Speakers

Dr Aaron Groves
Senior Director Mental Health Branch, Queensland Health

Dr Aaron Groves is the Director of Mental Health in Queensland. He graduated in Medicine from the University of Western Australia in 1985 and became a Fellow of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists in 1991. In 2001 he became the Chief Psychiatrist and later the Director of Mental Health in Western Australia where he was responsible for leading the development of the Mental Health Strategy 2004 – 2007 the largest single investment in Mental Health by that State’s Government.

Dr Groves holds the position of Deputy Chair of the Australian Health Ministers’ Advisory Council’s Mental Health Standing Committee. He was previously the Chair of the Information Strategy Committee, Safety and Quality Partnership Group and the Homelessness and Housing Taskforce which are all subcommittees of the National Mental Health Working Group.

He is currently the Queensland Board Member of Beyondblue: The National Depression Initiative Dr Groves is a Queensland Health nominee to the State Community Recovery Committee. His experience includes the State Mental Health Co-ordinator for Tropical Cyclone Larry and was previously the WA Mental Health Coordinator for the Mental Health disaster response for Western Australians affected by the 2002 Bali Bombings and the 2004 Tsunami.

Dr Groves led the consultation process for the development of the National Mental Health Plan 2003 – 2008 as well as the development of the National Mental Health Information Priorities, Second Edition: The Key Performance Indicators for Australian
Public Mental Health Services and the National Safety Priorities in Mental Health: A national plan for reducing harm.

He serves on several committees of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists including the Board of Practice Standards, the Committee for Training, the Ethics Committee and Chaired the Boundary Transgressions Project. He was previously the Chair of the WA Psychotropic Drugs Committee the independent group responsible for rational prescribing, which developed treatment algorithms for the use of both antidepressant and antipsychotic medications.

Garry Stevens
Clinical Psychologist, University of Western Sydney
Garry Stevens BSc (Hons), M Clin Psych, MAPS is a Senior Clinical Psychologist with extensive experience in the field of child and adolescent mental health.  He has been involved more recently in the field of disaster mental health, including the response to the Indian Ocean Tsunami and the second Bali Bombing. In his role as Senior Research Fellow at the SciMHA Unit (Science, Mental Health & Adversity), University of Western Sydney, he is involved in several research and resource development programs including the ‘CBRN Psychosocial Guidelines Project’ and an ARC funded project examining resilience and recovery trajectories in emergency service workers and populations affected by terrorism. 

Stephen Monsiegneur
Senior Project Officer Mental Health Disaster Preparedness, Queensland Health

Stephen is responsible for the implementation of the Psychosocial and Mental Health Sub Plan of the Queensland Health Disaster Plan and associated professional development activities.

He is a Registered Nurse with endorsement to practice mental health nursing. He has worked in a range of settings including the areas of  mental health, medical and surgical health care.

His involvement in the field of psychosocial disaster management began following his deployment as part of the mental health response following Cyclone Larry in 2006.

Dr Sarb Johal
Clinical Psychologist, Risk and Assurance, New Zealand Ministry of Health
Dr Sarb Johal is Senior Advisor to the Emergency Management Team at the Ministry of Health, New Zealand. Over the past two years he has coordinated the production of the National Health Emergency Plan document, “Planning for Individual and Community Recovery in an Emergency Event – Principles for Psychosocial Support”, and been involved in emergency response and recovery planning in New Zealand. He sits on the National Welfare Coordination Group – an inter-agency group with responsibility for planning and coordinating national and regional level emergency welfare response and recovery activities.

An immigrant to New Zealand from the UK, Dr Johal holds two doctorates in psychology: a PhD from the University of Wales, Cardiff, and a clinical psychology doctorate from University College London. As well as working as a Child Clinical Psychologist in Central London for 2 years, he has worked as an academic and as a Clinical Health Psychologist in hospital and primary care settings in the UK and New Zealand. He is a Chartered Health Psychologist (UK), an Associated Fellow of the British Psychological Society and a member of the Royal Society of New Zealand.

Dr Johal also holds a position as Senior Advisor to the Child, Youth and Maternity Policy Team at the Ministry of Health, New Zealand, and is Director of Equanimity Limited.

Greg Eustace
Principal Advisor - Emergency Management, Queensland Health
Greg is responsible for the progression of psychosocial and mental health disaster initiatives within Queensland Health which involves the development  of Guidelines, Standard Operating Procedures and Professional Development consistent with the Queensland Disaster Management System and the Queensland Plan for Mental Health 2007 –2017.

He has had a lifelong involvement in emergency response co-ordination having previously held the position of Principal Advisor Disaster Management for Queensland Transport.    Prior to disaster management roles Greg was a long serving ambulance officer and has had a long involvement in incident and emergency management.    He has been involved with many prevention, planning, response and recovery activities associated with natural and technological disasters and the
reception of evacuees.

Greg has been a member of the State Disaster Co-ordination Group since 1997 and is the Queensland Health representative on the State Community Recovery Committee as well as a member of the National Mental Health Disaster Response Committee

Noel Gillard 
Director Emergency Management Unit, Queensland Health

Noel Gillard is an emergency management operator, manager and program evaluator with thirty eight years First Aid, Ambulance and Emergency Health Service experience in Tasmania, Australian Capital Territory and Queensland.

Currently, Noel is employed by Queensland Health as Director of the Emergency Management Unit, in the Division of the Chief Health Officer.  In this role Noel is responsible for the direction and provision of research and policy advice in the fields of emergency health service response coordination, the Department’s emergency management preparedness and response capability, critical health infrastructure protection and continuity planning. The Emergency Management Unit is also responsible for the strategic policy development of the Queensland clinical coordination and retrieval service and statewide coordination of health transport systems.

Mayor Cr Barry Easther
West Tamar Council
Barry Easther was born and educated in Launceston, Tasmania and first elected to Local Government in March 1983.

He held the position of Mayor of West Tamar Council from 1990 – 1994 and since the introduction of popular election for Mayors in the year 2000 he has been successful at each subsequent election.

Prior to his retirement from fulltime employment, Barry was involved for twenty years in the Tasmanian timber industry. 

He is Vice-President of the Local Government Association of Tasmania, a Director of the Australian Local Government Association, Chairman of the Local Government Committee of Northern Tasmania Development and Chairman of the Esk Water Joint Authority.

Stephen McClelland
Acting Regional Program Director, ABC Local Radio Queensland
Steve has been a Broadcaster and Journalist since 1985. In that time he has worked in Commercial Radio in NSW, QLD and WA and for the ABC in Tasmania and Qld.
For 16 years Steve hosted various current affairs and talkback shows and since 2001 has been a Manager with the ABC in Queensland. A key task has been to oversee the national broadcaster’s coverage of emergencies, including severe weather events. 

Emeritus Professor Beverley Raphael
Professor Population Mental Health and Disasters, University of Western Sydney

• Professor of Population Mental Health and Disasters & Director, Centre for Scientific and Collaborative Investigation of Mental Health Adversities (SCIMHA), University of Western Sydney
• Professor Psychological Medicine at the Australian National University
• Emeritus Professor in Psychiatry from the University of Queensland. 

She has been involved in the development of national mental health policy in Australia and is responsible for mental health policy and program development in New South Wales (NSW).

She has a long-term involvement and expertise in research and management in the area of trauma, grief and disasters, and more recently response to terrorism and its mental health correlates and consequences.  She is an internationally recognised expert in mental health response and disasters. This has included planning for the Sydney Olympics and response to the Bali Bombing. 

She has lead the development of prevention and public health approaches to mental health and the implications of these for disasters and terrorism and has responsibility for coordinating national mental health responses to these events in Australia.  She is chair of the National Working Party for Mental Health aspects for Terrorism and Disaster and is the current chair of the National Mental Health Disaster Taskforce which co-ordinated the National Mental Health response to the South East Asia Tsunami disaster.  She is a consultant to WHO and other international groups.

Athol Yates
Executive Director, Australian Homeland Security Research Centre
Athol Yates specialises in analysing policy and programs related to domestic national security, principally critical infrastructure protection, the protection of the built environment, and harnessing industry and research communities to enhance the security of Australia.

His current research areas of interest include:

Athol's qualifications include a Bachelor of Engineering, GradDip Soviet Studies, and Masters of Public Policy. He is the editor of the National Security Practice Notes, and editor of the 3 volume pandemic influenza history series.

His recent publications include:

He is also the author of the 180 page report Engineering a Safer Australia: Protecting Critical Infrastructure and the Built Environment, which is the only public report on Australia 's critical infrastructure protection efforts.

Heather Bancroft
Clinical Director, Victorian Ambulance Counselling Unit
Heather Bancroft has been involved with the Victorian Ambulance Counselling Unit (VACU) since 1995 when she was contracted as a sessional Psychologist to provide face-to-face and 24 hour telephone counselling services to paramedics and their immediate family members.

Since 2004, she has been contracted for 3 days/week as the Clinical Director of the VACU. In this role she coordinates the provision of a range of psychological services and training to paramedics, managers, peers, and immediate family members. In addition, she has a private practice where she provides counselling, supervision, consultation and training to individuals and organizations.

Richard Johnson
General Manager, Coral Coast Capricorn, Lifeline Community Care
Richard Johnson has been working as a director of Lifeline for over 10 years.  Richard initially trained as a registered nurse, and followed this up with degrees in Social Science, Counselling and Masters Degree in Counselling.  He has a list of diplomas and Certificate IV qualifications in varies psychotherapies, training and business management.

Richard first became involved in psychological first aid in the days when critical incident stress debriefing was considered the therapy of choice for people affected by personal trauma.  A tremendous amount of research has taken place since those days and has lead Richard to embrace the psychological first aid model as current best practice. 

Richard has been involved with numerous individual, workplace, family, and community recovery to trauma, include the Childers Backpacker Fire and Tilt Train Derailment.  Most recently Richard was both on-the-ground and coordinating Lifeline’s activation in the Emerald and Mackay floods.

Mike Morrison
Senior Consultant in Emergency Management, Redland City Council
Mike’s work in Emergency Management spans nearly 17 years.  He currently holds the position of Senior Consultant in Emergency Management for Redland City Council following a 16 year tenure working for the Dept of Emergency Services. 

In May of 2006, Mike undertook a Study Tour to the United States to research disaster response and recovery operations in the wake of Hurricane Katrina-devastated New Orleans and U.S. Gulf Coast.  He also visited Washington DC and Florida where he gained valuable insight into the U.S. Emergency Management environment. 

In New Orleans and its’ surrounding regions, he saw first hand the effects of the impact of a catastrophic disaster event and the response and recovery processes being undertaken within the community and at all levels of government.  He has authored a comprehensive report into his research and findings from that tour.

Mike has a wealth of emergency management experience developed over 34 years of working with Police and Emergency Services and in 2002 was awarded the Emergency Service Medal (ESM) for services to Emergency Management in Queensland. 

Christine Healy
Former Director, ACT Bushfire Recovery Centre
Chris has an extensive career in public sector management in the Victorian, NSW and ACT Governments, and a long professional background and experience in community recovery after emergencies and disasters. She was the Director of the ACT Bushfire recovery Centre after the devastating 2003 bushfires.

Chris was a consultant to the Queensland Government on recovery services after Tropical Cyclone Larry and evaluated Australian Government recovery arrangements after the cyclone. She is a casual lecturer at the EMA Training Institute, providing community recovery training in the ACT and other states. 

In 2007 Chris toured the UK and the US where she studied recovery services after the London Bombings, 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina.

Melanie Taylor
Senior Research Fellow, Science of Mental Health and Adversity Unit (SciMHA), School of Medicine, University of Western Sydney
Mel Taylor is a Chartered Occupational Psychologist (UK). Her main research experience is in the areas of human factors and public health. Mel joined the Science of Mental Health and Adversity Unit (SciMHA) at UWS as a Senior Research Fellow in February 2007.

Since joining SciMHA, she has worked in the areas of population response to potential future threats (pandemic influenza, terrorism, and global warming) and the psycho-social response of first responders and the public to chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear (CBRN) terrorism or accident. More recently she conducted a national survey on the impacts of equine influenza on the social, emotional, and well-being of horse owners and those involved in the horse-industry.

Rick Vickers
Principal, Noetic Solutions Pty Limited
Rick Vickers is a Principal and regional general manager of Noetic Solutions Pty Limited, a respected strategy and knowledge consultancy.  They are a first choice for many clients, helping them solve complex problems, develop strategies and implement solutions.   
Rick has over 30 years experience in public and private sectors. He has drawn extensively on his Defence and education background and used his knowledge and acumen in recent projects such as:  

• the Cyclone Larry Lessons Learnt report for Queensland Department of Emergency Services,
• a modular disaster management syllabus to 11 SE Queensland local councils,
• emergency management and hazard planning courses for 200 SE Queensland environmental health officers,
• specialist advice and training in emergency management, risk management, guidebooks scenarios, communications, crisis planning and exercising for  local and state governments in Queensland NSW and Western Australia.

 He is an experienced facilitator and change manager not only in managing complex programs, but also in leading teams to deal with sensitive problems in diverse cultural environments.

Kevin Ronan
Professor of Psychology (Clinical), Department of Behavioural and Social Sciences, Central Queensland University
As a clinical psychologist and active researcher, Kevin specialises in hazards and disasters, problems of youth and families (e.g., conduct disorder, anxiety disorders, child maltreatment), schizophrenia, homework in therapy, and treatment outcome evaluation.

In terms of the hazards and disasters area, Kevin is a member of the Editorial Board of the Australasian Journal of Disaster and Trauma Studies and is an author of many disaster related publications, including a recent book called “Promoting Community Resilience to Disasters: The Role for Schools, Youth, and Families” (2005, Springer, New York).  He serves on a number of national committees focused on disasters as well as trauma and grief. 

Dr David Johnston
Joint Centre for Disaster Research, Massey University/GNS Science

David Johnston is a senior scientist at GNS Science, in the Hazards Group and has recently been appointed Director of the Joint Centre for Disaster Research in the School of Psychology at Massey University. This is a joint venture between Massey University and GNS Science. His research has developed as part of multi-disciplinary theoretical and applied research programme, involving the collaboration of physical and social scientists from several organisations and countries. David has been involved in developing integrated risk management strategies for different hazard events, using techniques such as scenario development, mitigation planning and community education programmes. Recent research on warning systems has focused on flood alert systems in New Zealand and Australia, tsunami warnings in New Zealand, Hawaii and Washington State and extensive work on volcanic warnings worldwide. He has had long term relationship with a wide number of end-users through his research, consulting and outreach activities. Currently he is outreach co-ordinator for the EQC-funded GeoNet project, a member of the steering group of the Auckland Engineering Lifelines Group, advisor to EQC on their education strategy and a member of the National Resilience Working Group for the New Zealand Ministry of Civil Defence and Emergency Management.

Tony Guscott
Manager Training Education and Quality Team, Tamarind Centre, NT Health and Community Services
Tony is a mental health nurse, working with the Top End Mental Health Service in Darwin.  He has had 25 years experience in the mental health, both in the private and public sectors in clinical, educational and .management.  Currently he manages the Training, Education and Quality Team within the Top End of the Northern Territory, a role which includes policy development, response planning, training and management of the mental health disaster response capacity for the Northern Territory, a role which includes critical incident and suicide postvention responses.