Chris Jones

Chris is a highly experienced mental health professional with over 20 years of experience, including national-level policy development, strategic thinking and planning, and leadership of high-performing teams across primary health, social services, and mental health sectors. Chris’s passion is driven by being part of many of Australia's major mental health reforms over the past 15 years, including Partners in Recovery, PHN stepped care mental health approaches and more recently, Head to Health. Chris possesses considerable policy knowledge and expertise, having worked with the National Mental Health Commission on system reform approaches, including some of the early scoping of the National Suicide Prevention Office. Chris has also worked extensively with people with disabilities, carers, First Nations individuals and organisations, CALD individuals and organisations. Chris has worked in roles that have provided policy advice to the Department of Health, as well as being selected by the Department to lead a collegiate approach that supported all 31 national PHNs towards the design and delivery of the five-year mental health regional plan process. Chris is a highly skilled facilitator and educator, having designed, implemented and trained thousands of unique participants in my career and is a Master MH First Aid Instructor with 16 years’ experience in delivering this course and is the current chair of the National MHFA instructor reference group.