keynotes
Tess Maguire is a Senior Lecturer in Forensic Mental Health Nursing. She has a joint appointment with Centre for Forensic Behavioural Science Swinburne University of Technology and the Victorian Institute of Forensic Mental Health (Forensicare). She has extensive experience in development and delivery of professional development. Her research focuses on enhancing forensic mental health nursing practice, including nursing interventions (APP) to reduce the use of restrictive interventions. She was the recipient of the International Association of Forensic Mental Health Services, Christopher Webster Early Career Award in 2020 and the eDASA + APP received a National Award from the Australian Council on Healthcare Standard for clinical excellence and patient safety. In 2022 she received the Chris Abderhalden Award for Young Researchers in the Field of Aggression in Healthcare at the 12th European Congress on Violence in Clinical Psychiatry.
Marvelous Models and More
This presentation will cover two models, Safewards and the Clinical Reasoning Cycle. Both models were adapted (with permission) to enhance forensic mental health nursing practice, however, are also of relevance to mental health nursing practice. The models were adapted by engaging nurses, the lived experience workforce and other disciplines with reference to relevant literature. These models will be discussed in terms of how they can enhance efforts to reduce conflict and containment, improve staff-patient interaction, and aid clinical-reasoning and decision making.
Marvelous Models and More
This presentation will cover two models, Safewards and the Clinical Reasoning Cycle. Both models were adapted (with permission) to enhance forensic mental health nursing practice, however, are also of relevance to mental health nursing practice. The models were adapted by engaging nurses, the lived experience workforce and other disciplines with reference to relevant literature. These models will be discussed in terms of how they can enhance efforts to reduce conflict and containment, improve staff-patient interaction, and aid clinical-reasoning and decision making.
dr tessa maguire
Senior Lecturer Forensic Mental Health Nursing, Centre for Forensic Behavioural Science – Swinburne University of Technology – Forensicare & Adjunct Senior Teaching Fellow, Institute of Health and Wellbeing – Federation University Australia
Celebrating Mental Health Nurses Doing Extraordinary Things
Anna was appointed Victoria’s Chief Mental Health Nurse in 2015 and comes with experience across mental health and addictions medicine, having trained and worked in the UK before moving to Australia. Anna’s vision is to ensure we have a skilled, valued, and nurtured mental health nursing workforce. In 2022, Anna was additionally appointed as Executive Director of the Clinical and Professional Leadership Unit within Safer Care Victoria.
Anna is the executive sponsor of the Mental Health Improvement Program, leading significant reform and improvement projects in response to the Royal Commission into Victoria’s Mental Health System. Anna provides expert advice on quality and safety matters to the CEO of Safer Care Victoria and the Department of Health. As Executive Director, Anna oversees and supports the work of Victoria’s Chief Clinical Officers.
Anna was appointed Victoria’s Chief Mental Health Nurse in 2015 and comes with experience across mental health and addictions medicine, having trained and worked in the UK before moving to Australia. Anna’s vision is to ensure we have a skilled, valued, and nurtured mental health nursing workforce. In 2022, Anna was additionally appointed as Executive Director of the Clinical and Professional Leadership Unit within Safer Care Victoria.
Anna is the executive sponsor of the Mental Health Improvement Program, leading significant reform and improvement projects in response to the Royal Commission into Victoria’s Mental Health System. Anna provides expert advice on quality and safety matters to the CEO of Safer Care Victoria and the Department of Health. As Executive Director, Anna oversees and supports the work of Victoria’s Chief Clinical Officers.
anna love
Chief Mental Health Nurse and Executive Director Clinical and Professional Leadership Unit
SEWB Consumer Lived Experience Lead (RMH MHS) & Consumer Academic (CentreMHN, University of Melbourne)
shiobhan 'shibs' sharpe
Decolonising the Mental Health System – A SEWB & Lived Experience Perspective
Shibs is a proud Wulgurukaba, Gunggandji woman originally from Far North Queensland. In a past life she worked in paint & hardware, construction administration and project management. Recognising the significant impacts of intergenerational trauma within her family and through her own experiences, she moved into the mental health sector 4.5 years ago and has worked across a variety of consumer lived experience peer support, academic & leadership roles. Shibs’ first role in the lived experience space saw her become the lead peer worker in the development and implementation of RMH MHS Safe Haven and her contributions have since spread to numerous LE initiatives across Victoria. Ensuring the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander voice and Social and Emotional Wellbeing lens is captured and highlighted in every space she works in, her passions lay in the areas of complex trauma, the intricacies of grief, suicide prevention and postvention, social injustices and addressing ongoing systemic issues within the mental health sector.
Shibs is a proud Wulgurukaba, Gunggandji woman originally from Far North Queensland. In a past life she worked in paint & hardware, construction administration and project management. Recognising the significant impacts of intergenerational trauma within her family and through her own experiences, she moved into the mental health sector 4.5 years ago and has worked across a variety of consumer lived experience peer support, academic & leadership roles. Shibs’ first role in the lived experience space saw her become the lead peer worker in the development and implementation of RMH MHS Safe Haven and her contributions have since spread to numerous LE initiatives across Victoria. Ensuring the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander voice and Social and Emotional Wellbeing lens is captured and highlighted in every space she works in, her passions lay in the areas of complex trauma, the intricacies of grief, suicide prevention and postvention, social injustices and addressing ongoing systemic issues within the mental health sector.
dr haley peckham
MHNs Challenging the Narratives That Limit and Lessen Our Contribution
Dr Haley Peckham is a neuroscientist, mental health nurse, and educator whose work bridges biology and lived experience. Drawing from her own journey of recovery from complex trauma, she brings a deeply personal and insightful perspective to the fields of mental health and neuroscience.
With a background in philosophy, psychotherapy, mental health nursing, and neuroscience, Haley has long been driven by the question of how early life experiences shape our brains, minds, and behaviours. Her early work with children and adolescents in care—many of whom later became overrepresented in the criminal justice and mental health systems—inspired a career-long pursuit to understand the connections between adversity and adaptation.
Haley studied Molecular Neuroscience at the University of Bristol and earned her PhD from the University of Melbourne, where she explored how life experiences shape the brain through neuroplasticity and evolutionary biology. Her research challenges traditional notions of mental illness, instead positioning emotional and psychological suffering as meaningful adaptations to adversity that call for social justice public health prevention rather than a psychiatric response.
Haley developed the Neuroplastic Narrative, a transformative framework that redefines suffering not as pathology, but as a natural response to life’s challenges. Haley shares these insights through education and advocacy, promoting ACE-aware and trauma-informed approaches in clinical practice across Australia and the UK.
Dr Haley Peckham is a neuroscientist, mental health nurse, and educator whose work bridges biology and lived experience. Drawing from her own journey of recovery from complex trauma, she brings a deeply personal and insightful perspective to the fields of mental health and neuroscience.
With a background in philosophy, psychotherapy, mental health nursing, and neuroscience, Haley has long been driven by the question of how early life experiences shape our brains, minds, and behaviours. Her early work with children and adolescents in care—many of whom later became overrepresented in the criminal justice and mental health systems—inspired a career-long pursuit to understand the connections between adversity and adaptation.
Haley studied Molecular Neuroscience at the University of Bristol and earned her PhD from the University of Melbourne, where she explored how life experiences shape the brain through neuroplasticity and evolutionary biology. Her research challenges traditional notions of mental illness, instead positioning emotional and psychological suffering as meaningful adaptations to adversity that call for social justice public health prevention rather than a psychiatric response.
Haley developed the Neuroplastic Narrative, a transformative framework that redefines suffering not as pathology, but as a natural response to life’s challenges. Haley shares these insights through education and advocacy, promoting ACE-aware and trauma-informed approaches in clinical practice across Australia and the UK.
