The National Mental Health Commission (NMHC) has established a new ‘Leaders Fellowship’ as a step towards setting up a national workforce to improve Australia’s collective mental health.
Launching the Commission‘s ‘Australian Mental Health Leaders Fellowship’, Minister for Health, Greg Hunt said it would work towards equipping the nation’s emerging mental health leaders with the most up-to-date knowledge and skills to work in today’s mental health care environment.
Interim Chief Executive of the NMHC, Maureen Lewis said 40 people from within and outside the mental health sector will begin Australia’s first national program for emerging leaders in 2018.
“The chosen participants have backgrounds in clinical and community services, allied health, emergency services, academia and public policy,” Ms Lewis said.
“They all work in crucial areas of need including suicide prevention, child and adolescent mental health, and Indigenous, multicultural, rural and remote communities.”
Chair of the NMHC, Lucy Brogden said the fellowship was developed in collaboration with the University of Melbourne, people with, or who had experienced, mental health, and with professionals in the field.
“We called for applications for the fellowship and received more than 200 from people nationwide, of an extremely high calibre,” Mrs Brogden said.
“This is just the beginning.
“These emerging mental health leaders have immense potential to make a difference.”
She said the group of fellows would develop skills to better influence positive outcomes for mental health, whatever setting they worked in.
