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

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@Former-Member wrote:

Hey @chibam thanks for this - I've heard many people ask about these definitions.

Here's a direct copy+paste of how the Royal Commission describes wellbeing supports:

Box 6.1: Wellbeing supports (see p. 294 of volume 1 of the report)

"As part of the shift to a more balanced system, the Commission has chosen to use the word ‘wellbeing’ in place of the word ‘psychosocial’. This is because the term ‘psychosocial’ is highly technical, with limited meaning in plain English. It is also heavily associated with the disability-based language of the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS). Instead, the Commission uses the term ‘wellbeing supports’ rather than ‘psychosocial supports’. The Commission envisages ‘wellbeing supports’ encompassing a broad range of supports that build community connection and social wellbeing, as well as practical life assistance."

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Thanks, @Former-Member ! It would appear that the answer to my initial question would be "yes", then! Hooray!

My follow-on question would be: are these supports intended to be made available for people who aren't mentally ill, or perhaps more accurately, for people who's problems haven't yet driven the sufferers into "mental illness" or being suicidal?

Or will you have to be pronounced "mentally ill" before you can access them?

"What are your feelings on the integrity of the royal inquiry process...? If you are confidant that the process had integrity, despite the mental health system/mental health doctrine influence over it all, what is it that gives you confidance in the process and the fairness/accuracy of the results?"

@chibam

It's a big question. I will say, when I first heard about the structure of the Commission, I was not happy. The big glaring gap for me was at the top: not one of the four Commisioners had disclosed first-hand experience of using services.

So to be honest, early on I did have my doubts. Two things changed, for me. One, people started to raise this as an issue, which indirectly resulted in a number of lived experience leaders being brought into the process in key ways. That was a much needed and major shift. Two, that was enough for me to get involved myself, as a witness - eventually sitting down with the Lead Commissioner, and despite still being skeptical, seeing some encouraging signs of the real possibility this represented for Vic.

But the biggest answer for me is around the outcomes of the process. The 74 recommendations contain some really significant changes, that - if we do them right - could genuinely help a lot of people. I don't claim to be an expert on all the coming changes, but the bits that I know most about - around peer support and lived experience leadership - contain some real seeds of change. Which I'll talk about a bit more shortly.

Question 2: What are you most excited by in the recommendations?

There are 74 total recommendations if you consider both the final report and the interim report that came out mid-way through the Royal Commission. I am by no means an expert on all 74 (I imagine

some of you will definitely know more than me).

But here’s four things I was most excited to see, first up (and I'll unpack each one)

1. Alternatives to emergency departments

2. Peer respite

3. Peer support EVERYWHERE

4. A hub for lived experience leadership

Question 2: What are you most excited by in the recommendations?

Exciting thing #1. Alternatives to emergency departments

Emergency departments can suck at the best of times. They can especially suck if you are there for mental health reasons.

The Commission has recommended that genuine alternatives are created in every region in Victoria so that there’s somewhere better to go when things get really tough. (See Recommendation 9)

Picture, instead of heading to a white, fluorescent-lit emergency department to front up to a harried nurse and tell them your troubles, you could go to a living room type “drop-in” centre, where a majority of the staff are people who have been through their own similar crises and are trained to support you through it.

These alternatives to ED have been set up in other parts of the world where they’ve been reported to reduce admissions to psych hospital by 50%, because they meet people’s needs right there and then. And speaking of hospital...

Thanks for raising this @Kermit. The Royal Commission made two key recommendations that aim to improve accessibility for Victorians living in regional and rural areas. I've pasted these below.

Q. What are you most excited by in the recommendations?

Exciting thing #2. Peer respite.

Imagine if when you’re in a real bad spot, hospital wasn’t your only option. If instead you could check yourself into a residential service that’s homely, inviting, and most importantly that’s run by people who’ve been through their own similar crises.

We’re about to do this in Victoria. (See Recommendation 5 from the Interim Report).

Called ‘peer respites’, these have been run successfully in other countries for years.

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@BigFeelsClub wrote:

I don't claim to be an expert on all the coming changes, but the bits that I know most about - around peer support and lived experience leadership - contain some real seeds of change. Which I'll talk about a bit more shortly.

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The sincerity of that commitment concerns me, as there is another inquiry into the mental health system and suicide being conducted by the fedral government right now and, as far as I know, none of the committee members presiding over it are mentally ill or currantly/formerly suicidal people.

This is well and truly after numerous reports, including the royal inquiry interim report and the productivity commission report emphasized the need for lived experiance leadership in the future management of mental healthcare. #SMH

Q. What are you most excited by in the recommendations?

Exciting thing #3. Peer support EVERYWHERE.

The Commission has recommended that peer support be a core part of the new community model of mental health care (see Recommendation 5). That means that every region in Victoria will be required to deliver peer support services, so we should see more offerings in this space.

It will take time, but our hope is this will also drive a cultural shift in how services are delivered in general, because there’ll be more people like us in there doing the work.

Q. What are you most excited by in the recommendations?

Exciting thing #4. A new hub for lived experience leaders.

This last one is really what we’ll need to make sure everything above is going to happen. It’s basically a hub for lived experience work in Victoria, run by people with their own big feelings. (See Recommendation 29.)

Led and staffed by people with lived experience, this new agency’s main purpose will be to increase lived experience leadership throughout the system, so that things like peer respites and other peer-run offerings become more commonplace. I know from running the Big Feels Club, when we sensitive cats get to run services ourselves, they can look and feel very different to more mainstream offerings. I think that diversity of services is the only way the system can offer people real choice.

If you’re interested, you can read the full piece from Big Feels Club about these four exciting things here.

How do you 'qualify' for a peer support role, everyone has different experiences even if we all deal with the same stigma, what makes a good peer worker, is personal experience enough? what else do you need?