Catherine Hungerford is the Convenor of the postgraduate courses in Mental Health Nursing at the University of Canberra. She also teaches mental health in the undergraduate curriculum. Catherine is an endorsed Nurse Practitioner in the field of mental health and remains clinically active. She also has wide experience in management, education and research.
Catherine has a Doctor of Philosophy from the University of Queensland and other degrees, undergraduate and postgraduate, in the fields of education, communication studies and counselling. Catherine’s current research interests include Recovery in mental health.
Richard Clancy is a Clinical Nurse Consultant in Mental Health and Substance Use for Hunter New England Health and conjoint Senior Lecturer with the University of Newcastle. Richard has worked in a variety of clinical settings during his 32-year career in health, including 25 years working with people with mental health issues.
In addition to his nursing qualifications, Richard has a degree in Social Sciences and a Masters in Medical Science from the University of Newcastle. His research and professional interests include psychosocial interventions for people with mental health and substance-use issues and the development of multimedia training materials for clinicians.
He has published in the field of mental health and comorbidity. Richard has
been involved in a number of state and international projects, developing guidelines and resources for people with mental health and substance-use issues.
Donna Hodgson is a credentialed Mental Health Nurse who was awarded the National Mental Health Nurse of the Year in 2009 by the Australian College of Mental Health Nurses for her outstanding contribution to the educating and mentoring of undergraduate and postgraduate nurses in the field of mental health.
Donna is passionate about ensuring the connection between the theory and practice of mental health nursing. She currently participates strongly in the teaching and researching of mental health nursing students.
Since commencing work in the field of mental health in 1991, Donna has worked in a variety of roles, including establishing the first nursing Clozapine coordination role under the first National Mental Health Plan in Canberra and regional NSW. She has been the Clinical Nurse Consultant of the acute adult inpatient unit in the ACT, and worked as a clinical manager in the community. Donna is the co-author of Australian longitudinal research on the neuroleptic Clozapine.
Donna also has a strong focus on consumer rights, and promotion and prevention of mental illness in the community. Some of this advocacy for consumers stems from Donna’s personal experience after acquiring a permanent disability following a car accident in 2000.
Donna has worked for ACT Health as the Coordinator of Mental Health Nursing Education Programmes for more than ten years. She has additionally spent one year as an academic teaching Mental Health units at the University of Canberra in 2010, and maintains an adjunct position there. She is the principal of DMH Nursing.
Tony Schumacher Jones is the Manager of the Dementia Behaviour Management Advisory Service of the ACT. He has a background in Political Science from the University of Western Australia, where his research interests included human rights and Soviet psychiatry, and a PhD in Political Philosophy from Wollongong University, where his research was on human rights and aged care mental health in Australia.
Tony is also a mental health nurse who has worked extensively in adult and older persons acute psychiatry in Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom.
His interests include dementia, notions of personhood, thinking about human rights, issues in older persons’ mental health, the philosophy of Emmanuel Levinas and playing classical and Spanish guitar.
