Management Report 2005
From Anxiety Recovery Centre Victoria Annual Report 2005
“ARCVic remains strong and true to its cause, held together, unshakeably, by all the people that are a part of it and who are guided and motivated by the vision of making a positive difference in the lives of children, adolescents and adults who are suffering with an anxiety disorder.”
Once again, when reflecting on the year’s activities and achievements, we are strongly reminded of our reliance on the many dedicated and talented individuals who contribute to the planning, management and delivery of ARCVic’s services. Without the support and hard work of all of our volunteers, consultants, students and staff we would find it very difficult to function and continue our efforts to support and advocate for people and families living with anxiety disorders. While our indebtedness to all our supporters and workers has always been recognised throughout ARCVic’s development, it has perhaps been highlighted even more this year as the pressures on the organisation and staff continue to increase. In many ways, this year has felt like a bit of a see-saw ride – the weight of limited staff and financial capacity forcing some cutbacks to some services – balanced by some significant achievements and new developments. Importantly, at the end of the day – or year, we can say that ARCVic remains strong and true to its cause, held together, unshakeably, by all the people that are a part of it and who are guided and motivated by the vision of making a positive difference in the lives of children, adolescents and adults who are suffering with an anxiety disorder. And so, we wanted to start this report, this time, with expressing our gratitude and appreciation to everyone who helps, supports and works to make ARCVic a quality service with a remarkable record of achievements, both over the past year, and the previous seventeen years. It is encouraging and uplifting to be part of a team of people with such a strong spirit of goodwill, compassion and commitment. This is the ‘good stuff’ that holds us together and keeps us going through thick and thin. A special thank you to all our support and recovery group facilitators, helpline counsellors and Centre volunteers who have regularly committed their time to these important services over the past year - thank you to Jo Abbott, Dianne Anton, Catherine Ashford, Pearl, Edwin Belfield, Jessica Bernales, Scott Blair-West, Rod Carne, Fiona Cuthbert, Lois, Frank, Poppy, Amy G., Bruce Hannan, Barbara Jones, Iris I’Anson, Marnie Kok, Terry Lack, Dianne and Graham Legge, Prue Lewis, Wendy Malcolm, Richard Malcolm, Melissa M., Penelope Poulier, Andy Prodromidis, Michelle P., Paul Read, and Janelle Rothenberg.
During this year, ARCVic was very pleased to be successful in gaining a grant from Auseinet – the Australian Network for Promotion, Prevention and Early Intervention for Mental Health. This grant was provided to complete the development of an early intervention and recovery program for OCD, and provide the program for a group of teenagers with OCD and their parents. The program ran over four months, including 11 group sessions for the young people, 8 group sessions for the parents, plus pre and post individual assessment sessions. The program was developed and facilitated by\ Kathryn I’Anson, Rod Carne, Barbara Jones and Iris I’Anson. Twelve parents and five teenagers with OCD participated in the program. Many aspects of recovery were addressed in the program, including parent-child communication issues, self-concept and self-worth, utilising peer support, managing emotional distress, development of anxiety and OCD management skills, and training in cognitive behavioural approaches to symptom alleviation. The program enabled participants to achieve some progress in many of these areas, and in particular, the opportunity to share and work through issues with others in the same situation was highly valued by the parents and young people. An extended report about the program is included in this annual report.
While the development of the OCD Recovery Program provides an opportunity for some families with children with OCD to access treatment and support, its availability will be limited until this type of service can be made more generally available through child and adolescent mental health and community services. ARCVic has been advocating for many years about the lack of specialist clinical services for young people with OCD and other anxiety disorders, and was finally successful this year in gaining an opportunity to present these issues to the Department of Human Services Manager of the Child and Adolescent Mental Health services. This consultation was an important step forward in our efforts to achieve recognition for the debilitating impact of childhood onset anxiety disorders, and the urgent need for early intervention services.
Another exciting initiative this year is that we undertook a project with a group of students from the School of Art and Design at the University of Wollongong, to develop a booklet on OCD for young people. The student’s project was to produce a design for the cover and inside pages of a 30 page book that was written by Kathryn I’Anson and Rod Carne. The students did fantastic work, producing a creative and dynamic design that will be appealing to teenagers, and the book has now been printed and is being promoted through ARCVic’s website and networks.
Educational events were one activity that was cut down during the 2004 to 2005 year, however, we are grateful to Prue Lewis who facilitated several community education seminars on Stress and Anxiety Management, and also presented a number of talks on behalf of ARCVic for various organisations throughout the year. Prue also did a great job this year as Assistant Editor of our Newsletter – she produced four newsletters which included special feature articles from Australian mental health professionals who specialise in the area of anxiety disorders. Prue also coordinated a survey of our members on the Newsletter, and a report of this survey is included in this annual report. A special thank you also to Paul Read, for contributing to our information resources by writing an excellent text for a new brochure on Body Dysmorphic Disorder.
A much anticipated development that finally came to fruition this year was the completion of ARCVic’s web-site, which finally went on-line in July this year. Our thanks to Bianca Dobson, our web-designer, who did fantastic work in producing a user-friendly, attractive and professional site. While we still have a bit of a way to go in producing all the content for the site, we have made a good start, and are already receiving great feedback about the content and layout.
ARCVic has continued its involvement in several mental health networks, and key research and service development projects in the anxiety disorders and mutual support/self help areas. Following the completion of the project on ‘The Needs and Experiences of Carers of People with High Prevalence Disorders’ – undertaken through a partnership between The Network for Carers of People with Mental Illness and beyondblue, Kathryn I’Anson has been working on the development of a policy paper with members of the Carers Network that will further elaborate on the changes needed in health policy and practice to ensure better support and services for carers and families. A version of this policy paper was recently accepted for publication in the Journal of the Health Issues Centre which is great news, and will begin the process of raising awareness in the mental health sector about these issues. Kathryn was also project manager of a service development project in the Mutual Support and Self-Help Sector this year. This project was funded by the Department of Human Services Eastern Region, and included six state-wide mutual support organisations. The project was completed in December 2004 and resulted in a report that clearly defined the role and function of mutual support and self help organisations, and provided a plan for the future development of these organisations. This report is currently contributing to a review of the mutual support and self help sector by the Department of Human Services Mental Health Branch, which it is hoped will lead to a greater recognition of the importance of ARCVic’s services and most importantly an increased funding base to ensure its continuance and growth.
Thank you to our very dedicated and hard working Committee of Management members, for their generous contributions and support to ARCVic during the past year. We are sad to report the resignation of two of our very valued Committee members – Phillip Smith and Wendy Malcolm. We greatly appreciate the many years of service to the Committee by Phillip and Wendy, and we will greatly miss their wisdom and support. And to all of our members and friends our sincere thanks for being a part of this organisation, and inspiring and helping us to be a strong and growing service that ensures that people with anxiety disorders and their families are not alone in their suffering and in their efforts toward recovery.
| John Geros President | Kathryn I'Anson Director |
* Surnames of some volunteers have been deleted to protect privacy.