July 18, 2024

Professor Lorna Moxham honoured for work on groundbreaking Recovery Camp

Mental health nurse co-founded social enterprise that has changed the lives of consumers and students

Award-winning mental health nurse Professor Lorna Moxham has been named a finalist in the 2024 Health Minister’s Award for Nursing Trailblazers.

Based in the University of Wollongong’s (UOW) School of Nursing, Professor Moxham was honoured for her work co-founding Recovery Camp, a research-based work-integrated learning experience for future health professionals and a trauma-informed person-centred program for people living with mental illness.

The Nursing Trailblazers Award, an initiative of the Australian College of Nursing (ACN), recognises and celebrates nurses whose leadership has led to innovative solutions to address key challenges facing our health and aged care systems. The award is administered by the ACN on behalf of the Minister for Health and Aged Care, the Honorable Mark Butler MP.

Professor Moxham has spent more than four decades immersed in the world of nursing. Raised and educated in a background that she described as far from privileged, Professor Moxham began her nursing training at Concord Repatriation Hospital in April 1980 and registered as a Registered Psychiatric Nurse in 1985.

Her career has gone from strength to strength, with her tireless work as a mental health nurse coinciding with her move into academia.

In 2013, Professor Moxham conducted the first Recovery Camp. Bringing together people with a mental illness alongside students undertaking placements in nursing, allied health, and paramedicine, Recovery Camp saw participants spend five days in a therapeutic recreation camp in the Australian bush.

Alongside co-founder Dr Christopher Patterson, Professor Moxham has built Recovery Camp into a renowned social enterprise that changes the lives of all who take part. It is now commercialised, and thus sustainable, and nurse-led, delivered in three states with hundreds of participants each year. There have, to date, been 43 camps, with 14 universities on board. Recovery Camps have accommodated 600 people with mental illness and contributed to professional development for facilitators, providing a pipeline to the mental health nursing workforce.

Professor Moxham said Recovery Camp was born of a desire to break down the stigmas around mental health, enable constructive professional development for students, and provide meaningful outcomes for those living with mental illness.

“I have specialised in mental health for 42 of my 44 years as a nurse,” she said. “I am delighted that now, more than ever before, mental health is at the forefront of people’s thoughts, but it has not always been that way.

“When we started Recovery Camp, I thought it was a long shot. A week away fully immersed with people who have a serious mental illness as a clinical placement for students was way outside anything that had been done before. It has grown into something I never expected but truly cherish for the impact it has made on the lives of participants.

“Consumers are open, they talk about what it’s like to be taken to hospital, how they deal with their voices and about involuntary admission to mental health facilities. The students, on the other side, really value mental health nursing. They see people who are very vulnerable and gain life-changing experience that makes them better in their chosen field.

“At the heart of Recovery Camp is a focus on empowerment and education. That’s a win win.”

Professor Moxham is one of four finalists in the 2024 Health Minister’s Award for Nursing Trailblazers, with the winner to be announced next month (14 to 16 August) at the National Nursing Forum in Cairns.

ACN Interim CEO, Emeritus Professor Leanne Boyd FACN, said the award finalists demonstrate the excellence and diversity of nursing leadership and innovation in Australia.

“These nursing leaders have developed pioneering nurse-led solutions to address the complex contemporary health needs of the Australian population,” Professor Boyd said.

“They have used their expertise and passion to improve health and save lives. They have made a difference in their local communities and beyond.

“They are an inspiration for all nurses. They are living proof of diverse and rewarding career pathways in nursing. And they are gold standard role models to show governments the value of nurse-led health care and innovation.”