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A link to the video-recording of the recent WRMO is available to all financial members of MHYFVic and to everyone who subscribed to attend the Oration. If you are eligible but have not received the link, please contact us at admin@mhyfvic.org
Visitors to the Orations page of our website can read a pdf transcript of the Oration.
The Medical Journal of Australia, in its 2024 edition Vol 220, No.8, p.409, published an interesting article on how Artificial Intelligence might be used in health care in a manner that is subjected to ethical surveillance. Here is the summary:
Objective: To support a diverse sample of Australians to make recommendations about the use of artificial intelligence [AI] technology in health care.
Study design: Citizens` jury, deliberating the question: “Under which circumstances, if any, should artificial intelligence be used in Australian health systems to detect on diagnose disease?”
Setting, participants: Thirty Australian adults recruited by Sortition Foundation using random invitation and stratified selection to reflect population proportions by gender, age, ancestry, highest level of education, and residential location [state/territory; urban, regional, rural]. The jury process took 18 days [I6 March-2 April 2023]: fifteen days online and three days face-to-face in Sydney, where the jurors, both in small groups and together were informed about and discussed the question, and developed recommendations with reasons. Jurors received extensive information; a printed handbook, online documents, and recorded presentations by four expert speakers. Jurors asked questions and received answers from the experts during the online period of the process, and during the first day of the face-to-face meeting.
Main outcome measures: Jury recommendations, with reasons.
Results: The jurors recommended an overarching, independently governed charter and framework for health care AI. The other nine recommendation categories concerned balancing benefits and harms; fairness and bias; patients’ rights and choices; clinical governance and training; technical governance and standards: data governance and use; open source software; AI evaluation and assessment; and education and communication.
Conclusions: The deliberative process supported a nationally representative sample of citizens to construct recommendations about how AI in health care should be developed, used, and governed. Recommendations derived using such methods could guide clinicians, policy makers, AL researchers and developers, and health service users to develop approaches that ensure trustworthy and responsible use of this technology.
The ‘Emerging Minds’ newsletter of 15 March 2024 has two items of particular interest to clinicians.
New resources from the AIFS on supporting the mental health and wellbeing of children in out-of-home care.
Children in out-of-home care (OOHC) often experience a higher rate of mental health challenges compared to children who have not been in care. Developed by the Australian Institute of Family Studies (AIFS), these resources provide information about the OOHC system in Australia, the mental health outcomes of children in care, and programs and practice approaches to support children’s mental health and wellbeing in OOHC.
Understanding the mental health and wellbeing of children in out-of-home care (practice paper).
Practice principles for supporting the mental health and wellbeing of children in out-of-home care (practice guide).
What type of programs improve the mental health outcomes of children in out-of-home care? (fact sheet).
New practice paper: Recognising and strengthening the stories of children in care
The stories we have about ourselves create a strong sense of positive identity that is critical for social and emotional wellbeing. Children who are removed from their birth family and placed in out-of-home care can often lack this sense of identity or history, which may be silenced or even disqualified by the adults in their lives. Professionals working with children who are in care have an important opportunity to bring children’s histories to life in ways that support their sense of identity and confidence. This paper identifies practical ways professionals can provide this support, even when children’s experiences with their birth families were marked by trauma or neglect.
This practice paper is for practitioners who are working with children in out-of-home care. It examines the importance of identity and history on the mental health of children in care. It provides examples of practices that have supported identity and story development for children who are living in out-of-home care.
Both of these papers can be viewed on the Emerging Minds website.
Our website has been significantly revised to give casual visitors immediate information about what we do, whilst at the same time allowing members to go straight to specific sections such as Projects or Newsletters or Events, without having to navigate past reams of information.
We are working on tasks of development of Projects to give us the evidence base for our advocacy. There are quite a few items under development at the present time which are not yet reflected in the website but over the next few months we expect to see a burgeoning of activity.
Visit us on mhyfvic.org
Annual membership of MHYFVic is now due for members who have not yet already renewed.
Our mission is to promote improvements in mental health for the young and their families, so you receive our newsletters and notices whether or not you are a paid-up member.
Membership subscriptions of $50 per annum enable the organisation to maintain its website, mailbox, telephone service and to undertake its administrative tasks. If you value the work that MHYFVic does, we need your financial as well as your ethical support.
Send cheques to MHYFVic, PO Box 206, Parkville, Vic 3052; or Transfer funds to MHYFVic, BSB: 033 090 Account: 315188; write your name in the Reference tab. In addition, please send a confirmatory email to admin@mhyfvic.org
Mental Health for the Young & their Families in Victoria is a collaborative partnership between mental health & other health professionals, service users & the general public.
MHYFVic
PO Box 206,
Parkville, Vic 3052