Illawarra Institute for Mental Health wins gold!

Sep 08, 2004

Researchers from the Illawarra Institute for Mental Health, University of Wollongong (iiMH) have been awarded a Gold Achievement Award at the Australian and New Zealand Mental Health Services Conference held at the Gold Coast.

The award was for an Australian Research Council (ARC) funded Consumer Evaluation of Mental Health Services project which was led by Associate Professor Linda Viney, Dr Lindsay Oades, Jon Strang, Yvonne Eman, and Gordon Lambert.

The partners for the ARC (SPIRT - Strategic Partnerships with Industry - Research and Training) grant were iiMH at the University of Wollongong and Illawarra Health, Mental Health Services.

The principal aim of the Consumer Evaluation of Mental Health Services program has been to develop an evaluation framework and consumer-constructed questionnaire that can be used by mental health consumers, clinicians and managers to evaluate mental health services from a consumer perspective.

The novel approach of this program involved training 14 mental health consumers as researchers so they could take a more meaningful and prominent role in the development of the framework and questionnaire.

The award was presented by the Dean of the Australian and New Zealand School of Government and former Chairman of the Australian Competition and Consumer Competition, Professor Allan Fels.

The awards are judged by an independent assessment panel and there were 1,200 delegates who attended the conference this year.

Dr Oades said the awards provided wide positive recognition for the University and Illawarra Health. The award prize is sponsored by the Australian and New Zealand governments.

For further information contact: Dr Lindsay Oades, Illawarra Institute for Mental Health, University of Wollongong on 0439 625868.

For more information, contact:

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