CASSE’s inaugural conference a great success

The inaugural CASSE conference, Innovative Approaches was held in association with The Dax Centre at the Treacy Centre in Parkville on May 5-6.

 An audience of school leaders, teachers, school counsellors, support staff and wellbeing officers, social workers and psychologists, school chaplains, regional directors and network leaders, presented cutting-edge knowledge of the mind, psychoanalysis, child development and group dynamics.

The  speakers were  Professor Stuart Twemlow, Chairman of the Division of Prevention in Mental Health, UMKC School of Medicine, Kansas City, Professor George Patton, Director of Adolescent Health Research at Melbourne’s Centre for Adolescent Health, Dr Frank Sacco, author of Why School Antibullying Programs Don’t Work, with Professor Stuart Twemlow, and Ros June, of the Austin Health CAMHS (Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services) and Schools Early Action team.

The conference was a great success. Many teachers commented on how refreshing it was to see a totally new approach to bullying, so different from the many models that are based on cognitive behavioural approaches.

CASSE is now preparing the video of the conference speakers Professor Twemlow and Dr Sacco which will be available on line before the end of May.

CASSE’s  Chairman, Dr Eugen Koh said he was thrilled with the result: “ It was a very good start to our program and we have now begun short-listing schools for the next phase of the program in 2012. This couldn’t have been a better beginning for CASSE”.