2015 'New Directions – New Opportunities' Conference

5th ANNUAL NATIONAL BORDERLINE PERSONALITY DISORDER CONFERENCE in Adelaide

Official opening: Senator Penny Wright

Penny Wright (ex Greens Senator) officially opens the 5th Annual National BPD Awareness Conference and reflects on her time within the Greens Party and expresses empathy with the daily struggle consumers experience.

Senator Wright’s comment resonated with participants when she said “I have learned how difficult it is for some people to get out of bed – every day takes courage”.

 ‘New Directions in Borderline Personality Disorder’

Prof Andrew Chanen gave the keynote address at Annual BPD Awareness week conference on 2nd October 2015 in Adelaide. He speaks very passionately about the many advances made in therapy options and the importance of acknowledging that BPD is a treatable illness.

Professor Andrew Chanen is Director of Clinical Services at Orygen Youth Health Clinical Program, Melbourne, and Deputy Research Director at Orygen Youth Health Research Centre & Centre for Youth Mental Health, The University of Melbourne. He established and directs the Helping Young People Early (HYPE) program, a clinical, research and training program investigating the understanding of and prevention and early intervention for severe personality disorder, particularly borderline personality disorder in youth.

He is President of the International Society for the Study of Personality Disorders (ISSPD). He has previously served on numerous expert groups including The Australian Government’s Expert Reference Group on Borderline Personality Disorder, the Development Group for the NHMRC Clinical Practice Guideline for Borderline Personality Disorder and the NHMRC/beyondblue Clinical Practice Guideline for Depression in Adolescents and Young Adults. Andrew has over 70 scientific publications and serves on the Editorial Boards of Early Intervention in Psychiatry, Personality and Mental Health, Borderline Personality Disorder and Emotion Dysregulation, and Psychopathology. He is a member of the ICD-11 Review Group for the Classification of Personality Disorders.

The Australian BPD Foundation wishes to acknowledge the support of Flinders University SA in making this video available. NB Unfortunately due to a technical hitch the slide for the previous speaker is shown for a short period at the start of Andrew's speech and the final couple of minutes cut off.

Recovery A Lived Experience

Consumer Keynote Presenter - requested to not be made available.

I’m with you on this: Carer perspective

Karen has been in a caring role for people with Borderline Personality Disorder for over 10 years, and works part-time as a librarian. She has attended Carer Support groups, courses and workshops, and wants to share her life experiences as well as difficulties in navigating the confusing Mental Health system. Currently, Karen is passionate about, and has been active in lobbying politicians for a statewide specialist BPD service in South Australia.

The Project Air Strategy for Personality Disorders approach’

Professor Brin Grenyer.  Brin is Director of the Project Air Strategy for Personality Disorders (www.projectairstrategy.org), a NSW Health funded priority project. The ability to diagnose and respond appropriately to a person with a personality disorder is crucial for effective treatment.

The Project Air team works with local health district staff to develop their skills and confidence in responding to the needs of people with personality disorders. They also work with consumers, carers, parents and families, and they develop clinical pathways for patients to be referred for evidence-based treatments. Professor Grenyer is Professor and Clinical Psychologist at the Illawarra Health and Medical Research Institute, University of Wollongong.

Commonalities in therapeutic approaches

Clara Bookless

Dr Clara Bookless gave the first presentation in the ‘Commonalities in therapeutic approaches" concurrent session. In this presentation she talks about MBT (Mentalisation Based Therapy).
Dr Clara Bookless has researched the impact of various traumatic experiences for many years, including the impact of violence in the community and family, and victimisation of psychiatric inpatients.

She was awarded an NH&MRC Public Health Training Fellowship for her research into the personal experience of trauma and psychiatric disorder. Over the last decade she has focussed on early prevention of mental health disorders, particularly with regard to early childhood trauma and attachment relationships and the treatment of Personality Disorders.
Clara has published in international journals and presented at national and international conferences. She is recognised as part of the International Training Network for Mentalisation Based Therapy (MBT) and an accredited MBT supervisor. Dr Bookless currently works as Clinical Lead and Senior Psychologist for an early child parent service in South Australia. She also runs a private practice and has recently completed her training as a psychoanalyst with the Australian Psychoanalytical Society.

Dr. Jackie Amos

Where BPD and Mothering meet: an attachment and trauma perspective.
Jackie is a Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist and Gestalt Psychotherapist. For the past 15 years Jackie has worked extensively with families and children (aged 3 – 12 years) who are caught in intergenerational cycles of abuse and neglect.

As part of her doctoral research, Jackie has developed a model integrating attachment theory, evolutionary theory, and trauma theories, to better understand how these mothers and children find ways to maintain proximity to one another in the face of ongoing interpersonal threat; adaptations which have distressing effects on their experiences of emotional closeness and connection.

This research has informed the ongoing development of a dyadic psychotherapy Parallel Parent and Child Therapy that aims to support these mothers and children in finding joy in their relationships.

Dr. Sathya Rao

 Dr. Rao was the third presenter in the Concurrent session discussing commonalities in therapeutic approaches to BPD.

Dr. Rao is the Clinical Director and Consultant Psychiatrist at "Spectrum the Personality Disorder Service for Victoria". Sathya was a member of the NHMRC BPD Guidelines Development Committee and co-author of "Borderline Personality Disorder Towards Effective Treatment".

He runs extensive training programs for psychiatrists, registrars, GPs and clinicians in the field of personality disorders.

What might a model for a statewide service look like

Dr. Matha Kent & Dr. Paul Cammell

Martha Kent Is a senior consultant psychiatrist working in private clinical practice in SA with a particular interest in women’s issues and BPD. She worked in the public system for many years, has been a member of the federal Ministerial BPD Expert Reference Group 2010-2012 and chaired the South Australian Statewide Clinical Network’s BPD Working Group in 2011.

Martha teaches psychiatrists in training around BPD. She was named in the Australian Senate and the South Australian Legislative Council’s motions as a result of her strong lobbying which two motions recognise the first week of October as BPD Awareness Week.

Martha continues to work toward better access to treatment and care for people with the diagnosis of BPD.

Dr Paul Cammell MA MBBS (Hons) FRANZCP PhD is a psychiatrist, academic and psychotherapist who originally trained in philosophy, and is affiliated with Flinders Medical Centre and Flinders University, South Australia. He is a Regional Director and National Chair of advanced psychotherapy training for the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatry.

He has recently been a Visiting Fellow at the Personality Studies Institute, Cornell University, New York. He has also recently been appointed as the Chair to implement the establishment of the South Australian Statewide Personality Disorder Service.

He is interested in relating philosophy to theories and clinical approaches in psychiatry, psychotherapy and psychoanalysis, and has a forthcoming book, Reinterpreting the Borderline, that focusses upon Borderline Personality Disorder.

Making Sense of it all:

Sonia Neal (consumer perspective)

Sonia works as a Peer Support Worker at Uniting Care West, Perth. She is the author of two books, Bad Mother’s Revenge and Death by Teenager, and a former radio spot presenter with 720 ABC Perth.

She is also a motivational speaker on living with Borderline Personality Disorder and regularly gives BPD focussed talks, presentations, education events and workshops from both a professional and a lived experience. Sonia is currently studying at Edith Cowan University towards a degree in psychology and counselling.

Sonia is the 2014 recipient of SANE Australia’s inaugural Barbara Hocking Fellowship. She recently travelled to the USA, UK and Canada to study and research organisations for the betterment of services and programmes for consumers, families and carers of people suffering from and affected by Borderline Personality Disorder.

Judy Burke (Carer perspective) Validation  

Judy Burke has worked extensively as a volunteer in the mental health field, specialising in Borderline Personality Disorder [BPD].

Over ten years, she has acquired knowledge and experience of BPD to the point where she is well qualified to speak and advise on this subject.

Her knowledge of BPD has come from several main sources:- Her experience as mother and carer of an adult daughter diagnosed with BPD; Attended the first ISSPD (International Society for the Study of Personality Disorders) Congress held in Australia in 2011; A member of the SA Mental Health Clinical Network, BPD Work group, author of Carer related elements of the work group’s report into BPD (June 2014); Wide-ranging research into BPD, via attending national conferences, studying books and papers by the world’s leading researchers, and preparing and presenting her own papers on BPD.

She is a the co-founder and –facilitator of Sanctuary, probably the largest support group for carers of people with BPD in Australia, she has been actively and directly involved in the experiences of almost 100 other carers of people affected by BPD.

‘Moving Forward’ Challenges in integrating research, training and public health service provision for the treatment of borderline personality disorder”
 

Dr Paul Cammell MA MBBS (Hons) FRANZCP PhD is a psychiatrist, academic and psychotherapist who originally trained in philosophy, and is affiliated with Flinders Medical Centre and Flinders University, South Australia.

He is a Regional Director and National Chair of advanced psychotherapy training for the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatry. He has recently been a Visiting Fellow at the Personality Studies Institute, Cornell University, New York. He has also recently been appointed as the Chair to implement the establishment of the South Australian Statewide Personality Disorder Service.

He is interested in relating philosophy to theories and clinical approaches in psychiatry, psychotherapy and psychoanalysis, and has a forthcoming book, Reinterpreting the Borderline, that focusses upon Borderline Personality Disorder. 

The Australian BPD Foundation wishes to acknowledge the support of Flinders University SA in making these videos available.