▌Plenary Session Speakers
Dr Claire McAllister
Rainbow Families: Optimising Care for LGBTQIA+ parents and their infants in the peripartum
Dr Claire McAllister is a Child & Adolescent and Consultation Liaison Psychiatrist who works at the QLD Children’s Gender Service and the QLD Children’s Hospital Consultation Liaison Psychiatry Service. She has an interest in perinatal and infant mental health, and was fortunate enough to work in the 0-4
CYMHS team as a new fellow. She now translates these skills to the hospital environment, providing support to physically ill infants and their parents at QCH. Claire is passionate about supporting the health and wellbeing of the LGBTQIA+ community, and proudly identifies as bisexual. Her other professional
interests include eating disorders, neuropsychiatry, and functional disorders.
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Professor Sharon Dawe
Parenting, emotional regulation and substance use: Investigating the process of change
Sharon Dawe is a Professor in Clinical Psychology at Griffith University, Australia and an Adjunct Professor at the Australian Centre for Child Protection, UniSA and a Visiting Fellow at Oxford University, UK. She has been working as a researcher and clinician in the field of substance misuse and mental health for over 30
years at the Institute of Psychiatry, University of London (UK), National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre, UNSW and currently Griffith University. As a research-intensive professor, she is involved in a range of research projects including evaluation of the Parents under Pressure program (www.pupprogram.net.au),
assessment and diagnosis of young children with FASD, and the investigation of the impact of childhood trauma on parenting and child outcomes. Sharon is passionate about improving the outcomes for children living in adverse circumstances by supporting parents to manage difficult life situations.
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Dr Koa Whittingham
MotherCare: Building online resources for mothers of infants one study at a time
Dr Koa Whittingham is a senior research fellow at The University of Queensland and a registered psychologist with specialisations in both clinical and educational/developmental psychology. Her research focuses on three key interests: (1) parenting, (2) neurodevelopmental disabilities and (3) acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) and compassion focussed therapy (CFT). She is particularly passionate about the application of ACT and CFT to parenting. Koa is the author of Becoming Mum, a self-help book for the transition to motherhood grounded in ACT and the first author of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy: The Clinician’s Guide to Supporting Parents.
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▌Short Presentations
Meredith Reid
Strengthening outcomes for LGBTIQ+ families in the early years
The following presentation will provide an overview of how the broader social context impacts on families from an LGBTIQ+ background. It will also explore a range of LGBTIQ+ informed practices which could strengthen outcomes for both parents and infants at this critical time of development. LGBTIQ+ families may face multiple levels of discrimination which impact on their transition to and ongoing parenting. Although research shows that LGBTIQ+ children overall have comparatively good outcomes across areas of development it is often the parents who must shield their children from the adverse experiences resulting from stigma.
Dr Sue, Aleshia, Dr Grace
Eating disorders in the peripartum: Codesigning and evaluating an online module
Pregnancy can be an extremely challenging time for women with eating disorders, both psychologically and physically. Having a current or previous eating disorder may result in maternal and infant complications. Perinatal maternity services offer an opportune time for detecting and treating women with eating disorders. However, maternity staff frequently feel ill-equipped with recognising and responding to eating disorders in the peripartum. This presentation goes through the online learning module that has been developed to promote eating disorder skills and knowledge for health professionals working with women in the peripartum.
Samantha Payne
A Pregnancy Loss Circle of Support
Pink Elephants Co-Founder and CEO will present on the need for more support for women and their partners who have experienced early pregnancy loss. Sam will unpack the global research and Pink Elephants-led domestic research that highlights without support women are experiencing long-term poor mental health outcomes. Miscarriage is a traumatic event for many that can impact a parent for many years to come through experiences such as subsequent pregnancies and even the early days of parenting. Whilst we’ll highlight the evidence for the need we’ll ensure a clear referral pathway to different support is mentioned and different support modalties and outcomes communicated.
Jenny Addy
Strengthening Young Families in the Perinatal Period; PANDA’s Intensive Care and Counselling Telehealth Program
The Intensive Care & Counselling (ICC) Program provides medium term counselling, referral, service navigation and engagement support to families in the perinatal period, in Queensland and Victoria. Service users can access the ICC program via a referral from their health provider or by directly accessing the Perinatal Anxiety & Depression Australia (PANDA) helpline. The service is delivered via phone and e-mail and is therefore accessible for people who live outside of metro regions as well as people who experience barriers in accessing face to face services due to adverse experiences. This presentation outlines the ICC service model and details the benefits and outcomes of the ICC model specifically for young parents.
Kate Morse, Dr Anastasia Braun, Michelle East
Building connections and collaborative care – a statewide Perinatal and Infant Mental Health (PIMH) telepsychiatry service (e-PIMH)
This presentation will provide an overview of the telepsychiatry service called e-PIMH including. e-PIMH Telepsychiatry is a service using video to provide secondary advice around the social and emotional wellbeing of babies, young children and their parents/ carers. e-PIMH works closely with the local service providers to ensure the best possible support for parents and families with babies and young children.
Sarah Davies-Roe
Nurturing Families in Rural Remote Qld - Establishing an integrated collaborative model of care for Perinatal and Infant Mental Health in Torres and Cape HHS
This presentation will explore the development of an integrated, collaborative and culturally safe perinatal and infant mental health service that contributes to health equity priorities and works to improve the mental health and wellbeing of parents, infants and young children living in some of the most remote communities in Queensland. Torres and Cape Hospital and Health Service (TCHHS) is the largest provider of public healthcare services across the most northern remote areas of Queensland
Dr Constanze Schulz
Perinatal Psychology at Catherine’s House - Evaluation of a service
The perinatal psychology team at the Mater Hospital (South Brisbane) was established in October 2020 and is now an integral part of Catherine’s House, Queensland’s largest perinatal and infant mental health centre. This presentation will summarise the development of our service which is offering brief psychological interventions to women accessing maternity care at the Mater. We will provide details of our model of care and present case vignettes to illustrate how this translates into clinical practice. Given this year’s theme of the symposium there will be an emphasis on working with vulnerable populations.