Flourish Australia CEO Pamela Rutledge has been honoured at the 2017 Mental Health Service Awards of Australia and New Zealand, in recognition of her 40 year career in the mental health and social service sectors.
Rutledge is the winner of the ‘Exceptional Contribution’ award, with the judges taken by her longterm drive for innovation and reform, leading to better wellbeing for people who live with disadvantages and disabilities.
A social worker by profession, Rutledge first came to prominence when appointed as Executive Officer of the Richmond Inquiry in 1982. She has enjoyed a distinguished career across both the government and not-for-profit sectors.
Flourish Australia was also honoured with the Mental Health Consumer and Mental Health Peer Work Award.
This recognises the ‘ground-breaking efforts’ to create a mentally-healthy and inclusive workplace for people with a mental health issue and the employment of peer-workers – people with a lived experience of a mental health issue who draw on their own experience to support others.
Recognising that peer-workers are often best placed to help others on their mental health recovery journey, peer workers now occupy one third of front-line positions at Flourish Australia.
“The exceptional contribution award is a fitting testimony to Pamela’s extraordinary achievements over so many years,” Flourish Australia Chair Professor Elizabeth More said.
“Pamela has been at the forefront of social service and mental health delivery and reform for forty years.”