Kathryn Turner Executive Director Metro North Mental Health
I have been back as the newly appointed Executive Director MNMH for just over two months now. It continues to be a very busy time and I am planning to get out to teams across Metro North to get to know more about your service areas on the ground.
There is a lot of good news in this newsletter which I will leave for you to read. In addition, just on Friday, there were further announcements that a number of our MNMH colleagues have been shortlisted as finalists for the 2021 Metro North Staff Excellence Awards. The awards will be announced on 3 December, but I would like to acknowledge all of the MNMH finalists:
People Focus
- Judith Nugent, Metro North Mental Health-RedCab
- Benjamin Dougherty, Metro North Mental Health-ADS
Training and Education
- Heidi Deifel-Carlino, Metro North Mental Health-ADS
Integrated Care
- Shaynee Stanyon, Metro North Mental Health-TPCH
- Alana Brown, Metro North Mental Health-RedCab
Yesterday, I attended the Annual MNMH Learning From Harm Forum, where different areas of our service presented on learnings from adverse events. The topics presented were far ranging – from antiseptic wipes to a fracture in a mental health inpatient unit to managing challenging behaviours in COVID-19 positive patients.
The forum was opened with a guest presenter, Rosiel Elywn, a Lived Experience researcher, speaker and consumer consultant. Rosie’s presentation was entitled We’re All Working Together – A Lived Experience Perspective on Learning From Harm. They opened their presentation with an invitation to work together to learn, and then went on to share some adverse experiences in treatment which they have been able to heal from. The key, for them, was the effort made by staff to repair, restore, connect regarding the negative experience. One of their key messages was that staff shouldn’t be afraid or avoid if an incident occurs.
This presentation linked very well into the Restorative Just Culture and Safety II principles that I have presented about and will continue to talk with you and your teams about when I get the chance to visit. There were some good learnings from the forum and a copy of the presentations will be distributed shortly.
This Thursday, the MNMH Executive Team and some key roles such as Research and Suicide Prevention, will be going offline for a day of planning and innovating. I look forward to updating you in the next newsletter about the outcomes of this day.
Kathryn Turner
Executive Director
Metro North Mental Health