It’s hard to believe that we are almost into 2020, this is especially so when you reflect on the enormous amount of work that has happened in 2019. The CMHL has been privileged to work alongside many energetic and passionate members of the mental health workforce, and other organisations and individuals, throughout this year; we would not have been able to do our work without your input and collaboration.
Some key highlights for the CMHL have been conducting the Peer Workers in PARCS organisational readiness project, in collaboration with the associated mental health services, and with SHARC. Even to-date there have been many lessons from this project, many that will provide a strong foundation moving into 2020, with opportunities to share this important information.
The CMHL, and many of you and your organisations, have also contributed both formal and informal submissions and advice to the Victorian Royal Commission into Mental Health Services, culminating recently in the release of the Commissions interim report. There are a number of exciting recommendations in the interim report, where I suspect we will find ourselves involved in shaping the implementation of these in 2020.
We also conducted a scoping activity with our mental health statewide training providers between May – November 2019. We are currently working on collating and analysing the information obtained during this activity. The main aim of this is to examine the key themes regarding what helps or limits SWTP work, as well as identifying the innovation and expertise that sit within these organisations, so this can inform our collective planning around workforce learning and development.
Another key milestone for the CMHL was the launch of ‘phase two’ of the CMHL website in February this year. By working alongside our SWTP, training Cluster colleagues, and other organisations, the result has been a central portal for the mental health workforces to filter and access available training across the state; all located in one place.
There have also been many other important activities, initiatives, and extensive consultations conducted during 2019, but in finishing I’d like to express the CMHL teams’ gratitude and thanks to the many people that have generously given their time and enthusiasm into CMHL activities during 2019. We know that there is much more work to be done, however, approaching this collectively can only bring significant rewards for mental health workforce learning in Victoria.
We wish you all a safe and restful end of year, and look forward to working together in 2020.
Dr Rosemary Charleston
6 December 2019
