South West Healthcare has announced Rachel Robertson as its AEW Matthews Scholarship recipient for 2022.
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The scholarship is awarded annually to a member of SWH's staff, providing up to $10,000 to fund overseas travel to attend training or conferences and deepen their professional skills.
Ms Robertson manages the health service's Adolescent Mental Health and Wellbeing Service and will travel to Dublin in July 2023 to attend the 18th World Association for Infant Mental Health World Congress. She will also visit several top child and adolescent mental health centres in the United Kingdom, including London's Anna Freud Centre.
Over the past year Ms Robertson has led SWH's efforts to embed the recommendations of the Royal Commission into Mental Health, including a stream within the mental health service dedicated to zero to 11-year-olds.
Ms Robertson said she was grateful for the "amazing professional development opportunity" and planned to use the experience to further develop SWH's mental health service.
"The mental health system focuses on older children, largely adolescents, however research is clear that early emotional wellbeing and the relationships an infant has with their caregiver have long-term impacts on later mental health. We hope to significantly develop a new model of care for the pre-school, toddler and infant age group (0-4 year olds) at SWH," she said.
"Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service teams in the UK have been working on the development of evidence-based and high-quality care model for infants aged 0-2 to ensure early access to the best care. I hope to visit one of the sites in London currently providing this care to learn how their services work and bring this learning back to South West Healthcare".
SWH chief executive officer Craig Fraser said the scholarship was incredibly important for the organisation and it was " great to see staff looking for opportunities to expand on their skills and knowledge".
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Ben Silvester
Correspondent covering key issues across regional Victoria, based in Melbourne.
Correspondent covering key issues across regional Victoria, based in Melbourne.
