Why we need proactive approach
The ALIVE National Centre is proud to present the next instalment of Ready, Set, Translate: The ALIVE Mental Health Research Virtual Café Translation Conversations, on Thursday 19 September 2024, 1pm – 2pm (AEST).
The conversation will be hosted by the Next Generation Researcher Network, and will feature Bill Gye from the University of New South Wales speaking on the topic Why we need proactive outreach.
Many mental health and suicide prevention programs fall short of their goals, largely because individuals often delay seeking help until they are near crisis, if they seek help at all. To address this issue, we need to explore and implement more proactive outreach approaches. One such initiative is the Assisting Communities through Direct Connection project (www.acdc.org.au), which we will examine in depth during this seminar. We’ll discuss the strengths and limitations of this approach and engage in a virtual café discussion on other practical early intervention and outreach methods that could be tested. This is particularly important as traditional public health messaging, while costly, has become less effective due to the proliferation of media channels.
About the speaker:
Bill is the recent CEO of Community Mental Health Australia (CMHA) Jan 2019-to June 2024. Prior to that Bill was the CEO of Ostara Australia (the Australia’s largest mental health specialist employment services provider); General Manager of Recovery Services at the Schizophrenia Fellowship of NSW (now OneDoor Mental Health); CEO of Options Community Enterprises, and other roles in the community sector since 1978. Bill initiated and led the ACDC Project (a project of CMHA) from its beginning in late 2019 to June 2024.