Inside this edition you'll find

• updates on the MHCC ACT Team, including our new CEO and Board members, plus new staff

• updates on program delivery for our Connecting with People training program, the ATOD-Mental Health Alliance and the Perinatal Mental Health Alliance

• ways you can get involved in free training or shaping our upcoming work.

Hello friends,

We hope you’ve had an excellent start to 2025. We can hardly believe it’s already March! Over the last two months we’ve held our AGM, launched our 2023–24 Annual Report, recruited two new staff members (with more recruitment underway), held a range of events and training (with many more coming up) and launched a new alliance!

This work has been part of our effort to re-engage with our sector after the staffing changeover last year and demonstrate our commitment to upskilling and connecting people working in the ACT community-managed mental health sector.

We’re very excited about the trajectory we are on and looking forward to what 2025 will bring.

MHCC ACT team updates

New CEO

We are excited to be welcoming Lisa Kelly as our new CEO on 31 March.

Lisa said she was deeply honoured to join MHCC ACT as CEO and to return to the mental health sector. She believes our community deserves compassionate, person-centred care, especially as we face increasing challenges around mental health and social isolation.

She is committed to strengthening partnerships, amplifying the voices of those with lived and living experience and the services that support them, and ensuring mental health care is accessible and inclusive.

New Board

At our AGM on 30 March, Dr Yvonne Luxford stepped down as our President after four years at the helm. Yvonne remains a Board Director, and we thank her for her tireless efforts over her term as President.

We are pleased to now have Leanne Heald as our President, who has been on the MHCC ACT Board since 2021. Leanne has worked in the community sector for over 20 years, supporting vulnerable people across government and not-for-profit settings. Her experience spans community development, welfare, mental health and disability, with the past six years spent in management roles.

There were several other changes to our Board membership, with our current members now:

• President: Leanne Heald
• Vice President: Prue Slaughter
• Treasurer: Anne Kirwan
• Lived Experience Director: Bianca Rosetti
• Lived Experience Carer Director: Katerina Powick
• Directors:
  • Yvonne Luxford
  • Rob Antich
  • Brenton Higgins.

We look forward to working with Leanne and the rest of the Board to achieve our goals for the community mental health sector.

New team members

In February, we welcomed two new Operations and Administration Assistants, Jess and Smera, who have jumped right in to helping us deliver our programs. That brings us up to five staff, including a casual office assistant (six once Lisa comes on Board).

We are also in the process of recruiting for a Member Engagement Specialist and hope to finalise that process in the coming weeks.

MHCC ACT program updates & events

Free training on compassionate approaches to suicide prevention

After recruiting eight members of our sector to become trainers through an EOI process, we are proud to be delivering the Connecting with People (CwP) training program to the ACT community-managed mental health sector.

Unlike traditional suicide prevention methods that focus on measuring and predicting risk, CwP is a compassion-based and evidence-informed suicide prevention framework and training approach that ensures person-centred support for those in distress.

Developed by 4 Mental Health (4MH) in the UK, CwP equips professionals and community members with the tools to engage meaningfully with people experiencing suicidal distress. It fosters collaboration and the co-production of safety plans, empowering participants to provide support that goes beyond traditional models.

We are facilitating training sessions for two modules from the CwP suite:

• Compassion at Work: Learn proven ways to embed more compassionate approaches in your workplace, leading to physical and emotional benefits for you and your peers.
• Community Suicide Awareness: Learn safe ways to respond to people in suicidal distress and potentially help to save their life.

Each module is a half-day training session, delivered by accredited trainers who are fellow members of the ACT community-managed mental health sector.

We recommend that attendees complete the Compassion at Work module before undertaking Community Suicide Awareness, as it provides the foundational information for the approach.

This professional development opportunity is free for members of the ACT community-based mental health sector. People working in primary health care in the ACT with an association with an MHCC ACT working group or community of practice are also welcome to attend.

This training is delivered with assistance from the ACT Government under the Connecting with People program.

ATOD-Mental Health Alliance

The last two months have seen a flurry of activity in our work to leverage the potential of the Alcohol, Tobacco and Other Drugs – Mental Health Alliance (ATOD-MH Alliance).

Workshop: Working at the interface of AOD and mental health

The first ATOD-MH Alliance workshop on 27 February was a great success! Over 50 representatives from across the ATOD and mental health sectors attended the workshop, helping to further the essential work of the Alliance.

Our sincere thanks to all who came and engaged in this event, and particular thanks to our Alliance partners: Alcohol Tobacco and Other Drug Association ACT (ATODA) and ACT Health’s Office for Mental Health and Wellbeing.

We will host a second workshop for the ATOD-MH Alliance, likely in September. If you have any ideas for topics, presentations or activities that would benefit the Alliance members, please let us know by emailing communications@mhccact.org.au.

Cross-sector bus tours for ACT AOD & mental health sector workers

In late January, we launched our free bus tours for ACT AOD or community mental health sector workers, on behalf of the ATOD-MH Alliance. They were so popular that all four were sold out within a few weeks! Don’t worry, though, we have already scheduled another three and are looking at more dates in the coming months.

These tours are for people working in the AOD or community mental health sector who have contact with clients with co-occurring ATOD and mental health needs. They are intended to familiarise attendees with services available to help those clients, as well as referral pathways.

Over the one-day tour, attendees visit up to six organisations around Canberra. They also receive a booklet of relevant front-line services offered by ATOD-MH Alliance members.

There are separate tours for those working in the AOD sector and those in the mental health sector.

Join the ATOD-MH Alliance

Not a member of the ATOD-MH Alliance but want to be? We still have positions available on the Alliance’s three working groups:

• Peer support, lived and living experience
• Capacity building
• Complex and co-occurring cohort.

For more information on this opportunity and the required contribution of working group representatives, please get in touch with us at communications@mhccact.org.au.

Perinatal Mental Health Alliance

On Tuesday 25 March, we will hold the inaugural meeting of our new Perinatal Mental Health Alliance. The aim of this alliance is to bring together organisations in the perinatal mental health sector, focusing on residential services, screening and data, and service system improvements to enhance the service delivery of care, support and treatment of ACT parents and their infants in the perinatal period.

Its specific objectives are to:

• connect members and service providers to enhance perinatal mental health and wellbeing outcomes for new families in the ACT
• reduce system fragmentation by improving the integration of services and delivering a comprehensive service system for perinatal mental health
• focus on Residential Services, Screening and Data, and Service System Improvements, to ensure a targeted and effective approach
• raise community awareness, reduce stigma and provide culturally safe, trauma-informed and accessible services
• foster collaboration among service providers, community members and government, ensuring sustainable reforms and holistic support for parents and infants.

Alliance members represent a wide range of organisations across the mental health, family, youth, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and women’s sectors, as well as ACT Health.

At the inaugural meeting, we anticipate robust discussion about the vision, aims, objectives, governance and operation of the Alliance, to ensure its efforts are strategically directed where they will have the most positive impact for Canberrans.

Got something you want us to include in our next update? Reply to this email to let us know about it. 

Editorial policy
Opinions expressed in articles included in this newsletter do not necessarily reflect the policy position of MHCC ACT. Information included in this newsletter is for general information purposes only and should not be seen as an endorsement of any particular service.

Our mailing address
Lvl 1, 20 Genge St, Canberra City, ACT 2601

Acknowledgement of Country
MHCC ACT acknowledges all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Traditional Custodians and Country and recognises their continuing connection to land, sea, culture and community. We pay our respects to their Elders, past and present.