Dealing with depression

Facilitator

Professor Fred Mendelsohn, Howard Florey Institute

Professor Mendelsohn graduated from Medicine at The University of Melbourne in 1965. He continued his training as a medical registrar at the Royal Melbourne Hospital and subsequently became an honorary physician (1971-1972) and then a senior physician (1977-1996) at the Austin Hospital, Melbourne. He completed his PhD in 1972 and has continued to develop a strong research background with over 295 publications. He held a personal chair in Medicine at the University of Melbourne from 1990-1996, and during this time was the Scientific Director, of the Positron Emission Tomography Centre, Austin Hospital.

Professor Mendelsohn is Director of the Howard Florey Institute and R Douglas Wright Professor of Experimental Physiology and Medicine at the University of Melbourne since 1997. He was elected to the Australian Academy of Science in 2003 and received the Order of Australia, Officer in the General Division, in 2004.

Panel

Professor Bruce Tonge (MBBS 1970), Monash University

Professor Tonge is an academic Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist, who is head of the Centre for Development Psychiatry and Chairperson of the Division of Psychiatry at Monash Medical Centre, Melbourne. He is also Clinical Advisor of the Mental Health program of Southern Health at Monash Medical Centre Melbourne, Australia.

He has a distinguished record of teaching and research in child psychiatry. He established and directs the internationally recognised Monash University Centre for Developmental Psychiatry and Psychology. He has research and teaching interests in the area of developmental psychiatry with a particular focus in the areas of Autism Spectrum Disorders and behavioural and emotional disturbance in children and adolescents with intellectual disability and treatment outcome studies in childhood anxiety and depressive disorders.

Professor Tonge is the co-author of the Developmental Behaviour Checklist, an instrument which assesses behavioural and emotional problems in children and adolescents with intellectual disability. This instrument is widely used in clinical and research settings in both Australia and internationally.

Dr Leanne Rowe AM (MBBS 1980, MD 2006), Monash University

Dr Rowe AM is one of Australia’s most authoritative speakers on health. Leanne serves on a number of high level boards including beyondblue: the national depression initiative and Medibank Private. She is also the immediate past Chairman of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners.

Dr Rowe’s leadership has been recognised by an Order of Australia for service to medicine, ‘The Rose Hunt Medal’ by the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners and ‘Best Individual Contribution to Health Care in Australia’ by the Australian Medical Association.

As an authority on health, Leanne Rowe has published several books including: I just want you to be happy: preventing and tackling teenage depression whichwas co-authored by Professor David Bennett AO and Professor Bruce Tonge, endorsed by beyondblue and the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners and published by Allen and Unwin.

Jim Goodin, Mental Health Foundation of Australia (Victoria)

Jim Goodin is a former Vice Principal with 30 years experience in regular secondary and special needs schools. He now works as a community mental health educator for the Mental Health Foundation of Australia (Victoria). His particular interests are in adolescent mental health, strategies to prevent mental illness and community education about mental health issues. His knowledge of mental illness comes from professional, voluntary and family experience.

Some of Jim's experience in the mental health field includes being a:

• Vice-President, Mental Health Foundation of Australia (Victoria)
• Co Chair Victorian Mental Health Week Advisory Committee 2009
• Embrace the Future: Development of Mental Health and Wellbeing for Young Australians Committee member
• Cunningham-Dax Museum Advisory and Ethics Committee(s) member
• Convenor Mood Disorders Support Group - MHFA(Vic)
• Former President of OCD Foundation of Victoria (now ARC Vic)
• Formerly Vice President Australian National Association for Mental Health (ANAMH)

In 1996 Jim was granted the FJ Angus Award for services to Community Mental Health in Victoria.

Daniel Thomson, Mental Health Foundation of Australia (Victoria)

An experienced school teacher, Daniel Thomson is a board member of the Mental Health Foundation of Australia (Victoria) and a facilitator of the Mood Disorder Support Group.

His interests in the field of mental health include:

• Depression, anxiety and abnormal psychology
• Lifestyle and exercise intervention
• Practical therapeutic interventions including CBT, mindfulness and positive psychology
• Social cognition and social intelligence
• Depressive realism