Workforce Council

Community Mental Health Workforce Strategy

The Community Mental Health Workforce Strategy is a joint initiative of the Workforce Council and Queensland Alliance for Mental Health, funded by the Queensland Government through Skills Queensland.

The Strategy aims to support workforce growth and development of community-managed, NGO Mental Health Sector to meet the needs of Queensland communities into the future.  A key aspect of the Workforce Strategy is to facilitate collaboration between key stakeholders and players in the workforce ecosystem.  This includes service providers, government agencies, education and training providers, unions, professional associations, related sectors and communities.

This two-year project commenced late April 2010 and has facilitated strategic engagement to identify and implement workforce solutions, complementing existing workforce initiatives implemented under the Queensland Compact and the Community Services Skilling Plan. The Action Plan realised at the Workforce Summit in September 2010 is being implemented under the guidance of Industry Leaders from sector, education and training, and government.

In late April 2012 the Workforce Council and Queensland Alliance for Mental Health will host a major event to showcase the outcomes achieved, identify resources that enable implementation of the NGO Mental Health Practice Framework across organisations (see below), and further opportunities for workforce development.

NGO Mental Health Practice Framework and Career Pathways

A key work in progress commissioned by the Leaders is to create a community mental health practice framework that identifies the values, actions, attitudes, skills and knowledge underpinning good practice in the sector. If endorsed across the community mental health, the framework will:

• Enable articulation of career pathways
• Support a cohesive sector-wide approach to workforce planning and development
• Inform recruitment and retention strategies at the organisational level

People from across all levels and roles will be invited to a series of forums throughout March to share experience and knowledge of on-the-ground, recovery-oriented practice that will then harvested to populate the framework:

• Caboolture (Thursday 8 March 2012)
• Brisbane (Thursday 15 March 2012)
• Townsville (Thursday 22 March 2012)
• Web-conference (Monday 26 March 2012)

For more information view the event flyer.

All events are free with lunch provided. For catering please register by lodging a complete registration form.