Deborah Booth

Deb Booth has been a registered nurse for 45 years and has practised in a variety of clinical settings during this time.

Deb has recently retired after a 20-year history of managing aged care facilities across NSW and the ACT, during which she has witnessed many diagnosed and undiagnosed mental health conditions, some of which have significantly and directly impacted the person and their families. It is the unenviable role of the Primary Health Practitioner to sort through, sometimes, a lifetime’s worth of the impact mental health has had on a person’s sense of wellbeing physically, emotionally and psychologically. The current focus on trauma-informed care in aged care brings this sharply to mind.

Deb also spent many years as a Community Nurse (one of her most favourite roles), in which she worked closely with Primary Health Practitioners and their practices to more adequately recognise and respond to acute and acute on chronic mental health conditions in the community, to implement timely and effective interventions as the need arose.

Most recently, Deb has commenced as an educator for aged and community workers, providing education and training in Diploma courses in Counselling and Mental Health to an under-resourced sector not fully across the role Primary Health plays in delivering therapeutic interventions to their clients.