A Collaborative Approach to Supporting People with Coronary Heart Disease and Depression

Panellists

• Dr Rosemary Higgins
  
  Profession: Psychologist
  Based in: Victoria

  Dr Rosemary Higgins is a Health Psychologist and Chair of the Victorian College of Health Psychology. She is employed as Senior Research Fellow at the Heart Research Centre.  Rosemary has considerable expertise in the rehabilitation of patients with coronary heart disease (CHD) and the management of health behaviours and emotional well being in these patients, publishing more than 20 papers in this area. She has also been awarded over one million dollars in research grants in this field. Together with other team members, Rosemary developed and delivered a self management intervention for cardiac patients based on principles of cognitive behaviour therapy and motivational interviewing as part of a randomised controlled trial. She has co-authored a number of workbooks developed to assist patients to cope with the practical challenges of chronic disease self management (CDSM).

  Rosemary is passionate about improving support for patients with heart disease and health professional practice in this area. She has developed and delivered a range of training programs for health professionals working with cardiac patients.

  In addition, Rosemary is involved in the education of the next generation of health professionals through her role as Honorary Senior Fellow at The University of Melbourne and guest lecturer at Deakin University.  Rosemary is also employed by Cabrini Health as a Cardiac Health Psychologist delivering both group and individual interventions to patients with elevated depression or anxiety following a cardiac event.

  Rosemary is committed to the importance of cardiac rehabilitation in supporting patient outcomes. She is past President of the Victorian Association of Cardiac Rehabilitation and has also served on the Executive Management Committee of the Australian Cardiovascular Health and Rehabilitation Association for more than a decade.



• Professor David Colquhoun
  
  Profession: Cardiologist
  Based in: Queensland

  Associate Professor David Colquhoun is a Cardiologist in private practice.  He has been extensively involved in research over the last 25 years involving multi-centre international trials and investigator initiated trials in the area of lipids, nutrition, nutraceuticals and physiological aspects of heart disease, diabetes and obesity, presenting at many national and international meetings.  He has been Head of Cardiovascular research at Greenslopes Private Hospital since 1999 and also has a private research organization (CORE Research). 

  He has published and been a referee for major journals and is the AMA spokesperson for Cardiology in Queensland.  He is a member of the Scientific Committee of National Institute of Complementary Medicine.  In 2008 he attended the 2020 Summit nominated by the National Heart Foundation and was the only cardiologist at the summit. He was a member of the Queensland Government Smart State Council working group on prevention and early intervention approaches to tackle chronic disease. 

  He is a grant assessor for National Health and Medical Research Council, National Heart Foundation Australia and Diabetes Australia. 

  He was a member of the National Heart Foundation of Australia Nutrition and Metabolism Committee.  He was the Chief Author of the National Heart Foundation’s position statement on fish and fish oil in 2008. He is the Chair of the National Heart Foundation’s Psychosocial Risk Factors and Coronary Heart Disease Expert Committee. 



• Professor Nick Glozier
  
  Profession: Psychiatrist
  Based in: NSW

  Nick Glozier is the Professor of Psychological Medicine at the Brain and Mind Research Institute, Sydney Medical School and a consultant Psychiatrist. He has interests in psychiatric and physical comorbidity, and cross-cultural health, behaviours, stigma and disability. He has worked in Europe, South Asia and Africa, in areas of mental illness and its comorbidity with sleep disorders, stroke, cardiovascular disease and epilepsy.

  He is a Chief Investigator in two Centres of Research Excellence (NeuroSleep and Early Interventions for Young People with Emerging Mood Disorder) where a range of observational and trial studies in sleep, neurological and cardiovascular disease and psychiatric disorder are undertaken. He is particularly interested in the functional assessment and disability associated with such comorbidity. He has Honours, PhD and post doctoral opportunities in the CRE areas which can receive scholarships or top up funding, as well as seed grants.

  In the past five years he has published over 60 peer reviewed papers, several textbook chapters, given up counting conference abstracts, and been part of technical assessments and reviews for the DSM-V revision, the Commonwealth Health Ministers Meeting, the National Mental Health Commission and the National Heart Foundation. 

  Previously he worked at the Institute of Psychiatry in London and at the World Health Organisation, primarily in the area of disability. He was part of the team who developed the WHODAS 2.0 cross cultural disability assessment and the International Classification of Health, Disability and Functioning, the ICF. He continues to work in other countries, particularly Sri Lanka with their Institute for R&D and in applying the ICF to a range of disability areas e.g. DSP.


• Dr Rob Grenfell
  
  Profession: Academic/General Practitioner
  Based in: Victoria

  Rob is a Public Health Physician and the National Director, Cardiovascular Health at the Heart Foundation.  Rob leads the Cardiovascular Health Team which includes the full spectrum of heart health activities from prevention to clinical care.  His role covers everything from healthy diets, smoking reduction, physical activity promotion through to ensuring that Australians are aware of their risks of having a heart attack and that they receive the best available clinical care.   Rob is also a heart health representative on the boards of several national organisations.

  Many people will recognise Rob through his widespread media activity conveying heart health promotion message.  One of Rob’s highest priorities is reducing the differences in care that Australians receive in different locations and settings, with a focus on Aboriginal and rural/remote populations.

  Before joining the Heart Foundation, Rob was a Strategic Health Advisor to Parks Victoria and Senior Medical Advisor at the Department of Health Victoria.   He has also been a member of the Victorian Quality Council, Chair of General Practice Victoria, Member of the Health Advisory Committee of the National Health and Medical Research Council, physician in charge of travel health BHP, and General Practice. Until recently Rob ran a General Practice in the small isolated rural community of Natimuk, where he still runs a community art space, the Goat gallery.

Resources

The following resources support the webinar:

Presentation slides

View the slides that supported the discussion.

Case Study

Read Sheila's story, which was the focus of the panel discussion.

CPD Points

Overview of CPD points

External resources

External resources listing PDF [298 KB]

National Heart Foundation Screening Tool: A practical tool for screening patients with coronary heart disease for depression

National Heart Foundation Australia consensus statement on depression and coronary heart disease

Participants who attended the webinar provided the following feedback

Learning needs

71% of survey respondents indicated their learning needs were 'entirely met'. 27% indicated their learning needs were 'partially met'.

Relevance to practice

When asked to rate how relevant the webinar was to the clinicians own practice, 70% stated it was ‘entirely relevant’. 28% marked it as ‘partially relevant’.

Practice change

93% of respondents intend to make changes to their clinical work practice as a result of attending the webinar.

This webinar was produced in December 2013. The Mental Health Professionals’ Network’s webinars are produced for mental health professionals. The information is intended for suitably-experienced mental health professionals and does not replace clinical judgement and decision making. It is intended for use as a guide of a general nature only and may or may not be relevant to particular patients or circumstances. The subject matter is not exhaustive of any mental health conditions presented. Health professionals implementing any recommendations contained in the webinar must exercise their own independent skill or judgement or seek appropriate professional advice relevant to their own particular circumstances when so doing. Any information presented in the webinar recording was deemed relevant at the time of the live event and after this date has not been reviewed. No guarantee can be given that the information is free from error or omission.

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