The 2018 International Mental Health Conference is almost upon us again, this year the conference will be held over the 8th – 10th August at the RACV Royal Pines on the Gold Coast, Queensland.

This annual conference is now in its 19th year and continues to be the pinnacle event in the mental health industry. The Conference provides an invaluable opportunity to build relationships and to share knowledge, research and latest policies.

Dr Carmel Nelson, Clinical Director at the Institute of Urban Indigenous Health (IUIH) joins us at the conference to discuss ‘Building an Integrated Health Ecosystem for Healthy, Strong and Vibrant Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children, Families and Communities’.

Abstract

This presentation tells the story of The Institute for Urban Indigenous Health (IUIH), a regional Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Community Controlled Health organisation established in 2009 by its four founding member organisations to provide a unified response to the needs of an under-served but rapidly growing urban Indigenous population in the South East Queensland region.

In contrast to the fact that over 25% of the total disease burden amongst Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples can be attributed to adverse mental health and well-being, the vision articulated by IUIH is for healthy, strong and vibrant Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children, families and communities.

Embracing a holistic concept of health, which inextricably links mental and physical health within a whole-of-life concept of social and emotional wellbeing, the IUIH health “ecosystem” provides a community-led, system-wide approach to addressing direct health service access and response, at the same time as concentrating the focus on the underlying determinants of health and well-being.

Biography

KEYNOTE SPEAKER Carmel Nelson was born and raised in Melbourne, where she completed a medical degree before moving to Northern Australia to live and work as a general practitioner for the next 20 years in Aboriginal communities in the Top End of the Northern Territory and the Kimberley region of Western Australia. Carmel has had the opportunity to work as Medical Director with the Kimberley Aboriginal Medical Services Council and as Vice President of the Australian College of Rural and Remote Medicine, and in 2011, joined the newly established Institute for Urban Indigenous Health in South East Queensland where she now works as Director of Clinical Quality and Innovation.

For further information on the 19th International Mental Health Conference and to secure your spot please visit anzmh.asn.au/conference