Ms Sandra Eyre, Director, Strategy, Planning and Partnerships Unit at Queensland Health joins us this November at the 2016 Rural and Remote Mental Health Symposium and will chair a panel on the topic of Tackling Regional Adversity Through Integrated Care - How we Established a Suicide Prevention and Resilience Building Program Across 9 Rural and Regional Locations in Queensland to Assist People and Communities Affected by Adversity.
Ms Sandra Eyre
Panel members:
Mr Ben Norris, Manager, Rural and Statewide Strategy, Planning and Partnerships Team, Queensland Health
Dr Rebecca Soole, Principal Policy Officer, Clinical Governance Team, Queensland Health
Ms Anjuli Dudley, Senior Policy Officer, Ru-ral and Statewide Strategy, Planning and Part-nerships Team, Queensland Health
Ms Natasha Doherty, Director, Deloitte's Access Economics
Ms Louise Scanlan, Regional Adversity Integrated Care Clinician, Townsville Hospital and Health Services
Ms Christine McDougall, Service Director, Mental Health Alcohol and Other Drug Services, South West Hospital and Health Service
Panel Abstract:
In November 2016, the Queensland Minister for Health announced $3.5M of recurrent funding for a program aimed at suicide prevention and resilience building for people impacted by adversity from droughts, natural disasters or other community crises in rural and regional Queensland. The 'Tackling Regional Adversity through Integrated Care - TRAIC' Program is based around senior clinicians, known as Regional Adveristy Integrated Care Clincians (RAICCs) in 9 Hospital and Health Services throughout rural and regional Queensland. The main function of the RAICCs is to;
1. Integrate clinical care and community support for people at risk of suicide or other mental health conditions as a result of adversity from drought, disaster or community crises.
2. Train frontline workers in health and other agencies to better identify people at risk and refer them to appropriate services
3.Improve mental health literacy of local communities so as to foster help seeking behaviour
4.Collaborate with other local agencies and services to improve referral pathways and develop resources.
In addition to these services the TRAIC Program offers a $600,000 per annum small grants program aimed at building resilience, fostering recovery and improving help seeking behaviour.
The Panel discussion will involve presentations from the TRAIC Project team around the development of the concept, Deloitte's on developing the program logic and evaluation framework and the clinicians working on the frontline about the challenges they face and the strategies they have developed to address them.
The 2016 Rural and Remote Mental Health Symposium will be held at Mantra on Salt Beach, Kingscliff, NSW from 3 – 4 November 2016. For more information and to secure your spot at this important event please visit the symposium website.
