With wonderful sunshine brightening spirits and a lingering summer, ACMHN is taking the opportunity to make hay so to speak.

The last few weeks with most people back from summer holidays, has seen an increase in departmental and agency engagement.

The first Nursing and Midwifery Strategic Reference Group (NMSRG) meeting for the year was held last week with many key nursing organisations represented. The meeting was Chaired by the Chief Nursing and Midwifery Officer for Federal Government Adjunct Professor (Practice) Alison McMillan PSM following meetings at Parliament House. Considerable work is under way regarding Nurse Practitioners as well as further work on the global challenges of nursing numbers.

The ACMHN Board recently reconfirmed a commitment to progressing with the creation of a foundation level Credential nurse category by mid to late 2023 with the project headed up by the College’s Irene Dummett. With several years at the College and excellent experience with the Credentialing program, the project is in good hands with Irene.

An excellent start to the College’s events program with ACMHN events guru Ellen Fraser managing multiple events nationally. There is tremendous interest in the upcoming Trauma and Intensive Care (TIC) Symposium in Queensland. Ellen also had a fruitful visit to Melbourne last week, visiting this year’s Conference venue to assist with planning, and had some successful meetings with key sponsors. Remember to submit any abstracts as they are open now.

The Board also endorsed a revamp of the old current database for members. The upgrade will see a leapfrog in systems and security on a global standard platform used by the majority of key NFP Member organisations. As lead on this project I will be implementing a similar system to that used by the AMA and other major organisations in the health space, and will be ably assisted by Lauren Tait, Bethany Longden, and Angus Jolly.

In the next few weeks there will be meetings with the Mental Health Professional Network (MHPN). At the same time Victorian Chair of ACMHN James Houghton and ACMHN representative Lina Ciaramella (Wilson) are representing the College at the Clinical Supervision Education and Training Providers Forum on the 28th.

This week will see visits between ACMHN and Mental Health Australia with Acting CEO Harry Lovelock and myself.

Next week sees further meetings with Karen Booth, the President of the Australian Primary Healthcare Nurses Association (APNA) at the ACMHN offices in Canberra as well as ongoing Policy discussions with the Australian College of Nurses on Electroconvulsive Therapy.

Yours in mental health

Adrian Armitage

ACMHN CEO