Kitchen)
onsite carpark

Tickets are $22.00 and deadline for payment is Monday, 31 March 2025

Live audience attendance; Zoom available (Zoom link provided with receipt from TryBooking)

“Young People transitioning out of State Care are arguably the most disadvantaged and affected of all the cohorts across our health, social care, and welfare systems. Rarely described as a single identified cohort, the young care leaver, (post care), are overrepresented in all the wrong places; homelessness, suicidal ideation, unemployment, teenage pregnancy, mental health, intergenerational care and poverty. The downstream costs to Government in responding to the care leaver has been recorded by Deloitte Access Economics as being in the billions and this just represent the years between 18-21yrs. Yet a childhood being raised in State Care doesn’t have to have such poor ‘post care’ outcomes. The oration will argue that if the State viewed their obligations, as the ‘Corporate Parent’, differently then life chances, life expectations and life trajectories for the young care leaver would change dramatically and for those of the families that they in turn will raise.”

“To seek, to strive, to find, and not to yield” - Tennyson

Please join us to commemorate the life and achievements of Professor Flo Levy on the fifth anniversary of her passing.

Presenter: Professor Maree Teesson
Distinguished Professor Maree Teesson AC is Director of the Matilda Centre and a NHMRC Leadership Fellow at the University of Sydney. Maree is Chair of Australia's Mental Health Think Tank and a member of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences Council. Maree is a Former National Mental Health Commissioner (2018-2021), a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Social Sciences, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of New South Wales. Maree was announced as a Companion of the Order of Australia in the Australia Day 2018 Honours List, awarded a Westpac/Australian Financial Review 100 Women of Influence (Innovation), and awarded an Australian Museum Eureka Prize for Outstanding Mentor of Young Researchers. Maree has made a major contribution to Australia’s health and medical research effort in the field of mental health and substance use. In particular, she is known nationally and internationally for her research on the comorbidity between mental health and substance use disorders.

Title: Mental Health and Substance use issues in children and young people.
Date and Time: Wednesday, 30 April 2025 4pm-5pm followed by refreshments
Venue: John Beveridge Lecture Theatre Level 1, C1 East at the Sydney Children’s Hospital, High Street, Randwick.

Please send your RSVP to lana.lahifi@health.nsw.gov.au by 14 April 2025 if you wish to attend in person.

Regards,

Prof Valsa Eapen
Chair, Bi-national Faculty of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Committee