MIFA -Visiting Speakers' Archive

MIFA's guest for Schizophrenia Awareness Wekk 2008 was Mr Philip Mangano, Executive Director of of United States Interagency Council on Homelessness and one of TIME Magazine's 100 Most Influential People 2006.

During his tour, Mr Mangano visited NSW, Western Australia, South Australia and the ACT and met with a huge range of groups to talk about issues surrounding people with a mental illness and housing - which our Australians Talk Mental Illness survey revealed in 2007 as the most critical issue facing people with a mental illness.

Mr Mangano is in charge of rolling out the Housing First initiative across the United States, which promises a revolutionary look at housing for people with a mental illness.

As opposed to our current model where housing is held as a goal that people with a mental illness must work their way towards, Housing First says that people with a mental illness should be given a home as the very first step and then provided with the services that will enable them to stay in it.

In the US, this model has proven extremely effective and has the added benefit of costing less money than the current model does.

Wile in Australia, Mr Mangano met with Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, Federal Opposition Leader Brendan Nelson as well as Federal Housing Minister Tanya Plibersek. He was also in attendance at the Adelaide launch of the Federal Government's green paper on homesless.

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Major Sam Cochran concluded a busy and most successful tour in May. Major Cochran met and spoke with senior members of Australia's state police force and the judiciary as well as presenting to the public in 6 states. Interest in the Crisis Intervention Team introduced to the Memphis Police Force by him in 1989 was evident. The Memphis model developed as first response to crises involving people with a mental illness.

Follow up visits to view the Memphis CIT program first hand have been arranged with personnel from a number of state police forces. Interest in improving Australia's police interactions with people with a mental illness was high. Despite a busy schedule Major Cochran did media interviews in each city visited, engaging significant interest from the public. In each and every presentation Major Cochran stressed the need for a partnership approach to do this well. The key partnership groups he identified are the police, mental health services and the families. In the United States Major Cochran works closely with NAMI - the country's largest membership organisation for people affected by mental illness.

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Major Sam Cochran

The Visiting Speaker for Schizophrenia Awareness Week in May 16 – 21 2005 was Professor Gary Bond.

Professor Gary Bond visited Melbourne, Adelaide, Canberra Sydney and Newcastle during his visit. As well as presenting to forums in those locations,Professor Bond was invited to present to the Senate Inquiry on Mental Health at Parliament House, Canberra. Professor Bond presented to the Inquiry with Dr Geoffrey Waghorn principal author of the background paper on Employment of People with a Mental Illness prepared for MIFA. For copies of the paper click here.

Thanks to Eli Lilly for their support

About Gary Bond
Gary R. Bond, Ph.D. is Chancellor's Professor of Psychology at Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI), where he has been on the faculty since 1983. He also has been affiliated with the Anthropological Center for Training and Research on Global Environmental Change (ACT) of Indiana since its formation in 2001. He received his Ph.D. in psychology at University of Chicago in 1975. In 1979 he was hired as Director of Research at Thresholds, a psychiatric rehabilitation agency in Chicago. Since that time his research has been devoted to identifying evidence-based practices in the treatment of individuals with severe and persistent mental illness, with a primary focus on supported employment and assertive community treatment. His current research includes an NIMH-funded study comparing supported employment to a group placement approach and a series of psychometric studies on the fidelity scales to measure implementation of evidence-based practices. Bond has received over 50 external grants and contracts for research and training in this area. His publications include over 150 journal articles and book chapters. He has received 5 national research awards. He has consulted with local and state mental health planners throughout the US and internationally. In the past few years he has given invited lectures in Hong Kong, Spain, the Netherlands, Finland, Northern Ireland, England, Japan, Canada, and throughout the US. Bond was co-developer of the Evidence-Based Practice Supported Employment Implementation Resource Kit and is the senior researcher for Indiana for the National Evidence-Based Practices Project.

Dr Xavier Amador concluded a very successful tour during Schizophrenia Awareness Week in May 2004 and spoke in Melbourne, Canberra, Townsville, Sydney and Brisbane. As well as numerous radio interviews Xavier appeared on Channel 10's Good Morning Australia with Bert Newton and Channel 7's Sunrise Show.

A video of Xavier's presentation can be seen by arrangement at the office of members of MIFA.