Newsletter No. 62

MHYFVic Annual General Meeting 2018 New Commissioner for Children 2018 Winston Rickards Memorial Oration Academy of Child & Adolescent Health History Corner 1935
MHYFVic AGM 2018
The MHYFVic Annual General Meeting will be held on Thursday 30th August at 6.30 for 7pm. The venue is Pacific Rim Thai Restaurant at 68 Bridport Street, Albert Park, at the corner of Ferrars Street.
As usual, the proceedings will begin by taking individual orders for the meal which is prepared whilst the formal business is dealt with. After the business and the meal, our after-dinner speaker will be Dr Lionel Lubitz.
Dr Lubitz is a specialist paediatrician with 35 years of experience at the Royal Children’s Hospital managing Autism Spectrum Disorders and Intellectual Disability. He is currently engaged in a project to improve transition to adult care. His talk is titled:
“Challenges in managing Autism from diagnosis to Transition to adult care.”
All members and guests are welcome, but the restaurant would appreciate confirmation of numbers. RSVP to admin@mhyfvic.org
New Commissioner for Children

The Commission for Children and Young People welcomes the appointment of Justin Mohamed as Victoria’s new Commissioner for Aboriginal Children and Young People.
Mr Mohamed is a proud Aboriginal man of the Gooreng Gooreng nation near Bundaberg in Queensland. He has dedicated the past 25 years to working towards building a stronger and healthier nation for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
‘Mr Mohamed is well known as a strong and experienced advocate, and I look forward to working alongside him to advance the rights and interests of Aboriginal children and young people in Victoria,’ Principal Commissioner Liana Buchanan said.
The appointment comes at a time when Victoria has made significant commitments and some progress in tackling long-standing issues for Aboriginal children, particularly those in out-of-home care.
‘There remains much work to be done to tackle discrimination, improve services and ensure that Aboriginal children and young people in Victoria can fully enjoy the rights that many take for granted,’ Ms Buchanan said.
More information about the appointment can be found in the Minister for Families and Children media release: Introducing A New Champion For Aboriginal Young People
Mr Mohamed will begin his tenure on 28 May.
2018 WINSTON RICKARDS
MEMORIAL ORATION “The prevention of mental health disorders in children.” Children have a much higher prevalence of mental health disorders than is generally acknowledged, and most adult disorders begin in childhood and adolescence.
The oration asserts that prevention of mental disorders in childhood would reduce the burden in the community more effectively than treatment programs for established disorders. It explores strategies for prevention of mental disorders and promotion of a healthier society.
The full text of the Oration can be found on the mhyfvic.org website in the “Orations” section.
NATIONAL MENTAL HEALTH COMMISSION
In February, we welcomed our new Chair, eminent businesswoman and organisational psychologist Mrs Lucy Brogden and farewelled our inaugural Chair, Professor Allan Fels AO.
The Academy of Child and Adolescent Health
The Academy of Child and Adolescent Health was recently incorporated (December 2016) as a not for profit company dedicated to promoting the health and well-being of every newborn, child and young person in order that they may reach their maximum potential.
The Academy intends to achieve this by:

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the provision of education for healthcare professionals in the support of evidence-based practice; fostering the highest standards of training, practice, teaching and research in child and youth healthcare;
promotion of strategies to increase the effectiveness of care delivered to children, young people and their families to help improve outcomes; advocating for children, youth and their families in matters relating to their health and well-being, including collaboration with other similarly purposed organisations and stakeholders;
developing public information and education programs designed to improve the health and welfare of infants, children, adolescents, and young people;
promotion of effective communication and liaison with other health agencies and building positive relationships with
other child and adolescent health care
providers

• promoting preventive and positive
  environmental health strategies; and
• support for the role of diverse families
  in the care of children.
  The Academy had its formal launch, by the Honorable Dame Quentin Bryce, March 1 and 2, at the Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne. Around this launch was a two- day program of scientific events, plus a strategic planning day with many of our partner organisations
  Its President said in their first newsletter, ”The Academy has launched with enormous energy, good-will and optimism. The vibrancy of the message, and of those who contributed and participated in the launch, was palpable. There is such a need for a professional over- arching organisation that has at the heart of its mission, our children and adolescents. We look forward to growth of our membership, to engagement of our membership in the mission of the Academy, and to the progressive role the Academy will have in our children and adolescents. We wish for our members to be actively involved in the Academy. In this newsletter is a call for expressions of interest in a number of committees. Please consider how you might contribute and use your expertise in the Academy’s mission, and willingly volunteer.”
  One of the committees is “Communication and member engagement.” Lead Directors are Julie Curtin & Gareth Baynam. This committee will devise strategies and report to ACAH Board with recommendations relating

to effective communication with and engagement of members and other groups. It will look at our web-site design and function, social media strategies, newsletter development as well as other innovative
means of communication. Committee members will have the opportunity to learn from each other and help establish the Academy’s media profile.
Expressions of interest are sought from members who have experience in this area and are keen to assist the development of this aspect of the organisation. Please email admin@acah.org.au with a brief outline of your experience in this area.
HISTORY CORNER, 1935
IACAPAP, the International Association for child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Allied Professions, began as an idea of European collaboration in an emerging discipline in 1935. MHYF Vic has been participating in the IACAPAP World Congress since 2006, and in July this year will contribute to two Forums on Indigenous issues, as well as four papers, one workshop, and two posters to the Congress in Prague, Czech Republic.
The IACAPAP pioneers were Georges Heuyer (France), Moritz Tramer (Switzerland), Paul Schröder (Germany), Carlos de Sanctis (Italy), Nic Waal (Norway), and Emanuel Miller (UK). In 1937 they adopted the name of the International Committee for Child Psychiatry. The committee sought to support a scientific approach to childhood mental illness.
One means for doing so was the organizing conferences, and the First International Conference on Child Psychiatry was held in Paris in 1937 under the chairmanship of Georges Heuyer, head of the Clinique Annexe de
Neuropsychiatrie Infantile at the Salpetriere in Paris. He was supported by Moritz Tramer (a Czech engineer and mathematician who retrained in medicine and psychiatry in Switzerland and taught at B
Twenty-six countries, mostly European, participated. It is hard to imagine with the shadows of the Second World War cast across Europe that such a collaboration might have been possible. Unfortunately, the second conference was not held until 1948. About 30 national societies attended the London meeting and renamed body as the International Association for Child Psychiatry (IACP).
From the outset, the members had an inclusive purpose and changed the name in 1958 to the International Association for Child Psychiatry and Allied Professions (IACP&AP). Adolescents were included in the 1978 name change to its current title. This ninth congress was held in Melbourne under the guidance of Dr Winston Rickards.
Inclusiveness had other meanings for IACAPAP. During the 1970s, the IACAPAP constitution was reformed such that officers of the Executive Committee are drawn with regard to gender, professional background and age, as well as taking into account the principal cultural and geographic regions of the world: from South America, Africa, Asia, the Middle East, and Oceania. In 2018, IACAPAP full membership includes 62 National
Organisations, with 16 Organisations holding affiliated membership. Congresses have been held all over the world, in some dozen countries to date. While, initially, this was a European initiative, north American professionals joined in great numbers after the war and led to the committee being officially incorporated in 1954 in Massachusetts, USA, as a tax-exempt organization. Currently it is registered in Geneva, Switzerland, as a non-government organization, structured as a corporation, and empowered as a juridical entity. Congresses were held on a four-yearly basis after 1948, but in 2004 at the congress in Berlin this period was reduced to two-yearly events, to enable the presentation of issues across the continents in a wider and up-to-date manner. The organization in voluntary and has no sponsor, other then those that underwrite the Congresses and as arranged by the local Congress organizing committees. IACAPAP believes in support for children world-wide and the officers want to support children wherever they live.
Australia has contributed greatly to the work of IACAPAP especially through Dr Winston Rickards, Dr Joseph Rey, Dr Suzanne Dean and Dr Nick Kowalenko. MHYF Vic members will recall that the 2006 Congress was held in Melbourne under the organizing auspices of Suzie and Dr Campbell Paul.
Wiinston Rickards pioneered Australia’s involvement in the 1950s and led our Region of the world as a Member of the Executive Committee of IACAPAP for twenty years (1962 to 1982), holding erne University and who, in 1951, founded the Swiss Institute of Research and Information on Child Psychiatry and was editor of Acta Paedopsychiatrica). various posts including Treasurer 1974 to 1978. He strongly encouraged and supported multidisciplinary involvement of the field in this broader international arena.
After convening the 2006 Congress, Suzie joined the Executive Committee as Adjunct Secretary, then as Vice-President until 2016, and served as the Regional Coordinator for Oceania between 2011 and 2016. She has written and updates the Guidelines for Organising the IACAPAP World Congress.
Joseph Rey from Sydney is the Editor of the comprehensive IACAPAP Textbook of Child and Adolescent Mental Health, published in 2014 and subject to ongoing updates. This summary of IACAPAP owes much to the chapter in this textbook on the history of child psychiatry provided by Helmut Remschmidt. Joseph has his finger on the pulse of IACAPAP world-wide, as he is also Editor of the regular IACAPAP Bulletin, which is a window upon ongoing activities throughout the year.
Nick Kowalenko, also of NSW, is the current IACAPAP Regional Coordinator for Oceania, and has done remarkable work, alongside Dr Paul Robertson, providing substantial outreach to CAMH colleagues of the Pacific nations, from the base of the RANZCP Faculty of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, the Member of IACAPAP in our Region.
For some fifteen years, non-psychiatrist mental health professionals of Oceania also had IACAPAP representation though Emerging Minds (ex-AICAFMHA). Now that Emerging Minds has an Australian Government commission, that has lapsed. New national multidisciplinary
representation is therefore needed, an issue MHYF Vic is tackling in the knowledge that sharing of the huge challenges in our field across state and indeed international boundaries can be greatly beneficial to the mental health and wellbeing of our young and their families. Helmut Remschmidt of Germany will be presenting on the history of IACAPAP at the Congress in Prague and celebrating eighty years of productivity and contribution. He will keenly acknowledge the important role of our Region.
Jo Grimwade
References

Martin, A. & Cohen-Goldstein, G. (2011).

The Yale Child Study Center

Centennia
l.

Association of Child and Adolescent

Psychiatry and Allied Professions

Bulletin, 29, 9-19.

Remschmidt, H.; Belfer, M.; & Goodyer, I.

Facilitating Pathways: Care, Treatment, and Prevention in Child and Adolescent Mental Health. Springer
Rey, J. (2015). IACAPAP Textbook of Child and Adolescent Mental Health. Available at: http://iacapap.org/iacapap- textbook-of-child-and-adolescent- mental-health
Jo Grimwade
(2004).
International

Schleimer, K. (2012). 75 Years with

IACAPAP – the history of IACAPAP.

IACAPAP
2017 MHYF Vic Committee
* President : Jo Grimwade * Vice-President : Jenny Luntz * Past President: Allan Mawdsley * Secretary : Celia Godfrey * Treasurer : Anne Booth * Membership Secretary:Kaye Geoghegan * Projects Coordinator, Kylie Cassar * WebMaster, Ron Ingram * Newsletter Editor, Allan Mawdsley * Youth Consumer Representative, vacant * Members without portfolio:
Suzie Dean, Miriam Tisher.
OUR UPDATED WEBSITE
After much thought our website has been significantly revised to give casual visitors immediate information about what we do and what we stand for, whilst at the same time allowing members to go straight to specific sections such as Projects or Newsletters or Events, without having to navigate past reams of information.
Now that the main revision has been implemented we are working on tasks of development of Projects to give us the evidence base for our advocacy. There are quite a few items under development at the present time which are not yet reflected in the website but over the next few months we expect to see a burgeoning of activity.
Visit us on mhyfvic.org