This webinar will consider workforce perspectives on current and upcoming reforms in Victoria and address practical themes by showcasing the views of frontline workers.

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Speakers

Andrew Morgan is a Registered Nurse in Mental Health with over 30 years of experience working in mental health care in the public sector in Victoria. His clinical experience is in acute mental health in inpatient, community and emergency department settings. For the last 10 years he has predominately worked as a senior mental health nurse in an emergency department in Victoria.

He is an elected official of the Australian Nurse and Midwifery Federation (Victoria Branch) and also a member of the Australian College of Mental Health Nurses.

Anita Conlon leads the Peer Cadet Program and is the Peer Projects Advisor at Wellways. She has delivered major peer-led projects, quality and co-production systems work, and community education programs, including a community education stigma reduction project that delivered 360 peer-led workshops over a year to grassroots community groups.

Anita is passionate about innovative and collaborative approaches to bolstering the peer workforce in supportive and structured environments. 

Dr Astha Tomar is Chair of the Victorian Branch Committee at the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists (RANZCP), Head of Youth Mental Health Services at Peninsula Health, and a consultant psychiatrist at Melbourne Clinic.

Through her involvement and leadership in the RANZCP's Victorian Branch Committee, Astha has developed various policy statements and submissions, including responses to support the wellbeing of health care workers across COVID-19, SafeScript, the Royal Commission into Victoria’s Mental Health System and the Productivity Commission Report on Mental Health.

George Skoufis is a Senior Lived Experience Worker and mental health advocate. Over the past 12 years, George has worked as a peer support worker for Flourish Australia, worked in the Post-Discharge Support Program at Alfred Health and is the founder of InspiredRecovery.org, where he is the Project Lead for the Lived Experience Leadership Pathways Packages and a Peer Support Worker in the Intensive Community Packages Program. He has also been a member of the Model of Care Committee for St Vincent’s Community Mental Health, one the Coordinators of the Remaining Connected project, and a Lived Experience consultant to HACSU on the recent EBA negotiations.

Gillian Clark is a social worker with 23 years’ experience in the AOD and mental health sectors.  She worked for 11 years in a regional Area Mental Health Service as part of the Victorian Dual Diagnosis Initiative (VDDI) and is now a project worker with VAADA on the Mental Health Royal Commission.

Gillian’s clinical experience spans AOD supported accommodation, AOD forensic counselling, family violence counselling for women and children, working with individuals who have complex co-occurring needs, and as an AOD clinician in the UK. Gillian has cemented her clinical skills through completion of a Graduate Diploma in Community Mental Health and Masters in Addictive Behaviours.

Dr Ines Rio is Chair of North Western Melbourne PHN and a general practitioner with postgraduate qualifications in public health, obstetrics, venereology and governance. Alongside her clinical roles in a community health centre and hospital, she has been involved in health care system reform and leadership for over two decades. She is also on the Federal Government’s TGA Advisory Group on Vaccines and several committees related to COVID.

Jackie Ashmore is ermha365’s Chief Operations Officer for Mental Health, Forensic and Wellbeing Services. She has worked as General Manager of Forensic Intervention Services at Corrections Victoria, where she led clinical offence specific programs for high-risk offenders, and also worked as nurse unit manager with Forensicare.

Jackie is a registered nurse with two clinical Masters (Health Services Management and Mental Health Nursing), and has extensive clinical mental health expertise working with complex and challenging client presentations.

About this series

Mental Health Victoria's Thought Leaders is a series of free monthly webinars taking a deep dive into the key issues and hot topics affecting mental health.

More information

If you have any queries, please contact us at mhvic@mhvic.org.au