From Tracy Semmler-Booth - October 2008
Conference: The Australian College of Mental Health Nurses 34th International Conference 2008 7-9th October.

I attended the 3 day conference and presented a poster presentation titled "The value of group therapy for women with perinatal depression" The conference program consisted of concurrent sessions plus daily keynote speakers.

Tuesday 7th Keynote speaker - Richard McLean - consumer
Wednesday 8th Keynote speaker - Brenda Happell - Shaping a vision for mental health nursing.

Thursday 9th Keynote speaker - Paul Hammersley & Brian Langshaw UK - Trauma and Psychosis.
Site Visits: Friday 10th

• Austin Health, Acute Psychiatric Unit
• Ramsay Health Care, Albert Road Clinic

Achievement of objectives

Meet and liaise with other mental health nurse practitioners. Meet and liaise with other perinatal mental health nurses, and their services to learn about their current practices and outcomes of the services they offer.
Achieved; I met with and spoke with perinatal specialists at both the conference and the site visits. I now have email contact with a researcher from Monash University who is looking at introducing a perinatal mental health nurse practitioner role in NSW.

Present my poster which focuses on the outcomes of the outpatient group we offer.
Achieved; I presented my poster and spoke to many people about our group and its outcomes.

Be able to participate in the full conference program.
Achieved; I participated by attending the sessions each day.

Keep up to date with current mental health nursing practice, policies etc
Achieved; it was very interesting and beneficial and I have taken some of the new practices learnt and hope to introduce them to our service e.g. behavioural treatment for depression.

To learn about consumer outcomes from mental health nurse run services.
Achieved; consumer outcomes were discussed by a
few of the speakers:

• A case study on psychosis in pregnancy
• Behavioural treatments for depression
• Brief intervention therapy

Update knowledge on psychosis in pregnancy, medications and dual diagnosis.
I attended 3 sessions on this topic and now have email contact with a researcher who is gathering data on antipsychotic medication in pregnancy and postpartum. I hope that our team will be able to support her by referring clients.

Specific activities since attending:

• Used some of the information about dual diagnosis in my presentation to The Neonatal Nurses Association
• Used some of the new information on medication in pregnancy in my presentation to the South Australian Lactation Consultants.

Recommendations for the future:

• Looking at how to introduce some of the information learnt into our practice
• Have talked with psychiatrist regarding referring clients to the antipsychotic medications in pregnancy research