Content about Health

Part One of a three part film highlighting how mental illness can effect family members who often become carers. The responsibility can be overwhelming and these films aim to spread the word that carers are not alone in their struggle, and that help is out there.

New South Wales is in a very fortunate position in 2012 as it comes to review the Mental Health Act and specifically the Mental Health Review Tribunal (MHRT) which is set up and functions under this Act, because since October 2011 there have been no less than four significant empirical studies or inquiries (including a Legislative Council inquiry) published reviewing the work of the NSW MHRT.

 Mental Health Carers ARAFMI NSW Inc – Illawarra Branch is seeking a bright, energetic person for a challenging role that will suit someone with talent and initiative who enjoys working in a small team to support carers of people living with mental illness.  Relevant qualifications and knowledge of health promotion will be highly regarded.

The Triangle of Care is a guide jointly published by The Princess Royal Trust for Carers and the National Mental Health Development Unit emphasizing the need for better local strategic involvement of carers and families in the care planning and treatment of people with mental ill-health.

Alan Fels, the newly created National Mental Health Commission, is not alien to the needs and issues facing family, friends and carers of people suffering mental illness. His daughter was diagnosed with schizoprehenia 17 years ago and he knows, first hand, the stress and burden families and carers have to deal with daily, and the long term prospects of providing on going care, as carers themselves age.

The purpose of this survey was to better understand the impact that the recognition of the role of Primary Carer in the recently passed NSW Mental Health Act 2007 has had on the treatment of carers by Mental Health Services in NSW. It also asked about the information carers would have liked to receive both before their loved one’s admission and before discharge back into the community.

The Welfare Rights Centre, is an independent community legal centre specializing in social security law and issues associated with Centrelink benefit payments etc.  The Centre services all of NSW excluding the Illawarra which has its own separate similar service.

 Essentially there are three key areas that WRC is able to provide advice on:

 Qualification determination meaning  assessment criteria and means to access Carer Payments, Carer allowance, Newstart  etc

A new booklet was launched for partners of women with puerperal psychosis, a condition much rarer than the blues or post natal depression (PND) and occurs in one woman in every 500 or so deliveries.  The rarity of the condition makes it difficult for carers to locate information to assist them. This booklet was written by a man, Craig Allat, a person with lived experience of the condition his wife faced.

 In a press release last week, the Mental Health Council of Australia (MHCA) welcomed the appointment of Alan Fels as the new Mental Health Commissioner.  

Alan Fels has been a patron of the Mental Health Council and  an a long standing advocate for mental health carers and consumers.

The new Mental Health Act introduced in 2007 for the first time explicitly recognised the role of carers in mental health care.

 Section 68: (j) the role of carers for people with a mental illness or mental disorder and their rights to be kept informed should be given effect.

 Further than this it sought to address specific long-standing issues for carers in the mental health area, particularly around the exclusion of carers from information about their loved one’s treatment by the creation of the ‘primary carer’ role.

The NSW Ombudsman is conducting an inquiry into the roles and responsibilities of the Departments of Ageing, Disability and Home Care (ADHC) and NSW Health to provide services for mental health in-patients who are not being discharged due to a reported lack of community based support and accommodation options.