Betty Kitchener

Last updated
Betty Kitchener
AM
Betty Kitchener 2013.jpg
Kitchener in 2013
Born1951 (age 73–74)
Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
NationalityAustralian
Alma mater University of New South Wales; University of Canberra
Known forEducator, mental health consumer advocate, co-founder of Mental health first aid training
Spouse Anthony Jorm
ChildrenTwo
Website mhfa.com.au

Betty Ann Kitchener AM (born 1951 [1] ) is an Australian Mental Health educator who co-founded Mental health first aid training along with Professor Anthony Jorm. [2] [3]

Contents

Career

Betty Kitchener trained as a teacher, counsellor and nurse. [2] [4] She is also a mental health consumer advocate, having experienced recurrent major depression. [4] Her experiences of not being supported during those episodes especially within the workplace motivated her to want to change community attitudes towards mental illness. She has held academic appointments at the Australian National University and the University of Melbourne. [5] [6] Until the end of 2016, she was CEO of Mental Health First Aid Australia. [7] She held an honorary Adjunct Professorship at Deakin University from 2013 to 2019. [8]

Community activism

In 2000, she founded Mental health first aid training in Canberra, together with her husband Anthony Jorm, who is a mental health researcher. [3] [4] Mental health first aid is a 12-hour face-to-face training program for members of the public to learn how to provide initial assistance to someone developing a mental health problem or in a mental health crisis (e.g. they are suicidal). [9] This program spread across Australia and by 2011 over 170,000 Australian adults had received the training (1% of the country’s adult population). [10] By 2015, this had reached 350,000 [11] and by 2025 1.5 million. [12] The training has been adapted to various cultural groups in Australia, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, [13] Vietnamese Australians [14] and Chinese Australians. [15] The training program has spread to many other countries, including Bangladesh, Bermuda, Canada, China, Denmark, England, Finland, France, Hong Kong, India, Ireland, Japan, Malta, Nepal, Netherlands, New Zealand, Northern Ireland, Pakistan, Portugal, Saudi Arabia, Scotland, Singapore, South Africa, Sweden, Switzerland, United Arab Emirates, the United States and Wales. [10] [16] By 2025, over 8 million persons had been trained in Mental Health First Aid globally. [17]

Awards and honours

Kitchener has received many awards and honours for her work on Mental health first aid, including:

Publications

Some of her publications are the following:

References

  1. 1 2 Australia Day. "Australian of the Year Awards". Archived from the original on February 6, 2022. Retrieved 6 February 2022.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Office of Women’s Policy, Department of Human Services. 2011 Victorian Honour Roll of Women. [ permanent dead link ] Melbourne, Victoria.
  3. 1 2 Kitchener, B. & Jorm, T. (2013). In the beginning: Mental Health First Aid is born in Australia. National Council Magazine, Issue 1, 26..
  4. 1 2 3 Bidinost, M. (November 5, 2005). "Mental first aid". The Age. p. 31.
  5. ↑ Governor-General of the Commonwealth of Australia. "Media Notes. Medal (OAM) of the Order of Australia in the General Division" (PDF). Archived from the original on 27 February 2012. Retrieved 26 December 2011.
  6. ↑ University of Melbourne. "Find an Expert: Profiling the University of Melbourne's Researchers". Archived from the original on 13 October 2011. Retrieved 26 December 2011.
  7. ↑ Mental Health First Aid Australia. "Our Team". Archived from the original on 5 September 2012. Retrieved 14 September 2012.
  8. ↑ Deakin University. "Directory of staff" . Retrieved 13 April 2013.
  9. ↑ Kitchener, B.A. & Jorm, A.F. (2008). Mental health first aid: An international programme for early intervention. Early Intervention in Psychiatry, 2, 55-61.
  10. 1 2 Jorm, A.F. & Kitchener, B.A. (2011). Noting a landmark achievement: Mental Health First Aid training reaches 1% of Australian adults. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, 45, 808-813.
  11. ↑ University of Canberra. "Alumni profiles". Archived from the original on 27 March 2015. Retrieved 20 March 2015.
  12. ↑ Mental Health First Aid Australia. "Mental Health First Aid Australia" . Retrieved 13 Feb 2025.
  13. ↑ Kanowski, L.G., Jorm, A.F. & Hart, L.M. (2009). A mental health first aid training program for Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples: description and initial evaluation. International Journal of Mental Health Systems, 3, 10.
  14. ↑ Minas, H., Colucci, E. & Jorm, A.F. (2009). Evaluation of Mental Health First Aid training with members of the Vietnamese community in Melbourne, Australia. International Journal of Mental Health Systems, 3, 19.
  15. ↑ Lam, A.Y.K., Jorm, A.F. & Wong, D.F.K. (2010). Mental health first aid training for the Chinese community in Melbourne, Australia: effects on knowledge about and attitudes toward people with mental illness. International Journal of Mental Health Systems, 4, 18.
  16. ↑ Mental Health First Aid International Newsletter, November 2012. "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2013-04-21. Retrieved 2012-11-24.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  17. ↑ Mental Health First Aid Australia. "International" . Retrieved 13 Feb 2025.
  18. 1 2 Australasian Society for Psychiatric Research. "Previous Award Recipients" . Retrieved 26 December 2011.
  19. ↑ Australian Government. "It's An Honour: Australia Celebrating Australians" . Retrieved 26 December 2011.
  20. ↑ National Council for Community Behavioral Healthcare. "2008 Awards of Excellence" . Retrieved 26 December 2011.
  21. ↑ Mental Health Commission of Canada. "Canada's Political Leaders Take a Lesson in Mental Health" . Retrieved 27 July 2012.[ permanent dead link ]
  22. ↑ Australian Financial Review. "Australia's 100 Women of Influence" . Retrieved 2 October 2014.
  23. ↑ "Member (AM) of the Order of Australia in the General Division" (PDF). Official Secretary to the Governor-General of Australia. 26 January 2015. p.  52. Archived from the original (PDF) on 28 January 2015. Retrieved 27 January 2015.
  24. ↑ Department of Premier and Cabinet. "Australia Day Victoria". Archived from the original on 17 March 2015. Retrieved 27 January 2015.
  25. ↑ Department of Premier and Cabinet. "Australia Day 2016". Archived from the original on 2016-03-11. Retrieved 14 January 2016.
  26. ↑ Department of Premier and Cabinet. "Australia Day 2017" . Retrieved 29 January 2017.
  27. ↑ ABC National Radio (24 January 2019). "Australia Day 2019". Australian Broadcasting Corporation . Retrieved 3 February 2019.
  28. ↑ Buloke Shire Council. "2020 Australia Day Celebrations" . Retrieved 26 January 2020.
  29. ↑ University of Canberra. "Distinguished Alumni Award Winners" . Retrieved 20 September 2015.
  30. ↑ University of New South Wales (5 May 2016). "UNSW celebrates alumni high achievers" . Retrieved 9 May 2016.
  31. ↑ University of New South Wales. "Australian Mental Health Prize" . Retrieved 8 December 2016.
  32. ↑ University of Canberra (29 October 2019). "UC announces Betty Kitchener Prize to help support important mental health research projects" . Retrieved 4 November 2019.
  33. ↑ Australian Rotary Health (2024). "Australian Rotary Health Annual Report 2023-24" . Retrieved 13 Feb 2025.
  34. ↑ National Council for Mental Wellbeing (20 May 2025). "MHFA Summit 2025" . Retrieved 26 May 2025.
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