Category Archives: Media

Mental Health Month 2022

Register for Mindful Habits of Mental Health

Awareness. Belonging. Connection.

Mental ill health is a growing problem in Australia – one that has been made worse by the COVID-19 pandemic. Looking after your mental health and wellbeing, and knowing how to support others, has never been more important.

Good mental health is when we can cope with the stressors of our daily lives, participate in loving relationships, contribute to our community, and work towards our goals. Everyone has mental health. And we can all benefit from looking after our own mental health and the mental health of our communities.

This World Mental Health Day – October 10 – the message is simple: “Look after your mental health, Australia.”

To find out more, and to share your own tips on how to look after your wellbeing and mental health, follow #LookAfterYourMentalHealthAustralia and #WMHD2022 on social media.

For more information see:

https://lookafteryourmentalhealthaustralia.org.au/

Download WMHD calendar via this link:

wmhd_campaign_calendar_2022_printable

 

Carers Vic – Carers Count Too

Do you think carers should have better support? Let’s get loud for carers!

With the Victorian State Election set for Saturday 26 November, now is the time to advocate for better support for carers.

Anyone who joins our call will be equipped with the tools and techniques they need to write to, or meet with, their member of the Victorian Parliament.

The more voices we have speaking up for carers, the harder it will be for our state politicians to ignore us!

We are calling on the Victorian Government to ensure carers receive the support they need. It’s time to care for the carers, because they count too.

Click on the link below to find out how to advocate for better support for carers in the Victorian State Election.

Access our advocacy tips and tools

Read the Carers Victoria Election Statement here.

Our election statement prioritises five key areas of change that are vitally needed to make carers lives better. We have developed these from your feedback, survey responses and conversations. This week we are launching our campaign to get the attention of politicians and ask them to commit to these priorities. You may see us in the media and across social media. We will be meeting with MPs and reaching out to other organisations in the carer landscape to share our messages.

Your voice will help our message to be heard, so let’s get loud for carers!

Extract from ProBono News

ProBono News

Inspiration corner

Looking for a mid-week smile? Kate Bush has had a resurgence in popularity lately thanks to the phenomenon that is Stranger Things, which features her hit song Running Up That Hill. And Brisbane’s Pub Choir have taken it to a new level with their stirring rendition, available on YouTube. It’s so good, even Kate Bush herself responded – check the comments to see what she said! (YouTube)

Click on the link below to access the newsletter:

ProBonoNews

One-person hybrid theatre and film performance

Portrait of a woman looking through tree branches

One-person hybrid theatre and film performance

Next date: Thursday, 07 July 2022 | 06:30 PM to 08:00 PM

Join artist, producer and proud neurodivergent Heidi Everett as she confronts tragedy, creativity and comedy, revealing what it’s like to be in a public psychiatric ward and searching for a way out.

Qualia/Fyre is a search for fire in one of the coldest places on earth. Inspired by the powerful creative dynamic of Heidi and John Fleming, the performance delivers an unyielding sense of humour through ‘ward-time’ artwork, illuminating the living experience of the psych system.

This is a new work of the artist’s mental health diversity performance company Qualia Theatre, which premiered to sold-out audiences at Melbourne FRINGE in 2019, receiving the Access and Inclusion award for world-leading inclusive audience and artist practices.

Auslan performance

The 8 July performance will have full Auslan interpretation available.

Content advice

Qualia/Fyre contains low-moderate level depictions of psychiatric ward realities. A PTS (post trauma stress) content advice pack is available for audience members who would like to know these scenes in advance.

When

  • Thursday, 07 July 2022 | 06:30 PM – 08:00 PM
  • Friday, 08 July 2022 | 06:30 PM – 08:00 PM
  • Saturday, 09 July 2022 | 02:00 PM – 03:30 PM

Location

Qualia/Fyre is supported by Banyule Council and Creative Victoria. It is created and performed on Wurundjeri Country.

Yarra-me Djila Theatrette @ Ivanhoe Library and Cultural Hub, 275 Upper Heidelberg Road, Ivanhoe 3079  View Map

National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) Report from Crikey.Com

Amber Schultz

ASSOCIATE EDITOR @AMBERMAYSCHULTZ

Amber covers health and social affairs for Crikey. She has been shortlisted for two Young Walkley Awards, was the 2021 Mumbrella Young Writer of the Year for her coverage of sexual violence, and in 2018 completed the Jacoby-Walkley scholarship. She holds two Master degrees and previously worked for The Age, Nine News and ABC’s Tonightly.

The agency that oversees the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) has no idea how many of the workers it pays for to provide services are unregistered.

These workers, who are either employed by a company or are freelance, can provide services ranging from landscaping to personal care, chosen by NDIS participants. They’re governed only by a “code of conduct” comprising just seven dot points around respecting privacy, preventing and responding to sexual misconduct and providing quality care.

“There are more checks and balances when buying a beer than there is on the provisions of unregistered NDIS services,” Labor Senator Tony Sheldon told a Senate committee hearing yesterday. He pointed to the responsible service of alcohol (RSA) course those working in pubs and bars have to take to serve booze, versus the lack of certification disability workers have to have.

Allowing people with disabilities to pick and choose who provides their services is a crucial part of the NDIS model around choice and control. But with a toothless sector watchdog understaffed and overburdened with complaints, unregistered providers can not just be costly — but dangerous too.

Where’s the oversight?

Acting NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commissioner Tracy Mackey told estimates there were around 4000 unregistered providers — but couldn’t provide an exact figure. So how exactly are standards enforced?

While workers with a registered provider have to undergo a screening test before being hired, unregistered providers are subject to the code of conduct with little else governing how they work. Mackey pointed to the “half a million” downloads of the code of conduct as evidence workers were paying attention.

Disability staff are some of the lowest-paid workers in Australia and many have no disability-related qualifications. There’s high turnover too, with around a quarter of staff leaving their role in a given year.

As Crikey has revealed, this has led to several instances of abuse, neglect and theft for many people with disabilities.

The fact the NDIA can’t say how many unregistered providers or workers there are is extremely worrying, estimates heard. It also has no idea how many of those unregistered workers are vaccinated.

Social Services Minister Anne Ruston also said she has no idea how many Australians with disability have died from COVID-19. She said the government “wouldn’t necessarily know” if someone has a disability.

How are dodgy providers dealt with?

Mackey said people with a disability, their families or their advocate can make a complaint about a registered or unregistered provider with the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission.

But how realistic is this? As of June 2021, the commission employed just 124 staff across the country. In the past financial year the commission received:

  • Over 1 million notifications of unauthorised use of restrictive practices, including using medication to restrain someone or locking them in a room, more than triple 2019-20 numbers
  • 417 allegations of sexual misconduct, up from 350 the previous year
  • 1179 notifications of death (unregistered providers don’t have to provide this data to the commission)
  • 2030 allegations of unlawful physical or sexual contact, up from 1671 the previous year
  • 3189 notifications of serious injury, up from 1854 the previous year
  • 5971 allegations of abuse and neglect, up from 3637 the previous year
  • 7231 complaints. More than half of those complaints were dismissed by the commission and just 2% of them were resolved through a resolution process
  • 20,090 inquiries about behaviour support

Between July and December 2021, an extra 4134 complaints were submitted to the commission.

Crikey has heard instances of commission staff walking off the job in tears due to understaffing and under-resourcing. There were just 291 investigations launched into complaints in the past year, and just 46 providers have been banned since 2018 when the commission was formed.

The commission was recently granted broader powers to grant banning orders based on how suitable an organisation is to provide services and to approve or revoke quality auditors.

Are unregistered providers the issue?

Unregistered providers are an important part of allowing people with disabilities to chose who provides them with care — especially given the care is often personal in nature. But making sure that person is qualified, suitable, vaccinated and hasn’t been banned from providing certain reports largely rests on the person with disabilities.

“We do try really hard to encourage self-managing participants to require their disability support workers to be vaccinated,” Mackey said, while NDIA CEO Martin Hoffman said it was up to the states and territories to oversee vaccination status of disability workers.

Those working with a registered NDIS provider have to undergo a worker screening check, and if they’re found to have been involved with criminal activity that could impact a person with a disability, such as online scamming or abuse, they receive an exclusion from working with registered providers.

But this doesn’t exclude them from working with an unregistered provider or within the disability sector altogether.

Carer Gateway- Carer Focused Podcast

View this email in your browse

CARER FOCUSED PODCAST

Dear Carers,

Evan from Carer Gateway is looking to launch a six-episode Carer focused podcast this year.

If you’re interested in sharing your experiences as a Carer, please send through your interest to Evan by Friday 14th January 2022 via email or phone.

Email: Evan.Wallace@merrihealth.org.au

Phone: 0402 903 871

Carers who are selected for the podcast will be compensated for their time with a $200 Prezi voucher.

Please see below for full details of the podcast.

Hi there,

This year Merri Health will be launching a six-episode carer focused podcast. The podcast will profile the experiences of carers in Victoria, tell stories that are hopeful in nature and promote the work of the Carer Gateway.

Each episode will profile at least two carers in different parts of Victoria. I’ll be producing the podcast with the support of Merri Health’s Marketing and Communications Team.

If you’re interested in the style of the podcast – I would recommend having a listen to the series re:location that I made a year ago: https://evanwallacetalks.com/category/relocation/ . A more recent podcast but in a slightly different style is Imagining Australia: https://open.spotify.com/show/4XUTOvDeWxJBcZx1rbuhNv

Over the next fortnight, I am looking to lock-in interviewees for the podcast. It’s really important that we have a diverse range of carers for the podcast who have contrasting care relationships. For example (and not limited to the following), carers supporting their: parents, young children, siblings, extended family, friends or partners.

Interviewees will be asked to reflect broadly on their experiences as a carer. I’m keen to explore personal backgrounds, interests, goals and people/organisations/groups who are important to  the interviewees. The interviews will also cover the challenges and positive aspects of being a carer.

With the focus on different communities, I’m also keen to look at the connection that carers have with the place they live. This could be why  the area is special to the interviewee,  what carers love about the place they call home (e.g beach, community, local organisations, friends, music, work, nature, cafes, pubs etc.) and what daily life looks like.

All carers who are selected for the podcast will be compensated for their time with a $200 Prezi voucher. It is not a requirement for interviewees to have been supported through the Carer Gateway. However, it is important that some carers have had this experience.

I am expecting the interviews will take an hour to complete, with some time for chats before meeting. For audio quality, all interviews will take place in-person. We would like all interviews and editing to be completed by the end of February.

Anyone who is interested in being interviewed for the podcast is invited to send me their interest by Friday 14 January. Please let me know where you live, who you care for, and your  general age bracket (e.g. teens, 40s, 60s )

I will be in contact over the coming weeks to have a chat via phone to get a bit more background from potential interviewees and to talk through what the recording process will look like.  Unfortunately, there won’t be scope to interview everyone.

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact me either via email or phone (0402 903 871).

Many thanks,

Evan

Partnership Coordinator

Carer Gateway

Mental Health Coordinating Council (MHCC)

Recovery Oriented Language Guide
Quick Reference

New mental health language guide released for Mental Health Month
The language we use and the stories we tell about mental health can carry a sense of hope and possibility or they can reinforce stereotypes and low expectations. Despite the progress we have made as a community, stigma associated with mental health still exists and can be reflected in our language. The way we talk about mental health and the things we express publicly through the media, social media, in our homes and our workplaces can make a difference. To mark Mental Health Week 2021, Mental Health Coordinating Council is releasing a new Recovery Oriented Language Guide: Quick Reference tool to help all of us find the right words.

Read more

ABC Your Mental Health 19 October 2021