‘Standing Strong’ is the first peer-led outpatient program to be offered by ACT Health at the new Adult Mental Health Day Service. This strength-based program aims to assist participants to address the key psychosocial aspects of living with mental illness which are generally out of scope for traditional ‘psycho-education’ groups. The program runs in alternate cohorts; depression/anxiety and schizophrenia/bipolar; as the consumer consultant noticed that these groups experience different challenges related to their recovery.

‘Standing Strong’ introduces strategies to enhance wellness such as engaging in self-reflection, maintaining physical health and developing a useful support network. The program also explores the repercussions of stigma and disclosure of illness in a variety of contexts. It adopts a holistic view of the impact of mental illness which is firmly grounded in recovery principles. ‘Standing Strong’ is delivered using inclusive participatory techniques, such as ‘hot dotting’ and the ‘brains trust’, to engage participants with the content. Facilitated discussion is of paramount importance. In addition, the peer facilitator provides short examples of overcoming relevant challenges from her lived experience. The facilitator will present the consumer feedback from this unique initiative. Learn several participatory techniques to enhance your group activities with consumers!

Chances are, if you’re someone who neglects your own self-care, you’re not likely to choose - from the plethora of presentations on offer at TheMHS - to go to a presentation or workshop about… well, self-care. So this poster is aimed at everyone, but especially those who are just too busy to worry about or prioritise their own needs and well-being.

The provision of support to persons experiencing hoarding and squalor is complex. In addition to the significant health and safety risks, isolation and disconnection from family and community support is a constant. Rates of self-reporting and early identification are low. Primarily issues of hoarding and/or squalor become evident at a critical point resulting from a complaint made to local council, a houing provider or hospitalisation. Single agency responses are inadequate and often identification results in forced ‘clean ups’, tenancy issues and eviction notices. Support requires robust service collaboration and resource intensive interventions.

In Northern Sydney a range of providers recognised the need for alternative approaches to clean-up orders and advocated strongly for access to treatment interventions. The collaboration between NSML and Lifeline Harbour to Hawkesbury was instrumental in transforming both access and the capacity to offer treatmen. Collaboration enabled two significant developments: firstly, supporting the development and expertise for Lifeline to run a 17-week group based treatment approach based on the ‘Buried in Treasures Workshop’, and secondly, it resulted in the development of CBT-based hoarding treatment training workshops and ongoing supervision for 120+ workers across the region.

Implications for providing effective hoarding disorder interventions in the region will be demonstrated.

Introduction and Background
Holistic treatment during a First Episode Psychosis (FEP) can significantly impact the longevity and chronicity of the illness, as well as reduce the risk of premature death by suicide. However, treatment can only be effective if the young person participates. Given that 19-40% of young people disengage from early intervention services for FEP, this qualitative study aimed to understand how young people experienced engagement with case-managers at an early intervention service.

Method
Semi-structured interviews were conducted with seven young people and themes were identified using Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis (IPA).

Results
Young people detailed how engagement with a service could be viewed as a process, following different stages between initial referral and discharge. Throughout this process, a number of factors influenced young people’s decision to engage or disengage from their case-manager. This created a push-pull dynamic with periods of good engagement and poor engagement.

Conclusion
Discussion of this dynamic adds nuance to established scholarship about engagement, including shifts over time in the importance of client empowerment and valued features of therapeutic relationships. Awareness and understanding of these concepts may guide changes to early intervention services and address the core issue of engagement.

Background:
In recent decades, numerous population-based longitudinal studies have investigated different aspects of depression such as prevalence, incidence, prognosis, risk factors and determinants. However, to date, these studies have largely neglected the research priorities and personal experiences of people with a lived experience of depression (consumers). The current project conducted focus groups in preparation for a large online longitudinal study into consumer-focused aspects of depression to find out what they would like see researched prospectively.

Methods:
Participants were consumers with a lived experience of depression aged 18+, who lived in or around Canberra. They were recruited via consumer networks. Three focus groups were conducted in August 2014, asking consumers to provide their views on topics to research, timing and format of assessments, and means of recruiting and engaging participants for the proposed longitudinal study.

Results:
Consumers identified research topics that were most relevant to their experience of living with depression, including several topics that have received minimal attention in previous longitudinal studies.

Discussion:
Longitudinal research of people living with depression has paid little attention to consumer perspectives. We anticipate that this qualitative research will inform a subsequent longitudinal study that will engage consumers and be more responsive to their needs.

The Illawarra Shoalhaven Mental Health Service has 3 adult acute inpatient units (one with a high care area), an adolescent and older person’s unit and a psychiatric emergency care centre. The service is undergoing a significant restructure with the creation of clinical streams and changes to the management of services. The Ward Atmosphere Scale (WAS) has been extensively used to understand three dimensions of mental health service organizational performance, the quality of relationships between staff and consumers, the use of therapeutic approaches to service provision and the degree of order or clarity with which services are delivered. Originally the WAS items were rated true/ false, however some responders have difficulty rating some statements in this way, so the response format of the WAS was modified to a likert type scale. The poster will describe the results of successive administrations of the WAS as our services undergo a process of clinical redesign and the introduction of a new model of nursing care in one of our acute inpatient units. The poster will reflect the impact of these changes on our inpatient units.

Increasing the focus on recovery and implementation of recovery-oriented practice in existing services is a core need for the mental health system recognised by the Fourth National Mental Health Plan. The Recovery-Oriented Leaders Development Program aims to enhance the capacity of new mental health and community service team leaders/program coordinators to convert recovery principles into practice within their teams and services. The program comprises varied interactive learning environments, including group workshops, action learning sets, and individual leadership coaching, conducted over a 9-month period. People with lived experience, established leaders, and recovery-oriented mental health practitioners present inspiring perspectives of recovery-oriented approaches and leadership throughout the workshops. Program participants are challenged to deeply consider their leadership values and recovery-orientation, whilst being supported to develop professionally and improve practices within their unique workplace environments. Broader consideration of the nature and responsibilities of recovery-oriented leadership is further explored via an online forum open for participation to anyone with an interest in the challenges faced by leaders in their efforts to implement and increase recovery-oriented practices within their services. This project is supported by the Australian Government through the Inner West Sydney Partners in Recovery Innovative Grant Program, and its Lead Agency, New Horizons.

Australia’s National Recovery Framework was launched in 2012. This came about from a call to action for global social impact from the consumer and carer movement to embed recovery focussed principles in every sphere of a person’s holistic journey to mentally healthier lives.

It seems that everyone around the world is at a different point towards this recovery-focussed framework. The MSc in Mental Health Recovery and Social Inclusion demonstrates a recovery approach to mental health care can be embedded into practice through an educational programme. In this instance the content encourages and leads students to understand that through innovative change to practice with a philosophical cornerstone it is possible to create an international hub of knowledge exchange. This is an opportunity to encourage and influence effective change on a broader scale.

The key concept in order for a coherent course to be created and validated was that it needed to be co-produced with people with lived experience and carers. The outcome has been a holistic, whole of life programme (with a strong emphasis on peer support, leadership and global activities) with developing relevance to the community it serves and the potential to evolve into a truly international framework.

The Optimal Health Program (OHP) is the result of years of research which builds on an individual’s strengths and promotes self-efficacy and hope. OHP can be conducted as a group or individually by trained people over a number of weeks. It explores the domains of wellbeing and what this means to a wide audience who may include consumers, carers or health practitioners. OHP offers a framework that supports a conversation about wellbeing rather than illness and the opportunity to reflect, write down ideas and respond to an individual’s needs without having to give solutions.

This poster summarises the history and research that demonstrates best practice and supports a recovery orientated approach. The slides will establish a clear link between the research and practical application of this psycho-educational wellbeing program. The presentation will highlight the diverse use of OHP across acute and community mental health services, people with chronic disease and their carers, workplace programs and finally reaching a broader international audience.

In 2014 OHP established a partnership with the Australian Catholic University, Swinburne University and University of Melbourne to explore OHP in chronic disease and carers. This underpins a five year program of research and translation into practice.