About
24
Publications
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Introduction
I'm a population-health Occupational Therapist passionate about occupational outcomes with a key interest in people with mental health challenges & their families. I support system change for better outcomes for parents with mental ill health, their children & families as a FaPMI coordinator at Eastern Health.
I research in implementation & sustainability of family focused practice & work globally in development supporting mental health work & research in low-and-middle-income countries.
Current institution
Current position
- FaPMI (Families where a parent has a mental illness) Coordinator
Additional affiliations
October 2020 - May 2023
March 2017 - May 2017
January 2009 - present
Education
October 2016 - November 2020
January 2010 - December 2013
Tabor College, Vic, Australia
Field of study
- theology and development
January 1986 - December 1989
Publications
Publications (24)
Background
Sexual assault is a pervasive social issue worldwide, with significant harmful impacts on survivors’ mental health and well-being. Sexual assault services that provide specialist crisis and therapeutic programs are contending with long waiting lists. Brief interventions are emerging as a potential strategy to provide timely care, but it...
To elicit compassion and communicate urgency to policy makers and governments, researchers and program developers have promoted a narrative of vulnerability and risk to frame the experience of families when parents have been diagnosed with mental illness. Developed within a western medicalised socio-cultural context, this frame has provided a focus...
Research conducted over the past 30 years has developed an extensive body of knowledge on families where parents experience mental ill health and/or substance (mis)use, and interventions that are effective in improving their outcomes. A more recent focus has also explored the importance and nuance of implementation. This perspective article reflect...
Tis scoping review aimed to identify potential factors from across eight disciplines' approaches to complexity that could be positively applied to supporting services users to navigate health and social care. Te illustrative example of families where a parent has mental health challenges is used as those families often have a wide range of complex...
Background
Traditional models of evidence-based practice assume knowledge is developed in research settings before being installed in practice settings. The role practice settings can play in enhancing effectiveness and enabling sustainability is not therefore acknowledged. Developing interventions in-situ alongside developing their evidence base,...
This article reports a strengths-based intervention to support parents with mental illness and their children in adult mental health settings: “Let’s Talk About Children” (LTC) intervention. A qualitative methodology was adopted with parent participants receiving LTC in adult mental health and family services. The benefits for parents receiving LTC...
Background
Translating evidence-based practice to routine care is known to take significant time and effort. While many evidenced-based family-focused practices have been developed and piloted in the last 30 years, there is little evidence of sustained practice in Adult Mental Health Services. Moreover, many barriers have been identified at both th...
This thesis investigates the sustainability of a family-focused practice, namely Let’s Talk about Children, in Adult Mental Health Services (AMHS), in Victoria, Australia. Mental illness can disrupt family relationships, and parent and child wellbeing. Many people who access AMHS are parents and despite government policy embedding family-focused pr...
Mental health is central to building resilient communities and realising progress against the Sustainable Development Goals. Effective promotion of mental health and well-being globally strengthens progress in sustainability, equality, and resilience. As well as this, the exclusion experienced by people as a result of psychosocial disability makes...
Background:
While effective interventions have been developed to support families where a parent has a mental illness in Adult Mental Health Services, embedding and sustaining them is challenging resulting in families not having access to support. This study developed an explanatory model of influencers that had enabled sustainability of the Let's...
Sustainability is a desired outcome of implementation. Understanding how organizations support new practices after implementation is important for sustainability. Let’s Talk about Children (hereby referred to as ‘Let’s Talk’), a family‐focused intervention with parents with a mental illness, improves family, parent, and child outcomes. Little is un...
Family‐focused interventions can improve outcomes for families where a parent has a mental illness. One such intervention, Let’s Talk about Children (Let’s Talk), is a series of parent–practitioner conversations in adult mental health with demonstrated improved outcomes for child, parent, and family well‐being. This study used a questionnaire to un...
Introduction:
Different stakeholder's perspectives are needed to understand challenges and opportunities in implementing and sustaining evidence-based practices (EBP) in real-world settings.
Aim/ question:
To identify leadership perspectives on key elements influencing the process of implementation of Let's Talk about Children (Let's Talk), a fa...
The issues that confront families when a parent experiences mental illness are complex. This often means that multiple service systems must be engaged to meet families’ needs, including those related to intergenerational experiences of mental health and illness. A multisystem approach to public mental health care is widely recommended as a form of...
Mental health disorders are common in low and middle-income countries (LMICs), creating vulnerability to adverse outcomes. Despite this, there is a gap in understanding the perspectives of people with psychosocial disability (PPSD). A mental health project from Afghanistan collected lived experience narratives through semi-structured interviews wit...
Purpose: This study aimed to investigate the experiences of people living with a psychosocial disability in rural India and Nepal, and to highlight key barriers and enablers for inclusion.Method: Participatory action research approaches and Photovoice methodology were employed to investigate the lived experience of 32 participants in rural India an...
Purpose: This study aimed to investigate the experiences of people living with a psychosocial disability in rural India and Nepal, and to highlight key barriers and enablers for inclusion.Method: Participatory action research approaches and Photovoice methodology were employed to investigate the lived experience of 32 participants in rural India an...
TEAR Australia, together with three of its partners, have recently brought together a multi-phase research project which explores the place of mental health in community development, reflects upon current approaches and challenges, and creates a platform for the lived experience of mental illness to be heard. The research findings have challenged a...
Parenting with mental illness is not uncommon and is often associated with a range of challenges for parents, children, and the family unit. Family-focussed practice involves the provision of services to the wider family system, including children. While family-focussed practice is important to consumers and their families, adult mental health prac...
Background/aim:
Current policy frameworks call for the participation of consumers and carers in all levels of mental health service delivery in Australia. Such inclusion leads to better outcomes for all, however, it is recognised that carers have needs and occupations beyond their carer role. The aim of this article is to describe an innovative ca...
A collaborative approach to care of parents with a mental illness is essential to address the needs of the whole family. However, a number of constraints within adult mental health and child-focused services prevent a unified approach to the care of families where a parent has a mental illness (FaPMI). This paper reports on a cross-sector workforce...
This article outlines the development of practice standards for the adult mental health workforce for addressing the needs of families where a parent has a mental illness (FaPMI). The practice standards recommended here were formulated using a modified cooperative inquiry process with a group of senior clinical leaders in adult mental health servic...
Issue addressed: Reducing the prejudice towards mental illness in a primary school setting and creating a supportive environment for families where a parent has a mental illness. Methods: Teacher workshops and classroom sessions for grades 5 and 6 children on mental illness. Results: Significant increase in teachers' confidence to support a child w...
