Helen Mayo House Annual Conference 2024

We are pleased to advise that our annual conference is scheduled this year for Thursday, 21 and Friday, 22 November 2024 at the magnificent Adelaide Convention Centre, on the banks of Karrawirra Pari / River Torrens on Kaurna land.

With the theme “Enriching outcomes in the Early Years”, we will gather a host of interesting and thought-provoking speakers in Plenary and Break-out Sessions to enrich your knowledge and your work. .

Our keynote speakers on Day 1 are:

• Professor Megan Galbally, Program Director of Mental Health and Professor/Director of Women's and Children's Mental Health at Monash Health and Monash University.
• Dinah Thomasset, Founder and Chair, Villagehood Australia
• Professor Leonie Segal, Research Chair, Health Economics and Social Policy, University of South Australia.
• Via video link from the USA: Dr Claudia Gold, Paediatrician and Early Relational Health Specialist, UMass Chan Medical School, author of "The Developmental Science of Early Childhood".

We'll be facilitating multiple breakout sessions on topics such as health justice partnerships for perinatal women, consultation-liaison in a maternity hospital, good-enough parenting, peer support in perinatal mental health and infant mental health approaches.

Day 2 will feature a morning workshop by Professor Galbally on the management of perinatal OCD and eating disorders, and an afternoon workshop by Dr Jackie Amos and Dr Liz Coventry from Centacare on their work in the treatment of early relational trauma.

View the conference program:

* Provisional program – timings may be subject to change

Dr Rebecca Hill
Chair, Conference Organising Committee

Professor Megan Galbally is Professor/Director for the Centre for Women’s and Children’s Mental Health at Monash Health and Monash University as well as the Program Director for Monash Mental Health Program, the largest Mental Health Program in Victoria providing mental health services across the lifespan.

Megan is the current National Chair of Section of Perinatal and Infant Psychiatry, RANZCP, Chair of the Gender Equity Working Group, RANZCP and a member of Clinical Academic Psychiatry Steering Group, RANZCP.

Megan currently leads an ongoing longitudinal pregnancy cohort study, Mercy Pregnancy and Emotional Wellbeing Study with women and children recruited in Victoria and WA and followed up from early pregnancy to now at 8 years of age.

Claudia is a paediatrician and writer who practiced paediatrics for over 20 years and now specializes in early relational health. D. Gold is on the faculty of the Early Relational Health fellowship at UMass Chan Medical School and the Brazelton Institute at Boston Children’s Hospital. She is the author of 4 books, most recently The Power of Discord (2020) with co-author Ed Tronick, with a 5th book, Getting to Know You: Lessons in Early Relational Health from Infants and Caregivers, forthcoming (Spring 2025.) Dr Gold speaks frequently to a variety of audiences including parents and professionals both in the US and around the world.

Professor Leonie Segal (PhD economics), holds the Foundation Chair in Health Economics & Social Policy at the University of South Australia. Her research program is concerned with improving the life chances of the most vulnerable in society - parents and children exposed to intergenerational child abuse and neglect, children of prisoners, Aboriginal mums and babies. The aim is to better understand the causes of distress and adversity to determine the desirable system response. Research is pursued in partnership with academics internationally, clinicians/service providers, government and the community sector. Segal uses a logic-driven approach, developing innovative ways to solve complex inter-disciplinary problems. She established the iCAN research project in 2015, with the aim of determining the consequences of child maltreatment, from infancy into adulthood using linked administrative data - to bolster the case for prevention.

Dinah Thomasset is a passionate advocate and expert in maternal mental health, peer support, and early childhood development, with a career spanning over two decades across Australia, France, and the UK. Dinah's journey into community development and advocacy is deeply personal.

As a migrant mother who faced postnatal depression and suicidal feelings, she transformed her hardships into a powerful force for good. This personal experience led her to establish Villagehood Australia, a grassroots charity dedicated to supporting mothers and their children during the critical early years.

Venue

Adelaide Convention Centre
North Terrace, Adelaide

Enquiries

Conference Organiser, Shanna Sheldrick: shanna@premiereventconcepts.com.au