Topic Tuesday // Tools for Advocacy // Tues 19th October, 7:00-8:30PM AEDT

@cloudcore @Former-Member @Daisydreamer

@cloudcore wrote:

To start off, we would love to hear from you: What are you most interested in hearing about tonight?

---

Wow. Where do I begin?

Well I guess one thing that nags at me is that in a lot of the currant discussions, inquiries, conferances, ect. I see these days regarding mental health, I still notice that a vast, vast majority of the participants are people like therapists, or spokespeople of big organizations (e.g. headspace).

I find it really disheartening that there is such a small proportion of people like myself - just regular low-tier regular people who are the ones who have actually gone through the system and/or are in need of help.

So - when I have the oomph to speak out - I feel like there is an onus on me to speak not only for myself, but for the thousands of other sufferers who aren't present. But then, I feel wrong for doing that, because I can't tell other peoples' stories, I can only rightly speak for myself.

So I guess the essence of my dillemma is: how can we rouse much larger numbers of our community to speak out and shape the discussions? I realize that it is tough, it takes a lot of effort, and there is immense frustration in the seemingly minimal impact our efforts seem to make.

But I just can't see how things will ever improve unless we get the numbers speaking out to the people in charge.

Bit early for those of us in the north stuck in standard time @Daisydreamer

There are thousands of examples of effective lived experience advocacy movements across mental health services. Here are a few recent ones:

1. Recently the NDIS proposed to move to individual assessments for those applying NDIS. Lived experience advocates saw many of the challenges of this model, and through advocacy in consultations, this proposed change to legislation was denied.
   
   
2. Fifth National Mental Health Plan: Through strong advocacy of lived experience representatives, the inclusion of commitment to peer workforce and suicide prevention has brought forward new initiatives and will help to shape the future of the peer workforce.
   
   
3. Establishment of Primary Health Networks: Through advocacy, lived experience representatives highlighted that services needed to match local community needs that were not being met by National Services. PHN’s partner with lived experience advocates to ensure that services meet local community needs
   
   

I am sure you can think of some in your local services, or at a state or national level! Would love to hear examples of effective advocacy you have seen

heya @Former-Member

Topic Tuesday is where we get together with a guest and talk live about a topic. This week it is all about Advocacy. You are welcome to stay and engage in this topic but perhaps other topics might be best to navigate to the broader forums so that you can get the kinds of responses you may like and it doesn't get lost in the discussion. 🙂

Thanks so much and take care

- periwinklepixie

Hello all, I'm excited to be here, it's a topic I am passionate about. Thank you @Daisydreamer @Former-Member @cloudcore and all here

Welcome to the discussion @Eve7 @Anastasia and @RedHorse

Great examples @Daisydreamer !

I actually submitted myself as an annonymous case study for why independent assessments were a bad change to the NDIS. A lot of advocacy work I am happy to be loud and proud about but for this particular thing I wanted to be annonymous.

Just goes to show there are lots of different ways of doing advocacy!

Hi @chibam

I share your thoughts here, we still have a long way to go with ensuring there is more representation of lived experience and friends, family and carers at all levels of the mental health system. In the last 10 years, I have defintiely seen more people join the lived experience advocacy space and share their voice which gives me hope, but there is still more to be done.

"how can we rouse much larger numbers of our community to speak out and shape the discussions?" This is such a great question, and I would be interested to hear your thoughts on this too. I think it starts with discussions like these, and empowering people to see the power of their voice and experience. For every person that is empowered to share their voice and advocate for their mental health, we start to build a stronger movement 🙂

Finding my tribe and connecting with others in the advocacy space has really helped me stay motivated too. Are you connected with others in the advocacy space?

@Daisydreamer @Former-Member @cloudcore @Anastasia @Eve7 @lev15

I find myself doing a lot of advocacy work without knowing it. If I feel passionate about something, I'm like a dog with a bone and I won't let go unless I see change.

@chibam , often, it seems advocacy needs numbers or large numbers of people/money/resources....but in a way, I can see how sometimes, it takes ONE person with zeal and determination to bring down mountains. The question is, Who is ready to take this on?

Only this week, I was furious at a service who refused someone to participate in a program due to their mental health. The argument was that the person was a "risk". I was furious because I knew there was no "risk". It was an excuse. So I slowly worked up the chain and finally got a call from the unit manager who immediately took steps to make amendments to the program to ensure inclusivity. Otherwise my next step was to take the matter to external services.

Thats just one example.