The last seven months as Acting CEO of Mental Health Australia has been a rollercoaster of challenges, many rewarding and some, like the bushfires and coronavirus, quite confronting. Above all I would like thank the staff, board, and members for supporting me in the role during this time.
From breaking a Guinness World Record on World Mental Health Day in October last year, to a horror summer for Australia, and now a global pandemic impacting us all on so many levels. None of these have been the ‘business as usual’ I expected to be undertaking while we recruited a new CEO.
Mental Health Australia has stayed true to our task of advocating for mental health reform, despite the difficulties and uncertainties we are all facing. We are still delivering for our members, today’s mini Members Policy Forum with Professor Alan Rosen is another example of that, and we all know we still have a lot to do to help the sector recover and rebound over the coming months and years. And the Australian community.
We know the Productivity Commission Inquiry into Mental Health will now land in a completely different health and economic environment than anyone could have imagined. We also know as a sector we did our best to unite and deliver submissions asking for vision and solutions, rather than more of the same but better.
Our Embrace Multicultural Mental Health Project has seen record engagement in recent webinars, while our broader work with the National Mental Health Consumer and Carer Forum and National Register of Consumer & Carer Representatives continues to improve and expand as we move to new ways of virtual engagement.
Our policy team continue to produce quality submissions on a range of issues and most recently have been focusing on advocating for people in need of psychosocial support, yet unable to receive it through the NDIS.
Our communications team have been working to promote a new series of positive and informative videos from some well-known Australians, and some not so well-known (me!), but all key mental health reminders to help us all through this time. “Look after your mental health, Australia.”
And our corporate team have continued to keep the engine room running as new working from home arrangements and logistics required us to be flexible while still maintaining robust governance and compliance.
Thank you so much to my amazing colleagues: Anna, Anup, Amy, Charlene, Danica, Delia, Emma, Felicity, Harry, Ingrid, Kath, Katie, Kylie B, Kylie W, Lach, Liz, Ruth and Victoria for all of your support over the last seven months. And thank you to the board for their support and guidance, especially our Interim Chair Ms Robyn Kruk AO who I have been so fortunate to work with.
Next week we will officially welcome Dr Leanne Beagley as the new CEO of Mental Health Australia – starting on Tuesday 28 April – and the staff are all looking forward to our video induction sessions with Leanne, and then benefiting from her depth of knowledge, leadership and mental health experience.
I’m looking forward to continuing to support members, stakeholders, consumers and carers as I return to being Deputy CEO.
Best wishes to you all, and for those commemorating ANZAC Day tomorrow, we’ve included some tips below from the Returned Services League (RSL) – where the theme this year is ‘Light Up The Dawn with Our ANZAC Spirit’.
Kind regards,
Melanie Cantwell
Acting CEO
In the lead-up to ANZAC Day, RSLs across the nation are asking you to show your ANZAC spirit. Whether you’re in an outback town or on our beautiful coastline, we can all show our ANZAC spirit this ANZAC Day.
At 6am on ANZAC Day, #lightupthedawn by standing at the end of your driveway, on your balcony or in your living room to remember all those who have served and sacrificed.
Pledge your place and stream a short commemorative service on ANZAC Day.
Please join us in this special moment. #ANZACspirit #lightupthedawn
RSVP and find out more via the Facebook event.
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