The event was hosted at the SA office of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners by MHPN Chair Mr John McGrath AM. Guests heard from prominent consumer advocate, Janne McMahon OAM, perinatal and infant psychiatrist Dr Anne Sved Williams AM, MHPN Broome Network Coordinator Sarah Farrell, and Minister Mark Butler.
MHPN is a unique national mental health initiative funded by the Department of Health and Ageing until June 2014. It has been established to improve care for mental health consumers by promoting collaboration across clinical disciplines.
MHPN has created a national platform of over 450 interdisciplinary networks across communities in metropolitan, regional, rural and remote Australia. These networks are designed to promote collaborative practice through increased knowledge of local service providers and improving referral pathways.
More than 40 percent of these voluntary networks are located in remote, rural and regional settings.
MHPN also hosts a series of online professional development webinars featuring experts across a range of mental health topics. Over 2,500 people have participated in webinars and 21,000 clinicians have downloaded podcasts in the past 12 months.
A strength of MHPN is its partnerships with the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP), the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists (RANZCP), the Australian Psychological Society (APS), the Australian College of Mental Health Nurses (ACMHN) and other organisations including Occupational Therapy Australia, the Australian Association of Social Workers, headspace and Beyond Blue.
