Robb College, in conjunction with the UNE School of Health, will host an annual Health Dinner and Lecture to commence in 2011.

This year the speaker delivering the lecture at the dinner will be Professor Mary Chiarella. The topic of her lecture will be “Protecting the public from harm: do national registration schemes for health professionals work?”.

Members of the public are invited to attend the lecture, which will take place on Wednesday, October 19, at 6:00pm in the Robb College Dining Hall.

Prof Chiarella’s career spans 40 years both in the United Kingdom and Australia across a variety of nursing services.

Prof Chiarella is Professor of Nursing, Sydney Nursing School at the University of Sydney. In 2003/04 she was the Chief Nursing Officer, NSW Health Department and prior to that was the Foundation Professor of Nursing in Corrections Health, with the University of Technology, Sydney. In the past she was a Director at the NSW College of Nursing from 1990 -1997 and has also served as a Board member and Junior Vice-President to the NSWCN Board.

Prof Chiarella has provided her professional expertise to health services, organisations and governments over the years. Examples include a review of professional practice and boundary issues for Justice Health, and membership of the NSW Law Reform Commission Division Working Group on minor’s consent to medical treatment. In relation to her health law and ethics work, she was a founding member of the Australian Bioethics Association and the Australian Institute for Health, Law and Ethics, was Chair of the Advanced Care Planning Committee for NSW Health and is currently a member of the Clinical Ethics Advisory Panel for NSW Health.

In relation to her regulatory work, she has served on Nursing Tribunals, Professional Standards Committees and Impaired Nurses Panels, she has been a member of the NSW Nurses and Midwives Board, Chair of the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Council from 2007 -2009; and is currently the NSW nominee on the Nurses and Midwives Board of Australia (NMBA); and Chair of the Policy Work-ing Group of NMBA.

In relation to her safety and quality work, she was a Ministerial appointment to the NSW Qual-ity Council, a Board member of the NSW Institute for Clinical Excellence and a former co-chair of the Clinical Coun-cil for the Clinical Excellence Commission. She also currently serves as one of the Federal Minister for Health’s three independent members on the Board of Health Workforce Australia.

RSVP to the lecture by Tuesday 18th October, email robb@une.edu.au or phone Robb College Office on 6773 1700.

Professor Cynthia Stuhlmiller from the University of New England’s School of Health will draw on her pioneering work with Vietnam veterans, and on individual and collective responses to psychological trauma and disaster, when she gives a public lecture in Armidale on “the importance of human connections” in mental health.

Titled “Health Disorder and the Psychiatric Enterprise: The Importance of Human Connections”, this will be Cynthia Stuhlmiller’s “inaugural lecture” to the Armidale community as a newly-appointed Professor at UNE. She will discuss the importance of human connectedness in preserving the sense of dignity and self-worth that is necessary for health and healing.

Her lecture, aimed at a general audience, will trace concepts of health and disorder that have shaped our understanding of psychological experiences. It will be in the Armidale Town Hall at 6.30 pm on Wednesday 17 August.

Professor Stuhlmiller will use diagnoses of post-traumatic stress disorder, seasonal affective disorder and schizophrenia to illustrate the dangers of classification systems generally. “While diagnoses can bring meaning to experiences and join individuals in suffering, they can also serve to disconnect individuals and communities when the meanings are based on a ‘deficit’ view of the person or persons,” she said. “This view undermines personal and collective strength and cultural resilience and coping practices.”

Cynthia Stuhlmiller (pictured here) has held leading clinical and academic positions in the United States, New Zealand, Norway, Australia and the UK – including those of Professor of Mental Health Nursing at the University of Technology, Sydney, and Professor of Mental Health Nursing at Flinders University, South Australia.

Her position on mental health is critical of narrow, decontextualised views of what constitutes disorder, and honours the experiences of individuals and communities who confront and live through challenges. She will argue that interventions derived from an interpretative approach pave the way to restoring human connections that can preserve the sense of dignity and self-worth, and that the “salutogenic” model (i.e. one that focuses on factors that support human health and wellbeing) holds the most promise for promoting mental health in a global society.

Professor Stuhlmiller will conclude her presentation by talking about her current education and research focus, which aims to increase accessibility to health information and help, while reducing the costs associated with suffering.

Everyone is welcome to attend this free lecture, which will be the third in UNE’s 2011 Inaugural Lecture Series.  The Director of the UNE Foundation, Dr Geoffrey Fox, will – on behalf of the Chancellor – welcome guests to the lecture, the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Jim Barber, will propose a vote of thanks, and the event will include the traditional academic procession.

Drinks and canapés in the Town Hall foyer will follow the lecture. RSVP (for catering purposes) by Friday 12 August to Susan Delpratt on 6773 2960, or e-mail events.pr@une.edu.au.