News from the CEO: 2022
CEO Update from Mental Health Australia: Season’s Greetings and reflections
16 December 2022
In the final CEO blog for the year, before we close the office and take some well-deserved annual leave it’s a good time to reflect on our work this year.
Read moreCEO Update from Mental Health Australia: It’s that time of the year
9 December 2022
No, this week’s blog is not about Christmas, that’s coming soon. It is the time of the year that the Treasurer calls for Pre-Budget Submissions so many organisations are developing proposals to inform government on where they should be targeting their investments in next year’s Federal Budget. Not quite as exciting as the festive season but a window of opportunity not to be missed.
Read moreCEO Update from Mental Health Australia: NDIS – Going forward not backwards
2 December 2022
Mental Health Australia has had a consistent advocacy role in the development of the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) since its inception in 2013, leading the call for the inclusion of people with psychosocial disability, who were initially excluded from the scheme.
Read moreCEO Update from Mental Health Australia: The risks of ‘jumping in’
25 November 2022
As I write my last message this week I am thinking about our sector and what I want to say in farewell. And it's about engaging even when there is risk. Have you jumped out of a plane, or taken on bungee jumping? Or perhaps extreme surfing or bushwalking? People prepare, they stand on the edge, take a deep breath - and then mostly they close their eyes and jump. I couldn’t do it! I would not be able to get over my own fear to step into the risk.
Read moreCEO Update from Mental Health Australia: Children and Prisons
18 November 2022
This week we cannot have avoided being made aware of the treatment of primary school aged child ‘prisoners’ in a Perth justice centre. This was a picture of trauma, disadvantage, distress and injustice. And it was not the first time. At the United Nations Human Rights Council Universal Period Review (a three year cycle of review) of Australia’s compliance with international human rights charters to which we are signatory, 29 of 47 countries made a recommendation relating to the age of criminal responsibility as demonstrated in the recommendation by the Republic of Maldova: “[That Australia] adjust the national child justice system in line with the Convention on the Rights of the Child, in particular raise the minimum age of criminal responsibility from 10 to 14 years of age”.
Read moreCEO Update from Mental Health Australia: It’s always a choice – choose compassion
11 November 2022
One of the very best things that we have back (post-Covid) is chats at work with colleagues in the kitchen. These are the best conversations (and I will very much miss them when I leave Mental Health Australia in a couple of weeks). Today three of us were talking about the terrible impact on us and/or individuals in our families of bullying. As older women we were recalling incidents of face to face bullying witnessed or experienced at school before the cyber era and we noted how much more toxic the online environment seems to be for young people these days.
Read moreCEO Update from Mental Health Australia: Happiness and/or a meaningful life?
4 November 2022
A few years ago, I went to Finland on a holiday. My late husband who had a fascination with Nordic countries selected Finland for us at that time and later he went to Iceland in a journey he had been wishing for his whole life. He wrote on a postcard back to our daughters that he had been meeting “warm wonderful people”
Read moreUpdate from Mental Health Australia: Tiny tea-light candles
14 October 2022
I have been reading about the Diwali festival which has been a feature in our communities over the past week. With light, candles and even fireworks this celebration represents the triumph of light over darkness, good over evil and wisdom over ignorance.
Read moreUpdate from Mental Health Australia: In respect for carers
14 October 2022
This week we acknowledge the unique and invaluable contributions of carers, support people, and their family members and loved ones
Read moreCEO Update from Mental Health Australia: The Hardest...
14 October 2022
I have been thinking about why writing today here in this weekly message about my decision to leave Mental Health Australia has been extra hard. It’s because this weekly message has become such an important connection between us.
Read moreCEO Update from Mental Health Australia: What the taxi driver said
7 October 2022
“I am so sick of hearing about mental health” he said after I answered his question about where I work. He had trouble articulating why he was sick of hearing about it. It seemed to be a sense that the radio + news + TV + life in general was saturated with rhetoric and it was overwhelming. For my taxi driver its mental health YEAR not just mental health week and month 2022 with World Mental Health Day on Monday 10th! It’s all too much for him.
Read moreCEO Update from Mental Health Australia: Launching Our World Mental Health Day Campaign
23 September 2022
On Wednesday we proudly launched Walk the Talk. The video is a Mental Health Australia mini-documentary production, created in collaboration with Six O’Clock Advisory, that examines the state of mental health in Australia, including the people, policies and organisations that support Australians experiencing mental ill health every day
Read moreCEO Update from Mental Health Australia: Walk the Talk
23 September 2022
It’s a big week for an extremely committed Geelong Cats footy club fan like me. We are heading into another AFL Grand Final and I watched the last one from Canberra two years ago during the pandemic restrictions. We have a chance to do one better this time. Go CATS!
Read moreCEO Update from Mental Health Australia: Public and private grief
16 September 2022
Do you remember that episode of the US TV fictional drama the “West Wing” when one of the well-known public characters, Josh is shot and in the immediately-held press conference a brief update on his well-being is provided to a packed press gallery.
Read moreCEO Update from Mental Health Australia: Wear it Purple
26 August 2022
Today I’m wearing my best purple attire for Wear It Purple Day. An international day to raise awareness of the experiences of LGBTIQA+ young people, to demonstrate allyship, remind them there is hope and acceptance, and they have every right to be proud of who they are and who they are becoming.
Read moreCEO Update from Mental Health Australia: SOLD!
19 August 2022
This week I had the privilege of participating in Minister Bill Shorten’s engagement with leaders from the disability sector in preparation for the Job Skills Summit and I am sold!
Read moreCEO Update from Mental Health Australia: A national tragedy
12 August 2022
The disproportionate rate of suicide amongst our veteran community must not continue, and is a particular responsibility of the Australian Government to prevent. The Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide is the opportunity to bring together reforms recommended by previous inquiries to create systemic change, and fundamentally improve the wellbeing of Defence personnel and veterans now and into the future.
Read moreCEO Update from Mental Health Australia: Major challenges – new and old – are before us
29 July 2022
This week in Canberra the 47th Parliament kicked off with appropriate ceremony and theatre. Amongst the first speeches made by the newly elected members was His Excellency the Governor General’s speech as he opened the proceedings.
Read moreCEO Update from Mental Health Australia: A National Study of Mental Health and Wellbeing
22 July 2022
The Australian Bureau of Statistics’ national study of mental health and wellbeing released today, highlights the prevalence of mental ill-health and distress, and gives us further evidence of the urgent need for system reform.
Read moreCEO Update from Mental Health Australia: That new word - "wellbeing"
15 July 2022
I am probably biased, but I think the mental health sector could successfully compete for an award for the most amount of jargon! For example, we don’t all agree on what “community mental health” really means. Or, we talk about consumers, patients, clients, participants and those with lived experience.
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