Hi Everyone,
Welcome to the April newsletter. As usual, we are busy at The Peregrine Centre working on enhancing rural mental health practice in NSW. Our annual Learning Needs Survey closes in just a couple of weeks on May 1st so now is the time to have your say about what kind of free training opportunities you would like next financial year!
The Peregrine Centre invites you to tell them what CPD activities the mental health workforce needs in the 2023-2024 financial year. We are interested in hearing from workers in both NGO and LHD services in rural NSW. This work is being completed as part of the Rural Mental Health Partnership Grant, a program funded by NSW Health, to support research, training and innovation within the NSW rural mental health workforce.
This survey has been developed by Peregrine to understand what CPD activities they should be developing, delivering and advocating for in your rural area. In addition, survey results may also influence training provided at a state level to all rural and remote NSW. If you wish, you can also use the tool to help talk to your manager about your own professional learning plan by downloading/printing your completed survey.
Click here for the learning needs survey.  Your responses are private and confidential. You may skip any question should you choose not to answer, with the survey taking 5 – 10 minutes of your time to complete. SURVEY CLOSES 1st May 2023.
This month’s episode of the Peregrine Rural Mental Health podcast is a bit different. It’s aimed at anyone in a leadership position in mental health. Our Research Associate, Caitlin Miller, speaks with Jenny Brown and Ken Morgan from the FSI about how Bowen Theory can help leaders take a whole new perspective on the teams they lead and the systems they work in. Our learning survey from last year suggested that there are not many easily accessed resources on leadership in the specific context of mental health. The challenges of supporting staff in this specific, emotionally taxing work can be particularly difficult and this episode seeks to give listeners practical tools for meeting this challenge. And don’t forget you can also still access recent episodes, such as Working with Gender Diversity and Family Therapy for Beginners. You can listen at The Peregrine Portal, or on your usual podcast platform.
After the resounding success of the first few workshops, we are proud to announce we are again partnering with ASPECT to offer two new workshops on Working with Neurodivergent Clients.Â
BEGA – 4th May
MAITLAND – 17th May
And don’t forget to register for the “Fix My Child” workshops with Dr Jenny Brown in June. These two-day workshops are aimed at helping practitioners who usually work with individual adults to be able to be useful to parents and children.Â
DUBBO – 13th -14th June
ORANGE – 15th – 16th June
To register or hear more about these workshops, check out the “What’s On” page of the The Peregrine Portal.Â
 As some of you may know, we love to work with our friends at the Manna Institute – a national organisation of researchers looking at rural mental health. Please see below a chance to help out a group of researchers who are seeking to create Best Practice Guidelines for Youth Suicide Prevention in rural Australian communities. They are particularly looking for people with a lived experience of rural youth suicidality.
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Developing ‘Best Practice Guidelines for Youth Suicide Prevention in Rural Australian Communities’ Delphi Study
Manna Institute would like to bring your awareness to an opportunity to be part of developing ‘Best Practice Guidelines for Youth Suicide Prevention in Rural Australian Communities’ (the Guidelines). The group of researchers involved in this study hope to recruit both people working in the field, and with lived experience.
In rural areas there is lack of published documentation providing guidance to communities to develop and implement initiatives in their communities. This study aims to develop these Guidelines, asking people with expertise on what should be included to ensure they are relevant, and can reach those young people most at risk in rural Australian communities.
The group of researchers involved in this study wholeheartedly value and encourage participation from people with experience working and living in regional, rural and remote areas, young people, people with a lived experience of suicide, people of all genders and cultures, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
The Delphi study will involve three rounds of surveys over a two-month period from April/May 2023 with the first round taking 15-30 minutes, and subsequent rounds 5-10 minutes each. In these surveys participants will be asked to rank a series of statements relating to content they feel should be included in the Guidelines. As a thank you for time and participation, at study completion each participant will receive a $50 Prezzee gift card to spend as they like online. For those who wish, a copy of the Guidelines and any journal articles of key study findings from the study will also be made available.
To participate, scan the QR code here or please reach out to Manna Institute ECR, Laura Grattidge (Centre for Rural Health, University of Tasmania (UTAS).
On behalf of the research team including Laura Grattidge, Dr Ha Hoang, Dr Jonathan Mond, Mr Stuart Auckland (all Centre for Rural Health, University of Tasmania (UTAS)), Dr Denis Visentin (School of Health Sciences, UTAS), and Professor Jane Pirkis (University of Melbourne).
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That’s it from me for this month. Here’s hoping all the parents out there are surviving the school holidays. As always, if you have any questions about our work, don’t hesitate to reach out to your Local Project Officer.
Until next time,
Rebecca
