A NEW BOOK WRITTEN BY
Douglas Holmes, Lynda Hennessy, Kristy Mounsey, Peter Hawes, Gary J. Parker, Koleen Garrison and Melissa Patrick
Abstract :
Historically in Australia, Drop-in Centres have been a part of the Mental Health services that came under the domain of the medical professions. Since the start of the National Mental Health Strategy in Australia in 1992, Drop-in Centres have been seen as less important as part of public and private mental health services and harder for Consumers to be able to access a safe space without being watched for symptoms, where usually, records are not kept about behaviour, only attendance. The focus in Australia has been how language has changed when discussing Consumers and Consumer involvement in service delivery and planning. The other change has been the separation of the Consumer and Carer joint approach for policy development and the development of the Peer workforce. SUPER CRO Incorporated is a small charity, and SUPER CRO is an acronym for Service User, Participating, Educating, Researching, Consumer Run Organizations. The group was initially composed of mental health consumers who had come together in 2006 as part of their involvement in treatment for a variety of mental health conditions at St Vincent’s Hospital in Darlinghurst, Sydney. Members of the Group travelled to the 2010 Kansas Recovery Conference to examine the Recovery Model and were pleasantly surprised to find a whole state had embraced the Consumer-Run Organization model and were willing to share their knowledge and assist SUPER CRO to bring this model to Australia. This chapter of the book will focus on the history, development, impact, and future directions of CROs in Australia.
