Topic Tuesday // Let’s talk about systemic change: The Victorian Royal Commission // Tues 17th August, 7:00-8.30PM AEST

Q6: How can I be involved in the change?

For those of you in Victoria, there will likely be a number of opportunities to feed into the design process for the new services that are on the way.

Some of these really will be ‘blink and you’ll miss them’ opportunities. Things like surveys and focus groups. And some will be more involved -- opportunities to be part of the 'co-design' of services, which is a strong theme in the Commission report.

VMIAC (the representative body for consumers in Victoria) has set up a register where you can sign up to hear about these kinds of opportunities. I think Tandem might be doing the same for carers but I couldn’t find it when I did a quick scan of their website.

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@MDT wrote:
Good evening all

The Hams checking in

I have had a rare day today. Not up for much plus I don't much about what happened in Victoria with this Commission. But it sounds relevant and good.

I only have a few points I want to get off my chest about these things which I hope are relevant in regards to service providers.

1) I have had some pretty woeful experiences with service providers and specialists. Sometimes they have belittled my experiences, others have dismissed topics I have wanted to speak about outrightly. I think this experience may turn other off seeking help altogether
2) suicide is a leading cause of death for youth in Australia. I think there needs to be more research into this as both a psychological experience from the perspective of an individual but also a societal level - why are young people suiciding? But actually I think it's an issue effecting any age bracket so perhaps its not just age related

Thanks @MDT, sorry to hear about your experiences, I hope you're travelling well now.

Here's a little bit of info that addresses some of the important issues that you raise:

- The Royal Commission recommended establishing an aftercare service for children and young people who have self-harmed or who are at risk of suicide.

- I've pasted another key suicide prevention and response initiatives below.

27 Facilitating suicide prevention and response initiatives

Q6: How can I be involved in the change? (continued)

Also, the emphasis on peer work and lived experience leadership means there will be more opportunities to work in mental health from a lived experience perspective, if that’s your bag. Not just in Vic, but across the country.

To be honest, I never would have even dreamed of working in mental health if I hadn’t had the chance to be a peer worker. Before I took that job (and even for much of the first few months!) I thought, ‘what could I have to offer, I can’t even sort my own life out!’

But it turns out that’s exactly what we need more of in this mental health system. More people who are convinced they’ve screwed up their own lives irretrievably, and know what that feels like. More people who quite consciously don’t have ‘the answer’.

Key words to search on the job sites in coming months: ‘peer worker’ and / or ‘lived experience’. They'll be coming in waves in the next couple years I'd say.

Q7: What are you hopeful for?

Look, I’ll be honest, I am still a cautious mix of ‘hopeful’ and ‘scared they’re going to screw this up.’

And there will be mistakes. This stuff is kind of a ‘two steps forward, one step back’ dance. If the Royal Commission was two big steps forward, I guess I’m bracing for the one step back, where they water everything down.

But ‘two steps forward, one step’ back is still progress. . .

Q7: What are you hopeful for? (continued)

So, here’s what I’m hopeful for.

In the short term, I’m hopeful we get a major influx of lived experience workers into the system - at all levels. That’s how we start to really change the culture.

For me, this has three layers.

1) We are creating a bunch more peer work roles and other lived experience roles that didn’t exist before. That’s a great start.

2) There are *many* people with lived experience already working in all sorts of roles in mental health (managers, clinicians). But they’re not ‘out’ about their lived experience. What a treasure trove to draw on!

So we need to encourage them to disclose their lived experience to colleagues. That will be a gamechanger. It will also be a slow process, because there is still a lot of stigma inside services. But the more peer workers we have in there, the more likely other workers will feel they can ‘come out’ about their own lived experience.

3) One in two people will experience big feelings in their lifetime. That means there’s no shortage of highly skilled people out there with great management chops working in other fields, who just happen to also have lived experience.

We just need to entice them to work in mental health. Better resourcing and this newfound commitment to making better services will help with this, I think.

Q7: What are you hopeful for? (continued)

My longer term hope?

20 years from now, I’m hopeful that by the time we’re thinking of doing another big review of mental health services, there is *no way* anyone would even think of doing it without lived experience leaders right at the top.

I’m hopeful that, by then, there are so many examples of prominent leaders with lived experience – people leading policy, and in charge of real budgets – that the real problem will be whittling down the list.

And I’m hopeful that, 20 years from now, peer support has become built-in to our whole way of thinking about mental health. That when you’re struggling, one of the very first things you’re offered is a chance to connect with someone else who ‘gets’ it, because they’ve lived it.

For now, we’re doing what we can to work toward that dream. I think The Big Feels Club is a pretty good step in that direction – and we have thousands of Big Feels Clubbers telling us the same thing. So if that sounds like a ride you’d like to go on, come join us? Best way to keep in the loop is to sign up to our email newsletter, by popping your email in at the bottom of this page here: https://bigfeels.club

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@chibam wrote:

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Thanks for all this effort, @Former-Member !

As you note, this is all about responding to trauma, which of course is important. It leaves me wondering though about people who may not have had any trauma, yet still need the services.

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No worries @chibam, thanks for your contributions and excellent questions. One other recommendation that you might be interested in relates to the 'Community Collectives' (see p. 40, Vol 2). The Commission recommended the establishment and recurrent funding of ‘community collectives’ to support community-led activity that promotes social connection and inclusion. Community collectives should be established in each of the state’s 79 local government areas by the end of 2022. To illustrate, in any one local government area, the following types of activities might be funded:

• a local community garden project, promoting connection within the neighbourhood
• a seniors’ community art initiative, combating social isolation
• leadership training to enable an innovative community-led initiative to expand

• the development of a series of inclusive community events in a local community hub

What about people with big feelings working in non mental health fields being more out about their big feelings? I work in a government organisation which has a big push towards "well-being" but I don't hear much from people about significant big feelings, particularly those in management levels.

Unfortunately we have come to the end of our time tonight, and such a brilliant topic it has been! Thank you to each and every one of our amazing members who followed along, asked incredible questions and shared with us so openly about your experiences. For every one of your questions, there will be people reading back through this discussion and learning from your courage in the months to come- thank you @AussieRecharger @complex @frog @chibam @Kermit @Shaz51 @Mex @MDT @Bearcub @little_sparrow ! We hope that you can continue advocating and having these conversations in your communities 🙂

To our amazing guests @BigFeelsClub @Former-Member, we are so grateful for all of your insights, knowledge and generosity. I know I am walking away with a better understanding of the Royal Commission, and a feeling of hope that things can and will improve with this opportunity for change, particularly around commitment to peer support- I am sure I am not the only one here 🙂 And to the amazing @cloudcore, a huge thank you for being here tonight!

If you want to follow the amazing work of Graham and The Big Feels Club, please check out the website and newsletter! You can also check out the link to the Royal Commission Report