Welcoming 2016 - Thank you for your support in 2015
2015 has allowed me to thrive and am so grateful for the awesome opportunities to excel doing what I love. I received great press coverage including a number of print media thanks to Courier Mail Q Weekend, Brisbane News Magazine, Sunday Mail, online talk shows A_to_A_talk_show and Entrepreneurs of Africa, Our Definition of Success Podcast, radio broadcast inc Canberra's 1Way FM and internationally with Botswana Gabz Fm show called The Link with Jessica.
I had incredible partnerships and collaborative work including with organisations such s QPAC and Friends of Heal Foundation, African Women Group in Sydney, Maurice Blackburn Lawyers, AFL QLD, and many others. I continued to mentor a number of young people, continued my roles in advisory boards and management committees and advocacy on issues of mental health, domestic violence, service access etc. I also continued my public training in Mental Health First Aid increasing community awareness and literacy on mental health issues.
Although I thrived, my greatest struggle has been my recovery from back surgery as a result of car accident sustained in 2014 which has been very slow, painful and impacted greatly on my ability to do more of the things I love. However I am forever grateful for my family and friends for holding my hand through it all and making sure I come out of it all although bruised but stronger.
One other sad event in 2015 is saying goodbye to my work with Mental Health in Multicultural Australia (MHiMA) project. Four yrs ago I was employed to establish this national project to provide a national focus for advice and support to providers and governments of issues of mental health and suicide prevention for people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds. It has been a great privilege and an honour to have worked in this project. I am sure those taking on after us will do justice to the awesome work our team did across Australia. The project is currently under review and recommendations will be made to the government in March about its future inline with the new reforms. I am proud of many achievements of the project but most importantly the development and implementation of the Framework for Mental health in Multicultural Australia a tool that increases cultural responsiveness of mental health services. I hope this will continue.
I look forward to your support and partnerships again 2016!
See my video message here
