History

The Network began in an informal way around 1994. Its focus was the organization of the first conference for carers of people with a mental illness, held in November 1995. Four main organizations were involved – Carers Victoria, the then Schizophrenia Fellowship (now Mental Illness Fellowship), SANE Australia and ARAFEMI. Given the political climate in Victoria at the time where organizations which had previously worked together were competing for any new business, the Network beginnings were rooted in the history of the people involved and the cross membership of some of those individuals. The Department of Human Services (DHS) was impressed by the force of numbers attending the first conference (400+) and the degree of hostility expressed to public mental health services. The then director of Mental Health Branch and manager of service planning asked if they could have regular meetings with the Network to inform and be kept informed of carer issues. Currently, a senior project officer with the carer portfolio attends Network meetings on a quarterly basis. From an early stage, but particularly following the first conference, the Network also included representatives from two carer support groups – the Westgate support group (a geographically based group, not affiliated with any other organization but centred upon a particular hospital and its community clinic) and from the Waiora Parents and Friends group (Waiora is a community mental health clinic). In 1996 the Victorian strategy for carers was introduced. This brought considerable funding including the carer crisis support program and an extension of respite programs. There was also funding for mental health carer resource workers, which the Department directed to the Carer Respite Centres in some of the regions. The group continued to meet throughout 1996 and issued invitations to other state-wide organizations to join the Network – in particular, the Anxiety Recovery Centre and the Eating Disorders Foundation. The second conference was held in March 1997. There was a concerted effort to expand the range of carers catered for in the Third Conference, held in October 1998. The fourth conference was held in May 2000 and the fifth conference was in October 2002. Following the fourth conference there was a review of the role and structure of the Network. The Network formalised its role in advocating for carer issues over and above organising state-wide carer conferences. The terms of reference and strategic objectives were determined over a period of about 8 months. This resulted in a widening of the membership of the Network to include different types of organisations working with carers, as well as expanding the number of carer representatives, in order to ensure that carers’ voices were still heard. The Bouverie Centre, Carer Links and the Richmond Fellowship all joined the Network as part of the 2000 restructuring. Since then, we have been very fortunate to have John McGrath as the chair of the Network. John was invited to join in his role as a carer, with links to Carers Victoria’s board as well as being chair of the Victorian Community Advisory Group and the Mental Health Council of Australia. In line with the Network’s strategic directions and annual priorities, a number of working groups were established to enable the resources of network members to be most effectively utilised (see Working Group Reports page). Past working groups have focussed on a number of issues including the carers’ conference, how privacy legislation affects carers, articulating the differences and similarities between mental health carers and other carers (see our Differences and Similarities paper), and working on the revision of the Information for Families and Carers Booklet. Each working group meets between Network meetings and has a convenor who reports back to the whole Network for final decision and actioning. By 2003 the Network’s activities and aims had increased, and working group projects were proving difficult to sustain solely on the basis of members’ voluntary time. With funding from the DHS, the Network has recently been able to employ a project worker on a part-time basis to support the activities of the working groups. What then has the Network achieved? Firstly, The Network constitutes a consolidated and representative carer voice. It provides a diverse, comprehensive, strong and united advocacy point for families - covering both generalist and specialist viewpoints, and draws on the resources of Mutual Support, Psychiatric Disability Rehabilitation and Support Services, Clinical and Carer services. The Network has a strong positive relationship with the MHB. Secondly, our impact can perhaps be measured by the strong, articulated commitment to carers in the recent State MH Plan “New Directions for Mental Health Services”. Improved carer participation and support is one of six key action areas articulated by the State government for the next five years. Encouragingly, many of the consumer issues the Network and others lobbied about have been picked up in recent budget initiatives and the New Directions Statement. In particular, the increase in the number of acute psychiatric beds; funding for relapse prevention services; specialist Dual Diagnosis programs in metropolitan regions; the expansion of Early Intervention program in each Area Mental Health Service and a strategy to improve rural workforce quality and retention.