Feedback session for mental health research project

Oct 10, 2003

The University of Wollongong is hosting a feedback session for participants in the Consumer Evaluation of Mental Health Services (CEO-MHS) project on Tuesday 14 October. CEO-MHS is a three-year research project funded be the Australian Research Council and Illawarra Health and is based at the University.

One of the main aims of the project has been to develop genuine collaboration between academics and mental health consumers in developing a means of evaluating mental health services from a consumer perspective.

A key tenet of the project is that consumer involvement is fundamental to the operation and success of the project. Mental health consumers are considered the experts because of their own unique experiences and this resource can be used to design and conduct better research. The project has provided paid employment and training to a team of researchers who are also mental health consumers.

The project team consists of nine consumer researchers and a management committee consisting of academics from UOW students and consumer representatives. The project is currently in its final year and researchers are presenting the preliminary findings on October 14.

These findings are the result of an analysis of a series of focus groups and interviews involving mental health consumers collected in the Illawarra, Shoalhaven, Sydney and Central West regions of NSW.

The preliminary results will be used to inform and develop a framework and questionnaire to evaluate mental health services to be completed by December 2003.

The feedback session on October 14 will consist of an overview of the project and presentation of preliminary findings. Research participants will be given the opportunity to provide feedback to researchers on the findings to date.

Interview opportunities: Tuesday 14 October, 12.00noon UniCentre Function Room 2. Interviews can be carried out at the end of the information session and during the break.

For more information and interviews, please contact Dr Lindsay Oades on 4221 3694 or Kim Morland on 4221 5320.

For more information, contact:

media@uow.edu.au
University of Wollongong
Ph: (02) 4221 5942; fax (02) 4221 3128