Category: The MHS Conference

Victorian Cultural Portfolio Holder Program at TheMHS 2018

The theme for this year’s conference was ‘Hear the whisper, not the roar: Reform, reflect and review’.

Kimberley Wriedt and Shehani De Silva from VTMH gave a 20 minute presentation titled ‘Responding to diversity: Supporting champions to drive change in a changing mental health landscape‘, which focused on the value of the role of cultural portfolio holders, and ways to sustain their momentum, particularly given current changes facing the model of service delivery in the community managed mental health services sector.

The presentation discussed recent adaptations to the Victorian Cultural Portfolio Holder program, including a variety of new initiatives to support cultural portfolio holders to build their own capacity, and that of their colleagues, in the area of culturally responsive practice.

The TheMHS Conference is an annual even hosted by the TheMHS Learning Network, an international learning network for improving mental health services in Australia and New Zealand. 

Doing Diversity Work: Victorian Cultural Portfolio Holders at TheMHS

The Mental Health Services Conference, or TheMHS as it is better known, is an international event held in various parts of Australia or New Zealand, drawing participants from broad geographic origins. Consumers, carers, their consultant representatives, and a diversity of service providers come together to share innovation and progress in the field of mental health.

ABOVE: Harvey Tuck, Shehani De Silva, Sue Drummond, Kimberley Wriedt, VTMH.

The Mental Health Services Conference, or TheMHS as it is better known, is an international event held in various parts of Australia or New Zealand, drawing participants from broad geographic origins. Consumers, carers, their consultant representatives, and a diversity of service providers come together to share innovation and progress in the field of mental health.

Jan Kilicaslan, Brigid Ryan and Emma Bohmer, from St Vincent’s Mental Health Service, and Harvey Tuck, VTMH’s  partnership consultant to St Vincent’s, presented “Diversity responsiveness and the cultural portfolio holder role in improving multicultural consumer experiences of mental health services”. They discussed the work of CPHs within the service, how CPH representatives are embedded across various mental health teams, and the changes that the CPHs have introduced that are improving consumer experiences of the service.