Title: Director of Organizational Consultancies and Training

Company: Joan Clarke Consulting

Location: Docklands, VIC

Dr. Clarke was a teacher on public policy and international relations in the Political Science School at The University of Melbourne from 1977 to 1985. She took up the position of director of research and social policy at Anglicare, focusing on children and family issues from 1985 to 1989. Her many publications in this role include ‘Welfare Forecasts.’ In 1989, Dr. Clarke accepted the position of executive director at Uniting Care Prahran Mission, an agency comprising of 120 staff members and 200 volunteers with a range of services for people with mental illnesses.

Under her leadership, Uniting Care Prahran Mission evolved and grew into a nationally and internationally recognized organization featuring research, accredited training in rehabilitation technologies and library services integrated with on-the-ground rehabilitation services for people learning skills for employment or parenting, people relearning skills to re-enter the workforce, as well as support for artists, musicians, homeless people and people undergoing sex reassignment. Dr. Clarke founded the Centre of Psychosocial Rehabilitation for Training and Research. She was awarded a medal by The Order of Australia Association in 2003 in recognition of her research. She was also awarded a Centenary medal in 2002 for services rendered in Stonnington, and the MHS Inaugural Award for her exceptional contribution to mental health services in Australia and New Zealand.

Dr. Clarke now runs a consultancy business focusing on organizations, managers and workers in the mental health field in clinical and community settings. She also works nationally and globally as a consultant on organizational and management issues specifically in the area of mental health and trauma-informed practice. She was a member of the Victorian Ministerial Advisory Committee on mental health and a member of the Victorian Institute of Forensic Mental Health, appointed by the Victorian Minister for Health. She has served on several editorial committees. She ran a conference called ‘The Tyranny of the Leather Book, Postcolonialism, Mental Illness and Prisons’ in May, 2013, at the Institute of Postcolonial Studies in Melbourne. In five years, Dr. Clarke will continue to research the continuing effects of colonialism on mental health services and attitudes, particularly the increasing numbers of those with severe mental illness in prisons.