Welcome to WAAMH - Western Australian Association for Mental Health

Documents:
Mental health recovery is within your reach	[Free evening lecture]
Governance in Recovery	[Focused services]
Developing and leading recovery	[Focused practice in mental health services]

WA's peak mental health, drug and alcohol and community service organisations jointly released the report 'Justice and Community Safety in WA: Efficient Investment in Effective Outcomes' on Friday 1st March.

Western Australians are spending much more than ever before of prisons and corrective services, and yet our jails are overcrowded and re-offending rates continue to rise. Alarmingly high rates of existing and unresolved mental health problems in our prison population, prison mental health programs are chronically under-resourced and under-staffed, so that treatment is often only available for those at crisis point ... and few ex-prisoners are likely to receive any medical or mental health follow up once they have been released. The push for further mandatory detention and minimum sentencing laws and the whole 'tough on crime' bidding war is another step in the wrong direction - there is no evidence that this approach does anything to reduce crime or recidivism.

The report outlines a justice reinvestment model which would gradually reduce the investment in prisons and increase resources for effective, evidence-based prevention and early intervention strategies.

Documents:
Justice and community safety report	[WAAMH, WANADA, WACOSS]

Meet our Staff

Kay Masters Workforce Development and Training Manager

As Workforce Development and Training Manager, Kay looks forward to working with WAAMH's member agencies to address their workforce development and training needs.

Kay comes from a background in community services. Her most recent position was as Quality Partner at CommunityWest. Prior to that Kay worked as a Training and Workforce Development Consultant where she developed and delivered training packages to support staff, coordinators and managers working in HACC funded agencies.

Kay has strong links to the disability sector and is currently a board member of Inclusion WA.
Suicide, Self harm and Mental Health Awareness and Support Australia Facebook Page launched

This new page has been created for everyone - Survivors, Friends, Family & Support Groups. These things ARE happening - Self harm, Suicide and Mental Health are REAL. They cannot be ignored.

Some people suffer in silence, because the worlds ignorance and the 'Taboo tag' that is still attached to these issues. This is not how it has to be.

The page is a place where people can share useful forums, links, photos, videos and experience to help each other along the journey of life and share knowledge.

To access the page, click HERE.
Meet the Board

Pamela Gardner - Board Member

BOICO Esperance

Pam is a retired teacher of teenagers with intellectual disabilities and has cared for family members with mental illness for more than 30 years. Pam has been chair of Bay of Isles Community Outreach Inc for seven years and has been closely involved in developing support services in the south-east goldfields including Esperance, Ravensthorpe, Hopetoun and Norseman. She is a member of the Western Australian Association of Mental Health Board and has extensive experience in planning strategies, managing businesses, developing projects and improving work force capacity. While Pam runs a small training business most of her work is voluntary, particularly facilitating education for carers.

See other Board Members
The Act-Belong-Commit Campaign has some exciting new online developments that they'd like to share with you!
New Self-Assessment Online Tool!

Jump online and check out the new Self-Assessment tool to rate your Act-Belong Commit activity levels!

You can access it from the link on their homepage http://www.actbelongcommit.org.au/electronicassessmentintro.php.

Encourage your friends, family, colleagues, community partners and the general public to go on and rate their involvement in mentally healthy activities.

Please note: this tool is not designed to evaluate your state of mental health - it's simply designed to help you rate your involvement in mentally healthy activities. Act-Belong-Commit hope it inspires you to act, belong and commit to improve your mental health and wellbeing.

Youtube Channel

Following on from their TV adverts, Act-Belong-Commit now has a Youtube channel! Please help spread the word and gain more views of the complete range of TV adverts by informing your partners and local community at http://www.youtube.com/user/ActBelongCommit
Meet the Board

Joe Calleja - Board Member

Richmond Fellowship of WA

Joe Calleja has been the Chief Executive Officer of the Richmond Fellowship of Western Australia since July 2005 and has thirty years experience working with the community.

He was previously Director for Court Support Services with the Department of Justice in Western Australia, Principal Social Worker of the Department for Community Services and Executive Manager of Kin Way Family Relationship Services. Joe is a past President of WAAMH.

He has also been a National Vice President of the Australian Association of Social Workers, board member of WACOSS and chair of the Centrelink Consultative Committee on Mental Health in WA. He is currently on the boards of Community Employers WA, the Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences Advisory Board (UWA), Institute of Public Administration Australia WA and was recently appointed to the Mental Health Advisory Council in WA. He was previously a non-government representative on the Project Steering Committee for the development of the WA Mental Health Strategic Plan 2010 – 2020.

He was a high school teacher for five years before retraining as a Social Worker at the University of WA in 1980.

See other Board Members
Carers WA has sponsored a pioneering documentary for Australian teachers and students.

Starting a Conversation was produced by two Young Carers in response to a lack of understanding they experienced during their school years. Over the course of this production, they met with and heard the personal experiences of Young Carers from ages 11 to 20. Their hope is to educate teachers, and to empower other Young Carers who haven't yet been identified or acknowledged for the roles they fulfil every day.

The documentary has been created to encourage dialogue and open-mindedness in classrooms across the country.

Young Carers are everywhere.
They're in every classroom in every school,
you just might not know it.

To view the video, follow this link.
Our Grants page gives details of Grants and Scholarships available for people with mental health issues and their carers. Access the page at any time by clicking on the Grants link at the top of this page.

Keep an eye on the Dates to Remember section on the right of this page for reminders of upcoming application closing dates.