Keynote and invited speakers
Keynote speakers: Patricia Deegan, Senator Lyn Allison and Dr John Read
Invited speakers: Please scroll down.
Patricia Deegan Day 1 Keynote speaker
Pat is a psychiatric survivor, having first been diagnosed with schizophrenia as a teenager. She received her doctorate in clinical psychology from Duquesne University in 1984.
Pat is an activist in the consumer/survivor/ex-patient movement and a co-founder of the National Empowerment Center Inc., which was a federally funded, national technical assistance center run by consumer/survivors. Between 1992 and September of 2001 she held the position of Director of Training at the National Empowerment Center, Inc.(USA).
Pat will deliver the Keynote Address on Day One of the Conference and will also present a new film that has received a lot of attention in the USA: Inside Outside: Building a Meaningful Life After the Hospital. It depicts the lives of 8 people who were considered incurably mentally ill and shows their journey of self-directed recovery. Pat will also be involved in other activities such as workshops at the Conference. These will be confirmed shortly.
Senator Lyn Allison, Senator for Victoria Day 2 Keynote speaker
Senator Lyn Allison is the Leader of the Australian Democrats. She is the party's national spokesperson on:
- Health and Ageing
- Education (excluding Higher Education)
- Resources, Energy and Infrastructure
- Treasury and Commonwealth - State Relations.
Elected to the Federal Parliament in 1996, Senator Allison was re-elected in 2001 and from 2002 to 2004 she served as Deputy Leader and Party Whip. Senator Allison has been an active Senate participant and outspoken campaigner on health, education, environment and nuclear issues. She has chaired the powerful Senate, Environment, Communications, Information Technology and the Arts References Committee, which conducted 10 key environment inquiries and made hundreds of recommendations. She also initiated three inquiries into uranium mining. Currently Senator Allison is the Chair of the Democrats-initiated Senate Mental Health Inquiry.
Dr John Read Day 3 Keynote speaker
Dr Read is Senior Lecturer, Clinical Psychologist (NZ Registered Psychologist) in the Psychology Department, The University of Auckland
Dr Read co-edited the book Models of Madness: Psychological, Social and Biological Approaches to Schizophrenia published in 2004.
Dr Read will deliver the Keynote Address on day two of the Conference.
» More about Dr Read's professional roles and research interests
Invited Speakers
In addition to the Keynote Speakers, a number of prominent Invited Speakers will also be presenting at the Conference. They include:
Ron Coleman
Ron Coleman has been active in the field of mental health since 1991, when affecting his own recovery from mental illness, he used his experiences to develop his ideas for recovery centered treatment of others. Since then he has went on to write numerous books and papers on the subject and was influential in the development of the Hearing Voices Network in the UK. Ron now works with his wife Karen under the banner of 'Working To Recovery', a company doing training and consultancy work in mental health. With the continued focus of which is the further development of recovery based services.
Dr Peter McKenzie
Currently Carer Academic at the Bouverie Centre, La Trobe University, Dr McKenzie has a number of years experience as a Carer Resource Support Worker as well as a Support Worker in PDRS services. His clinical training is in family therapy specialising in Carer/Families living with mental illness.
Associate Professor Anne Mitchell
Anne is a community development worker and adult educator with over 15 years experience in the field of sexual health and aids education. She was a founding member of the Australian Research Centre in Sex, Health & Society where her research into policy and practice gained international recognition. Anne currently holds the position of Director of Gay and Lesbian Health Victoria.
Marion Blake
Marion has been the CEO of Platform since 1999. Platform exists to give voice to the non-government organisations (NGO's) that provide health and disability services in communities throughout New Zealand. She has been involved in the Health and Social Services sector for over 30 years in the UK and New Zealand and is engaged in ongoing learning about leadership.
Sandy Jeffs
Since the age of 23, Sandy has lived with schizophrenia. She has been based in Melbourne and has performed her poetry with a group of 'sanity-challenged' poets called Loose Kangaroos. Sandy has given talks to community groups about mental illness and this theme is also the primary concern of her writing. Sandy Jeffs studied at La Trobe University, graduating with an Arts Degree in 1975.
Carolyn Crosse
Carolyn is the Executive Director of Social Firms Australia, an organisation committed to increasing the employment options for people with a mental illness through the development of social firms. It also assists in creating more accessible workplaces by providing information to employers on supportive strategies that can be implemented in the workplace.
Dr Ruth Vine
Dr Ruth Vine completed her medical degree in 1980 and commenced psychiatric training in 1985. At the completion of her training, she did a year’s Fellowship in Canada in the area of psychogeriatrics before returning to work in Consultation Liaison Psychiatry at the Austin and Forensic Psychiatry with the Department of Human Services. In 1993 Dr Vine joined the Forensic Psychiatric Service on a full-time basis and remained with that service until 1999 when she moved to the Department of Human Services in the role of Deputy Chief Psychiatrist. She contributed to policy development and service planning in a number of areas, and has been involved in work related to mental health across a number of government departments.
Dr Vine is now the Director of Mental Health for Victoria.
Merinda Epstein
Merinda has lived with mental illness since she was a teenager. For the past ten years Merinda has been juggling living with mental illness with her activism in the consumer movement in Australia. From 1994 – 1997 Merinda was an Independent Consumer Representative on the Australian National Advisory Group on mental health. During this period she was also working on the Understanding & Involvement project which was a three year consumer evaluation of acute psychiatric hospital practice. This project pioneered constructivist or fourth generation evaluation methodology in the mental health field. It went on to win the 1996 Caulley-Tulloch prize for innovation given by the Australasian Evaluation Society. Merinda, a trained educator, has also followed her strong interest in education and training and has been particularly active in re-framing education experiences for mental health professionals.
Merinda also works at the Mental Health Legal Centre in Melbourne.
Malcolm Morgan
Malcolm Morgan is Services Director for the Richmond Fellowship of Victoria. In this role he is the operations manager, and works to ensure, and further develop, the quality of all services delivered to RFV program participants. He believes that the most effective outcomes are achieved through the meaningful participation of RFV program participants, staff and carers and families at all levels of the organisation's functioning.
Malcolm is a psychologist and has worked over many years in a range of different mental health contexts - drug and alcohol; child and adolescent psychiatry; tertiary education and psychiatric recovery services.
Malcolm also operates a private practice where he works within a Lacanian psychoanalytic framework.