Besides the obvious benefits of this day and the report to be compiled as a result of PTS21 showcasing a never before seen group of people with such experience and expertise on Transition, Suicide and Models of Care, there will be other pluses for Australia.

 

Stand Tall is working with the founders of Give an Hour in America to launch this service in Australia. It has already been taken up by the Ministry of Defence in the UK. Give an Hour will provide a one on one consultation by a mental health professional, free of charge, to people requesting it. This will be done as a personal one on one where possible but it will have to be conducted via telemedicine in the regional and remote areas where it is probably most needed. We are convinced that will be the case from later this year as a result of the bush fires.

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Stand Tall is in conversation with Tim Jones, the CEO and founder of Positive Transition, the world’s first total transition portal. The plan is to work with an Australian partner and develop an Australian version.

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Sarah Austin and her team from the NHS in the UK have developed the most complete Model of Care in Portsmouth with the emphasis on retaining after treatment care within that community. It is planned that this model will then be repeated in many areas in the UK. Our plan is that we will fly Sarah to Canberra to discuss her blueprint for success with our Health Minister. We will also have Dr Walter Busittil from Combat Stress in the UK, with us for PTS21 and in Canberra.

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The appearance of Dr Barbara Van Dahlen at PTS21 is incredibly important. Barbara is the Chief Executive of the Presidential Prevents Programme which is a task force aimed at lowering the suicide rate in the USA. Barbara’s experience can be vital for PTS21 and to what we can implement in this country and it is our intention that we introduce her to the relevant authorities in Canberra also. Barbara originally founded Give an Hour in the USA and has passed on the running of this to her partner Randy Phelps. So far Give an Hour has clocked up over 300,000 free consultations and in 2012 Barbara was named as one of Times 100 most influential people.