Applications now closed
Applications now closed
The Service and Program Awards commenced in 1992. The categories are reviewed each year and adjusted to reflect the changing emphasis of the Mental Health Strategies of Australia and New Zealand.
There are currently six categories for Programs and Services.
Click on the relevant category below for category definition.
This category should include those interventions designed to have a treatment/healing effect related to the symptoms of mental illness.
Examples:
Other examples include treatments to reduce distress, manage depression or grief, sexual therapy, early intervention orbehavioural disturbance in children.
This category is for those services or programs which support a person to move towards one or more of his/her stated life goals – looking beyond the diagnosis of a mental illness to autonomy on a wider “stage”.
TheMHS defines Health Promotion according to the guidelines set out by WHO
(https://www.who.int/features/qa/health-promotion/en/):
Health promotion enables people to increase control over their own health. It covers a wide range of social and environmental interventions that are designed to benefit and protect individual people’s health and quality of life by addressing and preventing the root causes of ill health, not just focusing on treatment and cure.
Recommended reading: https://www.vichealth.vic.gov.au/about/health-promotion
This Category is exempt from the minimum time of operation rule, stating that the “entry must have been in operation prior to 1 November 2018”.
For the purposes of responding to the marking criteria, the consumer of the service is the target group of the health promotion but, where possible and relevant, the entry should demonstrate involvement of mental health consumers in the development and management of the service/program e.g. a reference group or committee membership.
Judges will be looking for effective transfer of knowledge into practice e.g. use of mentoring.
This category is for services or programs where significant leadership is provided by persons who have personally experienced a mental illness/unhealth/illhealth/unwellness.
Different terms for these roles may be used such as “mental health consumer”, “consumer advocate”, or “peer worker”. The term “mental health consumers” refers to people who are currently using, or have previously used, a mental health service and includes people who have accessed general health services for a mental health problem. For the purposes of this statement, this term includes those with emerging or established mental illness for which they have not yet sought treatment, or for whom treatment has not yet been provided. (For more information see The National Standards for Mental Health Services 2010).
The term “Peer Worker” refers to a person who is employed in a role that requires them to identify as being, or having been a mental health consumer. Peer work requires that lived experience of mental illness is an essential criterion of job descriptions, although job titles and related tasks vary. (From webpage for the Peer Worker Conference 2015 – “dialog: conversations with peer workers”).
For more information see The National Standards for Mental Health Services 2010 and the Health Workforce Australia [2014]:
Mental Health Peer Workforce Study.
(Includes physical health/primary care, profit and NFP, workplace mental health and wellbeing).
It is not possible to anticipate the wealth and variation of entries received and there are always entries which do not fit the defined categories each year. If your program or service does not fit the other categories you should enter in this category.
Physical health and primary care entries will show how aspects of physical health relate to a person’s recovery and wellbeing.
PART A
PART B (SUBMITTED AS A SINGLE PDF FILE)
For any questions or concerns, including guidance about the most appropriate category, please email awards@themhs.org