Dr
Peter Cotton
BA(Hons), MA(Clin/Psych), PhD(Melb), FAPS
Director of Psychology Services Health Services
Australia, Peter is a clinical and organisational
psychologist with specialist expertise in how organisational factors influence
employee mental health and wellbeing. He has published a number of book chapters
and research papers in the fields of organisational behaviour and workplace
mental health. He works regularly with public and private sector organisations
around the strategic balance between employee wellbeing and performance
imperatives, and evaluating the effectiveness of a range of employee support
functions.
Peter has held numerous professional appointments including as a subject matter
expert in workplace mental health with the National Occupational Health & Safety
Commission and as a consultant with Comcare conducting a three year
organisational prevention program with large agencies across the Commonwealth.
He has also worked with the Australian Public Sector Commission including, most
recently, as a consultant on the development of absenteeism management guidance
materials for Commonwealth agencies.
Peter has consulted with most Australian compensation authorities on the
assessment and management of work-related psychological injuries. Most recently,
he has worked with the Victorian WorkCover Authority on the development of a
range of quality assurance initiatives to improve the delivery of mental health
services provided to injured workers across Victoria. Peter served three terms
as a Director on the Board of Directors of the Australian Psychological Society
and was appointed a fellow of the Society in 2002.
Evelyn M. Field (FAPS)
Evelyn Field is a practising
psychologist and an Accredited Speaking Member of National Speakers Association
of Australia. She has spoken in New Zealand, Belgium, Spain, USA, Vietnam,
Israel and Italy. In June 2004 she presented a four-hour workshop and a paper at
the International Conference into Workplace Bullying in Norway.
Evelyn has developed a social survival skills model from her personal and
professional experience. It has been presented to adolescents, parents,
teachers, health professionals and organizations.
Her unique presentations are regarded as entertaining, ethical and educational.
She uses a variety of techniques eg cases, stories, cartoons, magic, role-plays,
to engage participants and help them develop new skills.
She has been appointed a Fellow of the Australian Psychological Society and is
one of their media spokespersons and was nominated for a Telstra Business
Women’s award. She has done over 600 media interviews on a wide range of topics,
appearing on the "Today show", " Good Morning Australia", “A Current Affair”,
“Seven thirty Report”, “Today Tonight Show”, Channel Seven News and Ribena
Light. She was Resident Psychologist for Channel Ten’s “ 9 AM” show with David
and Kim and is a regular with Channel Seven.
Her first book, ‘Bully Busting’ (Finch 1999) a self–help book for parents,
children and educators is based on her six social survival skills has sold over
22,000 copies and was translated into three languages. The updated version named
‘Bully Blocking’ was released February 2007 in Australia and the international
version was released May 2007. She wrote a chapter on parenting for “ Bullying
Solutions” for the National Coalition Against Bullying. She’s currently
completing a book on dealing with workplace bullying.
She is on the advisory panel of the National Centre Against Bullying. She was on
the board of VOCAL for 5 years, [Victims of Crime Assistance League, in
Victoria] and spent 20 years as a Board Member of the Mental Health Foundation
of Victoria and 11 years as Honorary Secretary of the Australian Association for
Mental Health.
Michael
Hilton Ph.D.
Michael Hilton is a Director of the
WORC Project which is part of the Policy and Economics Group’s Health Research
team, located at the Queensland Centre for Mental Health Research (QCMHR), The
Park, Centre for Mental Health, Wacol, Brisbane.
Michael leads a research team investigating the impact of mental health problems
on the workforce and the economy. Michael has engaged over 67 large national
employers, representing 520,000 employees in mental health programs. Prior, to
his repatriation to Australia he was involved in sleep and circadian rhythm
research at Harvard University.
Michael graduated from Queensland University in 1988 with a Bachelor of
Sciences. The University of Warwick UK awarded his PhD in 1999. Following this,
he held a post-doctoral position at the School of Sleep Medicine, Brigham and
Women’s Hospital / Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA. He currently
consults with Harvard University, and many public and private sector
organizations on occupational mental health.
Dr Edward
White is the Professor of Nursing at the University of the Sunshine Coast in
Queensland.
He is a
Conjoint Professor at the School of Psychiatry, University of New South Wales.
Immediately prior to this, he was Professor and Faculty Director of Research at
the University of Technology Sydney. Before that, he was the Professor of
Nursing at Keele University, England, having previously been Senior Research
Fellow at both The University of Manchester and Kings College, University of
London.
In 1996, he co-directed the largest study of Clinical Supervision at that time
in England and Scotland. With Joint Chief Investigator Associate Professor Julie
Winstanley, he is presently conducting an even larger randomised controlled
trial, to test the relationship between Clinical Supervision, staff well-being,
quality of care and patient outcomes, funded by the Queensland Treasury and the
Golden Casket Foundation, Australia, with a ¼million dollar research grant.
Dr
Peter Stebbins - Partner, PsyCare
Clinical and Organisational Psychologist - Member APS College of Clinical
Psychologists
Dr Peter Stebbins is a Clinical and Organisational Psychologist specialising in
workplace psychological issues including the assessment and treatment of
work-related stress disorders, organisational health consulting and leadership
development, work/life balance issues and human resources management. He
completed his Honors Degree at Deakin University and both his Masters Degree and
PhD in Clinical Psychology at the University of Queensland researching in the
area of chronic stress.
Peter has extensive experience in counselling, assessment, case management,
supervision, staff training and development. He provides medico-legal assessment
services and work related stress investigation services. Peter has also had
extensive experience in the development of behaviour modification strategies
with individuals with special needs and has implemented such programs with a
wide range of consumers and staff across community and inpatient settings.
Peter's specialist area of counselling is in the use of cognitive behavioural
and existential treatments for anxiety, mood and adjustment disorders.
Peter is a regular keynote speaker and workshop leader at a range of management
and health psychology conferences, and the author of You Can Cope - Turning
Stress Into Success, Wholly Coping, Work Related Stress Injury, Carers in
Contemporary Australia, Stress Free Living and a number of research papers,
government reports and other self-help literature.
Peter is a Partner with PsyCare - a specialist clinical and corporate consulting
firm.
Prof Whiteford is the Kratzmann
Professor of Psychiatry and Population Health at the
University of
Queensland,
Australia.
He has held senior clinical and administrative positions, including those of
Director of Mental Health in the
Queensland and Federal governments in
Australia
and at the World Bank in
Washington
DC.
His expertise and research
interests are in mental health policy, financing and service delivery.
Prof Sandy
McFarlane
Professor McFarlane is currently the Head of the
University of
Adelaide Node of the Centre of Military and Veterans Health. He is an international expert in
the field of the impact of disasters and post traumatic stress disorder. He is a
Past President of both the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies
and the Australasian Society for Traumatic Stress Studies. He is the recipient for the Robert
Laufer Award for outstanding scientific achievement in the
study of the effects of traumatic stress
He is currently the Senior Adviser in Psychiatry to the Australian
Defence Force and the Australian Centre for Posttraumatic Mental Health. He holds the rank of Group Captain in the
RAAR specialist reserve. He has acted as an advisor to many groups in post
disaster situations, including the Kuwait Government, and the United Nations.
He has lectured and run workshops in
Europe,
United States of America,
Asia and
South Africa.
Apart from his interest in post traumatic stress disorder in relation to
disaster victims, military personnel and other civilian accidents, he has
broadened the relevance of this knowledge to the area of those suffering severe
mental illness.
His research has focused on the epidemiology and longitudinal course of
PTSD as well as the neuroimaging of the cognitive
deficits in this disorder.
He has published over 250 articles and chapters in various refereed journals and
has co-edited three books.
He is a member of several international advisory boards in the field of
traumatic stress.
He has also been involved
in a medico legal cases in a number of jurisdictions on matters relating
to traumatic stress. He frequently
appears in the media as a commentator on the impact of war and disaster.
Elizabeth Benson-Stott
As a Psychologist,
Elizabeth has worked in both USA and Australia in the fields of Psychology,
Mental Health, Human Resources, Education, Workplace Health, and Management. She
has also travelled extensively gaining knowledge of a broad range of cultural
aspects.
Elizabeth has been
a guest speaker at national and international conferences on Suicide
Intervention & Prevention, Management, Counselling, Leadership and Psychology.
In 2004 Elizabeth won the National Award for Youth Suicide Intervention and
Prevention, presented by Suicide Prevention Australia and Hyundai. In 2005
Elizabeth was recognized by the Queensland Government as a semi-finalist for the
Queenslander of the Year Awards. Her ongoing contribution to mental health was
recognized by her peers in 2006 through being awarded the Donald Cohen
fellowship, presented by the International Association of Child and Adolescent
Psychiatry, and Allied Professions.
In 2006 Elizabeth
was awarded the Sunshine Coast Regional & Rural Manager of the Year Award by
Australian Institute of Management.
Elizabeth is
currently a member of the Queensland Health Expert Reference Group, sits on the
Queensland Children’s Services Tribunal, is a member of the Queensland
Psychologist Board Panel of Assessors, sits on the Health Quality and Complaints
Commission Clinical Advisory Committee, is a Board Member of Suicide Prevention
Australia, and is the CEO of Psychological consultancy Betterlife Directions.
Elizabeth has been
invited as a guest speaker to the World Mining Conference in Poland to speak on
Psychological injuries in the workforce and implementing effective treatments to
promote recovery.
Justin Rowe BA (Soc. Sci.), B.Ed (Couns.) MAPS
Consultant Psychologist
Justin has a breadth of clinical experience across the
health, justice and non-government sectors. He has extensive project management
and service evaluation experience in addition to senior management of human
services organisations and managing clinical operations to deliver quality
client outcomes. As a member of various boards and executive committees in the
health and community sector Justin has advised government departments and
ministers. In addition he has direct experience in delivering services at a
distance utilising modern technologies. Justin has contributed to peer review
publications and written numerous clinical service and operational evaluation
reports for government and service organisations across a range of areas.
Justin utilises his experience and specialist knowledge to
facilitate psychological consultation and interventions to individuals and
groups as well as facilitating service development processes to organisations.
Some of his professional interests in organisations include
facilitating: management coaching; processes that support positive relating and
enhancing employee wellbeing; and, other processes that reduce the impact of
workplace stressors to maximize life-work balance.
