ACMHN's 40th International Mental Health Nursing Conference

 

Honouring the past, shaping the future

 

6 - 9 October 2014

Sofitel Melbourne on Collins, Melbourne

 

The 40th International Mental Health Nursing Conference will be held in Melbourne Australia at the Sofitel Melbourne, from the 7th – 9th October 2014, with a workshop on the 6th.

 

2014 was the year to celebrate the Australian College of Mental Health Nursing’s 40th International Mental Health Nursing Conference!  During our 40th year celebrations, the College believed it was important to take time to reflect on how the past has shaped the profession into the 21st Century. Since the first Conference in 1974, the profession of mental health nursing has participated in ongoing mental health reform, resulting in significant policy and practice change. This has included changes to the educational preparation of nurses; new models of care and practice domains for nurses; recovery focused care and increased advocacy for consumers and carers; and, the need to step outside of the “health silo” and work collaboratively with new stakeholder groups to drive further mental health reform.

 

 

Keynote Speakers

 

Scott Stephens

Community, Autonomy, Immunity: can mental health care survive the 'empire of the body'?

Scott Stephens is the Editor of the ABC’s Religion and Ethics website and specialist commentator for ABC television, radio and online.

 

Len Bowers

Safewards - the active ingredients

Professor Len Bowers is a qualified psychiatric nurse with clinical and managerial experience in acute inpatient and community care.

 

Professor Diana Clarke

Mental health emergencies: matching the system to the needs

Associate Professor and Associate Dean, Research Director, Manitoba Centre for Nursing and Health Research, University of Manitoba Faculty of Nursing, Winnipeg, Canada.

 

Dr Richard Lakeman

Reconciling the past, celebrating achievements, creating a positive future

Richard is a mental health nurse, presently working in the Acute Care Team based in the emergency department in Cairns. He is a senior lecturer at Southern Cross University and the University of Tasmania, and a fellow of the ACMHN.

 

Dr Phillipa Martyr

Examining the past with courage and objectivity

Dr Philippa Martyr is an historian of health and medicine. She taught at the Tasmanian School of Nursing, University of Tasmania, for six years before moving to the UK to become a Visiting Scholar at Oxford Brookes University, and then a Visiting Research Fellow at the Wellcome Unit for the History of Medicine, Norwich.

 

David Castle

The role of mental health nurses in helping people manage their own wellness

David is Chair of Psychiatry at St Vincent’s Health and The University of Melbourne. He has broad clinical and research interests, encompassing schizophrenia and related disorders, bipolar disorder, cannabis abuse, OCD spectrum disorders and disorders of body image.

 

Margaret Doherty

Relationships, recovery and power dynamics in working well with families

Margaret Doherty is the convenor of Mental Health Matters 2, a community action and advocacy group aimed at mental health reform.

 

 

 

Workshops

 

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy

Presented by Dr Russ Harris

 

Safewards

Presented by Len Bowers

 

 

 

Program

Click here to download a copy of the program

 

 

 

Abstracts

Click here to view the abstracts

 

 

 

Highlights

 

Worthy Mental Health Nurse of the Year and Mental Health Nurse Achievement Award recipients: