The 2018 International Mental Health Conference is on next week 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.
Professor Mark Dadds, Co-Director & Principal at the Sydney Child Behaviour Research Clinic, School of Psychology joins us at the conference to discuss ‘Helping Troubled Children: Six Things You Should Know About the Origins of Mental Health Disorders’.
Professor Mark Dadds
Abstract
Improving mental health has been a national priority for several years now in Australia and many aspects of the national effort are undergoing rapid reform, improvement, and thus beginning to bear fruit. But not all! In what follows, I take a look at one of the most important but relatively neglected aspects of mental health – childhood behaviour problems. I will ask several questions that speak to improving our effort in this regard: What are the earliest and clearest signs of mental health problems? What are the best interventions for behaviour problems in children? What role does parenting play? Do children and families in need access treatments? Does Australia’s health system support evidence-based treatments for these children? Can we improve existing treatments? The answers to these questions provide a diversity of good and bad news and suggest major targets for improving the national mental health strategies over the next decade.
Biography
KEYNOTE SPEAKER Mark Dadds is a Principal Research Fellow of the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia, and Professor of Psychology at the University of Sydney Australia. He is Director of the Child Behaviour Research Clinic which develops state-of-the-art treatments for children and adolescents with behavioural and emotional problems and has developed and directed several national intervention programs for children, youth, and their families, at risk for mental health problems.
He has been National President of the Australian Association for Cognitive and Behavioural Therapy, Director of Research for the Abused Child Trust of Queensland, Professor of Parenting Research at the Institute of Psychiatry, Kings College London and a recipient of several awards including an Early Career Award from the Division of Scientific Affairs of the Australian Psychological Society, the Ian Matthew Campbell Award for Excellence in Clinical Psychology, and Distinguished Career Award of the Australian Association of Cognitive and Behavioural Therapy. He has authored 4 books and over 240 papers on child and family psychology and has given invited keynote addresses to international audiences throughout the world. He also practices as a clinical child psychologist and his treatment methods were the subject of the 2014 ABC TV documentary Kids on Speed? for which he was awarded the Inaugural APS Award for Media Engagement with Science.
For further information on the 19th International Mental Health Conference and to secure your spot please visit anzmh.asn.au/conference
