Gibson G1, Nanayakkara V1, Jones K1, Marsh J1, Anderson L, Roberts J2
1Justice Health And Forensic Mental Health Network, 2Mental Health Carers NSW
Biography:
Dr Gabrielle Gibson is a Forensic Psychologist with the Community Forensic Mental Health Service, part of the NSW Justice Health and Forensic Mental Health Network.
Dr Gibson completed a conjoint Masters of Forensic Psychology and PhD program at the University of New South Wales in 2018.
Dr Gibson is passionate about a collaborative approach to working with patients that have a diagnosis of serious mental illness and concurrent risk of aggressive behaviour.
Research tells us that when people with a lived experience of mental illness are aggressive, their family members and carers are most often the ones at risk. As public sector health services, our capacity to work with and manage the risk of aggression in persons with mental illness has steadily increased in recent years. But what is available for those who are at most risk of being the victim of this kind of aggression?
The Clinical Risk Assessment and Management (CRAM) for Carers Program is a training program that has been adapted from an existing program provided to mental health clinicians throughout NSW since 2008. This adaptation occurred over a 12 month consultation period between clinicians from the Justice Health and Forensic Mental Health Network and a reference group comprised of carer and consumer advocates. The CRAM for Carers program is aimed at assisting carers to recognise, understand, and communicate concern about aggression. The program was developed to equip carers with crucial information to assist in caring for their loved one, without shifting a greater burden of responsibility to those carers.
Here, we speak about the process of collaborating with consumers and carers for training development, as well as the critical step of rolling out a training program to bridge the gap between services and the carers of consumers.