Past Projects
The National Standards for Mental Health Services Quilt
Quilt
Please select a part of the quilt to view upclose.
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Making sense of research
Making Sense of Research
NSW CAG collaborated with researchers from the University of Sydney, Sydney South West Area Mental Health Service and Northern Sydney Central Coast Health to develop a program called "Making sense of research."
NSW CAG ran five workshops in 2006. Forty-five people took part and the evaluations were very positive.
The workshops aimed to:
- Increase consumers' and carers' understanding of the way research is conducted in mental health settings.
- Provide consumers and carers with a basic knowledge of the role of research in evidence-based practice.
Questions covered by the workshops included:
- What is research?
- How does research help?
- What is evidence-based practice?
- What are the reasons to take a more active interest in research?
- What are the barriers to involvement?
- How is research conducted and why?
- What factors contribute to the ongoing success of research projects?
Count me in
Count me in!
What does good mental health mean to you? -
NSW CAG ran a postcard design competition for young people on this theme.
Finalists were displayed at the XPOZED III Youth Art Exhibition
during April 2007 at Dulwich High School of Visual Art and Design.
Click here to view the designs of the finalists.
The winners were announced at a presentation at Petersham Town Hall on 25th June 2007.
The winners are:
1st prize: Caleb Ionnidis
2nd prize: Kaytlin Taylor
Minor prizes: Kaytlin Taylor;
Thea McBeath
Johnny Nolan
Matide Martin
Andrijana Stankovska
The winning design has been made into a postcard.
Drug and Alcohol
An introduction to helping people with drug and alcohol and mental health problems.
During 2007 NSW CAG worked with the Research Unit, Rozelle Hospital and Consumer Consultants from Sydney South West Area Health Service to develop and trial a workshop for consumer workers and carers in the mental health sector titled: "An introduction to helping people with drug and alcohol and mental health problems."
The project was been funded by a Nursing & Midwifery Office, NSW Health Innovation Scholarship.
We decided to collaborate on this project because of an awareness that many consumers working in Consultant roles, as well as many carers either working in health services or in their day to day lives, come into contact with people who have drug and alcohol problems and well as mental health problems quite regularly. We were all aware that many of these people, however, rarely get any training about these two issues. From our own experiences, and the experiences of others we are in contact with, we knew that consumers and carers frequently feel uncertain about how to best support someone who has both a drug and alcohol problem and mental health problem.
The project:
We decided to find some funding to develop a workshop for consumers and carers providing information about drug and alcohol and mental health problems and a chance for people to talk together and share their knowledge about what they do to support people they work with who have drug and alcohol and mental health problems.
This introductory workshop to helping people with drug and alcohol and mental health problems aimed to provide information relevant to consumer workers and carers within the mental health sector, about drug and alcohol use by people with mental health problems to:
- Assist in your day to day work of supporting others
- Understand more about substance use by people with mental health problems
- Understand some of the things that might happen for people you are working with who might have a substance use problem (that is, how are substance use problems identified, what are some of the common treatments?)
- Look at their own attitudes about drug and alcohol use, as attitudes play an important part in how we go about supporting others
During May and June 2007 we held four workshops of "An introduction to helping people with drug and alcohol and mental health problems." Two of the workshops were held specifically with consumer workers or networks, and the other two workshops were open to anyone interested, and were held at the NSW CAG office space in William St Sydney.
An evaluation of the workshop content we had developed occurred as part of these four workshops. We received lots of useful input from the participants who came along, and have developed a modified version of the workshop, based on that feedback, to share through the NSW CAG website.
The people involved:
Dr Michelle Cleary, Sydney South West Area Mental Health Service
Dr Glenn Hunt, Sydney South West Area Mental Health Service
Dr Gillian Malins, NSW Consumer Advisory Group - Mental Health Inc.
Dr Nandi Siegfried, Senior Specialist, South African Cochrane Centre, Medical Research Council
Sandy Matheson, Sydney South West Area Mental Health Service
Phil Escott, Sydney South West Area Mental Health Service