The Australian Institute of Family Studies (AIFS) conference took place in Melbourne in late July. It was a fantastic experience with the team from the National Workforce Centre presenting on ‘Improving the lives of infants, children and families’ in a program full of almost 200 speakers talking about what matters most to families in the 21st century.
Brad, NWCCMH program director, introduced the Centre with supporting presentations from Rhys Price-Robertson (AIFS), Nicola Palfrey (Australian National University), Helen Francis (Emerging Minds) and Derek McCormack (Parenting Research Centre).
During the conference, the National to Local team was able to make connections with a wide range of professionals from many different health services backgrounds across Australia.
It was great to see the amount of interest we had from a diverse range of sectors and roles from executive level managers to policy advisors, to researchers, front-line practitioners and more.
The acknowledgement and passion for supporting child mental health was powerful and strongly shows that promoting children’s social and emotional wellbeing is at the forefront of health professionals’ minds.
Thank you to the team at AIFS for putting this event together and we look forward to the next conference in 2020!