Hearts To Hearts Forum Brisbane March 2009

HEARTS TO HEARTS Saturday & Sunday March 7th & 8th, 2009 10:00am to 3:30pm Jagera Arts Centre Cordelia Street (near Musgrave Park) South Brisbane, Qld.

Anne Beales • Anne Beales MBE, Management Committee member of the English National Service User Network (NSUN), member of the NHS Confederation Mental Health Network, Director of Service User Involvement at Together;

Mental Health consumers talking together about Recovery, Rights and Leadership. With special guests Anne Beales (England), Roy Muise (Canada), Dan Fisher (US), Gary Platz (NZ), Shaun McNeil (Scotland).

All consumers welcome.

Roy Brown

Dan Fisher

• Roy Brown is a talented musician and song-writer, mental health consumer and General Manager of the Lighthouse Trust in New Zealand. He once shared a psych ward with Spike Milligan after being removed naked from the roof of the Albert Hall in London.

• Dr Daniel Fisher, consumer and psychiatrist, Executive Director of the US National Empowerment Centre, Director of the National Coalition of Mental Health Consumer Survivor Organisations, Commissioner on the President's New Freedom Commission

Shaun McNeil

Roy Muise

• Shaun McNeil, Managing Director of Advocacy Matters (Greater Glasgow), founding member and Secretary to the Board of VoX Scotland, and Board Member of the Scottish Independent Advocacy Alliance. As well as having a lived experience of mental illness, Shaun has a Mental Health Nurse qualification and a BSc in Mental Health Practice

• Roy Muise, President of the Canadian National Network for Mental Health and the Chair of the National Consumer Advisory Council of the Canadian Mental Health Association, Treasurer of the Council of Canadians with Disabilities and member of the Canadian Alliance for Mental Illness and Mental Health.

1

Gary Platz • Gary Platz, Strategic Advisor to the Wellink Trust of New Zealand, who has established peer run services such as Warmline, Homelink and Key We Way.

RECOVERY • What does a recovery focussed mental health system look like?

• What do we have to do to ensure that the mental health system is recoveryfocussed?

Jenny Speed • Jenny Speed is a mental health consumer activist currently working in Brisbane in the areas of disability advocacy and criminal justice. She was formerly the Deputy Director of the Australian Mental Health Consumer Network and has worked in senior positions within the Queensland and New South Wales public sector, and in the non-government sector.

RIGHTS • What would our community look like if everyone’s human rights were recognised and upheld?

• What do we have to do to make sure our rights are recognised and upheld?

LEADERSHIP

WHERE TO FROM HERE?

• What would a mental health system led by consumers look like?

• How can we support each other, share our knowledge and resources and influence the way mental health services are delivered? • How would life be different for Queenslanders (Australians) with mental health issues if we had an independent consumer organisation?

• What do we have to do to ensure that consumers are recognised as leaders in the mental health system?

2

FORUM OUTCOMES Recovery

PROCESS • World Café format, not talking heads • Discussed questions in small groups, then shared outcomes in larger group • Two aspects to each issue—what would it be like, and what do we have to do to make it so

• • • •

• • • • • •

Accept Uncover Discover Connect Self-righting, directed to person not service Accept difference & don’t put me in a box! Re-establish/Gain a Sense of contribution Tell our stories, to each other & the world ‘uncovering’ our own hearts & voices, recovery is what we work together to do • Take personal responsibility to do what we can to make this happen

FORUM OUTCOMES Rights

LEADERSHIP

• Charter of rights for the mentally ill • Individual budgets—purchase what you like, when you like—from a menu of what’s available • For society to embrace rights – look at things through the eyes of the most vulnerable • Would have more choices • Treated as unique individual • Right care/ wholistic • To make decisions & mistakes

• Participatory leadership—shoulder to shoulder, not one charismatic individual • Based on respect and engagement • Focus energy in human to human encounters. • More advanced, democratic mre effective model • Harnesses diversity, build community, create shared responsibility for action. • Deepens individual and collective learning yielding real development and growth

WHERE TO FROM HERE

WHERE WE ARE

Purpose is to live a full Life Connected to each other Robust infrastructure—accountability Issues for Working Group – Developing Core Principles – Mapping Consumers—Individuals/Organisations – Email List – conduit for information

• Working Group continues to meet • Purpose: “To provide a way for Queensland consumers to link up to share experiences and learnings, to support each other, and to influence the delivery of mental health services”. • Have voted for a name: “A Way Ahead Queensland”. • Piggy-backing on Self Help Queensland mapping exercise • Email list and Google Group

3

4