The MMF Story
Over the years MMF has become a global leader in paediatric conflict management; our mediation services continue to be in demand when conflict has escalated, not just with parents and caregivers, but also increasingly with colleagues and between teams.
Workplace health and safety regulations now acknowledge psychosocial safety as a risk that must be proactively managed by employers, that hazards that pose a risk to psychological health are no less harmful to employees' safety and wellbeing than physical hazards. Our training sits in the middle of this: benefitting and supporting patients and their families while supporting healthcare professionals to navigate challenging situations. Today our prevention training is where we are increasingly having the greatest impact and where our research and most of our activity is currently focussed.
Our purpose
How we began
The evidence base
Evolution into a formal framework
Supporting psychosocial safety by creating sustained cultural change
MMF in Australia and NZ
Fast facts
MMF today
Meet the MMF Team
Sarah founded The Medical Mediation Foundation in 2010. She has a Masters degree in Medical Law and Ethics from King’s College London and is a former award-winning BBC social affairs correspondent and presenter.
Sarah was the co-director of the pioneering conflict management project at the Evelina London Children’s Hospital which was awarded Program of the Year in the 2018 National Mediation Awards; Sarah was subsequently voted an ‘NHS Innovator’ by the Health Service Journal.
Sarah has led MMF’s engagements in Australia and New Zealand and facilitates Level 1,2 and 3 course delivery
Esse became a consultant paediatrician in 2006, specialising in infectious diseases, HIV and immunology. She has been a mediator since 2014.
While a consultant at the Evelina Hospital, Esse worked with MMF to develop the Evelina Resolution Project and spent several of her early years as a paediatrician at the Royal Children's Hospital in Melbourne.
Esse has a certification in Compassion Training from the Centre for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education (Stanford, USA).
As one of MMF’s principal trainers, Esse facilitates delivery and supervision of all four levels of the Program in the UK, Australia and New Zealand.
Oscar is a qualified barrister and a former
Senior Legal Adviser to the General Medical Council in the UK where he was involved
in setting up a pioneering pilot program facilitating meeting with doctors under investigation to help them best respond
to the allegations against them.
Oscar specialises in clinical team
development, facilitation and workplace conflict resolution, helping teams to
engage with difficult issues and bringing a balance of voices to a room.
In
addition to his director duties, Oscar leads delivery of MMF’s Level 4 training
in ‘Managing conflict between
colleagues and building better teams’ and was the lead Level 4 facilitator in Australia and New Zealand in March and April 2024.
KERRY BLACKBURN
Kerry is our Australian-based MMF Director. She is a trained mediator and dispute resolution specialist with a background in policy, compliance and regulation.
Kerry is a Principal Policy Officer in the Victorian Government. In 2021 she led the team from the Department of Premier and Cabinet which received a prestigious IPAA Leadership Award for developing the next stage in Victoria's family violence reform framework. Shortly afterwards Kerry was seconded to the Department of Health to lead operational teams rolling out the COVID vaccine.
Kerry has a background in journalism as a former BBC health producer and specialist adviser to the boards of the ABC and the BBC.
Susan is an Australian-accredited commercial and family mediator and a training coach for the Australian College of Law and Bond University family dispute resolution programs.
She qualified as a solicitor in the UK and Hong Kong, has more than 20 years experience as a senior litigation lawyer and has been a mediation lead since 2010.
Susan is the training lead in the MMF Australasia program. She joined Sarah, Esse and Oscar to deliver conflict resolution training to staff in 2023 and 2024 in Australia and New Zealand.
Kayleen is a registered nurse and midwifery educator.
She has worked in several of Melbourne’s largest public hospitals and has a Masters in Health Professional Education.