Workforce Council

20 September Industry Leaders Breakfast Communiqué

Industry Leaders from the NGO Community Mental Health Sector met with Minister for Disability Services, Mental Health and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Partnerships the Hon. Curtis Pitt on 20 September 2011 to outline the actions being undertaken by the Sector’s Leaders to build on the key strengths of the Sector, as part of the Community Mental Health Workforce Strategy (a joint project of the Workforce Council and Queensland Alliance, funded by Skills Queensland).

The discussion that followed enabled meaningful dialogue on the opportunities available to enhance the Sector’s capacity and capability to respond to the increasing challenges that the Sector faces:

• The work being progressed through the Leaders Workgroups offers a roadmap for open and frank conversation to take the Sector to the next level of recovery oriented practice that facilitates self-determination and self-expertise among individuals. The Leaders Workgroups will assemble in October to develop a set of core values and practice principles, before validating these with the sector.
• The project has been successful at securing funding for a six-month mapping project for the Community Mental Health Sector. This project will examine core content knowledge, competencies and areas of work in the sector, and will commence in late October.
• Another avenue being explored is a Centre for Community Mental Health playing a facilitative role to engage the Sector to drive research, teaching and practice. The Leaders Workgroups will shortly release a discussion paper to consult with key stakeholders on key determinants for a prospective Centre, and submit recommendations on a suitable model.
• In contrast to the broad mental health system, the Sector is relatively young, however emergent with tremendous opportunities, made possible through the genuine relationship between the sector and government.

All agreed that building the Sector is about investing in people, and in turn it’s people will develop their organisations and the Sector holistically. To enable this, the right mix is needed of policy priority, funding, resource allocation and co-investment by Sector and Government. This will be more clearly outlined among the strategic priorities of the Mental Health Community Services Plan (that will accompany the Queensland Plan for Mental Health 2007-17).The Industry Workgroups look forward to working with the Department of Communities in preparation for the 2012-13 State Budget cycle, to ensure implementation of the Plan’s workforce development priorities are allocated appropriate resources and funding.

The Industry Leaders agreed that another meeting in December 2011 with the Minister would be an opportune time to progress the key issues raised, integrate our action plan with the strategic priorities set out in the Mental Health Community Services Plan. This meeting would also facilitate an opportunity to engage with Minister for Employment, Skills and Mining the Honourable Stirling Hinchliffe to explore future investment in skills development and employment preparation. The Leaders look forward to ongoing dialogue and interaction with the Minister and Department of Communities.