Work Matters: Employment and Wellbeing in Mental Health
Vocational Education, Training and Employment Symposium
18-19 November 2008 at Newcastle City Hall
Tuesday: Symposium and dinner | Wednesday: Workshops
More than 70% of Australians with low prevalence disorders such as psychoses are unemployed - compared with 4% unemployment in the general population. Education and employment success has a dramatic impact on a person's quality of life and wellbeing.
Current research and innovative new program designs offer increased opportunities and hope for people with a mental illness to succeed in competitive employment and education. You are invited to attend this inspiring symposium to explore the changing face of employment and education interventions in mental health.
Sponsored by the Mental Health and Drug and Alcohol Office, NSW Health.
Keynote speakers
Professor Hector Tsang
Hong Kong Polytechnic University
Dr Hector Tsang has an array of clinical experience working with individuals with mental illness in hospital and community settings. His research interests have focused on neuropsychiatric and vocational rehabilitation, mental illness stigma and psychophysiology of mind-body interventions. He has received a number of international and local awards.
In 2003, he won a US$2 million grant from the National Institutes of Health in liaison with Professor Patrick W Corrigan at the University of Chicago. In 2007, he spent his sabbatical year at Yale focusing his research on neurocognition and schizophrenia in liaison with Dr. Morris Bell. Dr Tsang was conferred earlier this year the Visiting Professor of the Social and Organizational Behavior Research Center at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing, in recognition of his contribution to the field.
He has published more than 100 articles and book chapters on psychiatric rehabilitation and currently serves on the editorial board and is a reviewer of a number of prestigious journals such as Schizophrenia Bulletin, Schizophrenia Research and American Journal of Psychiatric Rehabilitation.
Dr Geoff Waghorn
Queensland Centre for Mental Health Research (QCMHR)
Senior Scientist, Policy and Economics Group, QCMHR, QLD Health and Adjunct Senior Lecturer, School of Population Health, University of Queensland.
Geoff leads research into the vocational recovery of people with mental illness. Current projects utilise both population surveys and smaller intervention samples. The aims are to reduce the social and economic marginalization associated with mental illness and improve longer-term outcomes achieved by vocational and other non-treatment services. He has worked in the field of psychiatric disability most recently as a researcher (eight years), and as a clinical psychologist (13 years).
Master of Ceremonies
Richard Morecroft
Saxton Speakers Bureau
Richard is perhaps best known for his 20 years as the face of ABC television news and the host of many other programs, from current affairs to business and documentaries. He is now one of the busiest corporate and conference presenters in Australia, in demand as a master of ceremonies, panel and forum facilitator, media skills executive trainer and corporate video presenter. His onstage Parkinson-style celebrity or executive interviews are entertaining and provocative, and as a speaker, his behind-the-scenes stories of TV news range from hilarious to revealing. One of the best conference hosts in Australia, Richard Morecroft is always meticulously prepared, professional, entertaining, and, by popular consensus, a delight to work with.
