News
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Our Place Newsletters
Other News
Click here for other relevant news, including a new Peer Worker Social & Professional Network
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- Interview: Susie Crooks
- Introducing: The Tiled Path, a creative piece by Lynnie Worth
- Soap Box: Consumers and 'carers' should not always be joined at the hip - it causes hip displaysia!
- Introducing: Picture Books about living with mental illness - a taster of resources compiled by Ann Tullgren
- Thumbs Up/Thumbs Down As always, some whinging and some waxing lyrical
- OCP Update:What we've been up to and what's in store (trust us, you don't want to miss this)
- Save the date!Some key dates to put in your diary
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- Interview: David W. Oaks, Director of MindFreedom Intl.
- Introducing: Sandy Jeffs' latest book Flying with Paper Wings: Reflections on Living with Madness
- Feature Article: What is Intentional Peer Support (IPS)? by Flick Grey (Our Consumer Place)
- Soap Box: (Consumers and smoking: part 2) Just ask: the answer is 'no' by Isabell Collins, Victorian Mental Illness Awareness Council
- News in the consumer world and OCP update: What we've been up to and what's in store.
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- Interview: Tina Minkowitz, psychiatric survivor, human rights lawyer and keynote speaker at next month's VicServ conference
- Introducing a CDI: The Brook R.E.D. Centre Inc. - By Adam Dunne
- Feature Article:An exploration of Body Integrity Identity Disorder, legitimacy and the DSM. - By Sean O'Connor
- Soap Box: Consumers and smoking? - By Kristen Moeller-Saxone
- Some thoughts on language from the work of Sylvia Caras
- Our Consumer Place Update: what we have been up to and what's in store
- 10 ways Our Consumer Place can support you (and you can support us!)
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- Interview: Mary O'Hagan, a leading international expert and original thinker in the field of mental health recovery-based services shares her views about consumer politics, participation and leadership.
- Introducing a CDI: A Consumer Activist's Guide to Mental Health in Australia - Merinda Epstein's wonderful website
- Feature Article: An ally's travels through America - by Piers Gooding
- Soap Box: Consumers on (other people's) committees. Are we wasting our time? - by Merinda Epstein
- Our Consumer Place Update: what we have been up to and what's in store
- 10 ways Our Consumer Place can support you (and you can support us!)
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- Feature article: Vrinda Edan on 'What do we mean when we talk about LEADERSHIP?' (reprinted due to an error in an earlier edition),
- Interview: Kim Koop, CEO of VicServ (Victorian Peak Umbrella Group of NGO PDRS services),
- Introducing a CDI: Madeleine Kelly's Two Trees Media,
- Consumer Research: Wanda Bennetts on Consumer Workforce Research: 'Real Lives, Real Jobs' - Developing Good Practice Guidelines for a Sustainable Consumer Workforce in the Mental Health Sector, through Participatory Research,
- News: National Scoping Study ... Consumers Speak,
- Our Consumer Place Update: what we have been up to (pamphlet project),
- Words from a Newbee: Paul on 'Through the eyes of a 'Newbee' to consumer stuff'.
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- Soap Box: 'Moving beyond the era of REPRESENTATION"
- Feature Article: Simon Champ on 'A few reflections on change and ways forward',
- Interview: Peter Beresford, Chair of Shaping our Lives, the independent national service user controlled organisation and network in the UK,
- Introducing a CDI: Allan Pinches, Consumer Consultant on the 'hope springs' community at Heidelberg West Uniting Church,
- Creative: Simon Champ poem 'Let Us Spray',
- Our Consumer Place Update: what we have been up to (Pamphlet project, Intentional Peer Support training, networking) and 'Thumbs up, Thumbs down' (an assortment of things we like and don't like).
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- Soap Box [formerly "State of the Nation"]: Sandy Watson on 'Mark of Shame,' a critique of 'stigma',
- Feature article: Vrinda Edan on 'What do we mean when we talk about LEADERSHIP?' (NOTE: correct version is reprinted in edition 4),
- Interview: Sylvia Caras, www.peoplewho.org,
- Introducing a CDI: the Private Mental Health Consumer Carer Network (Australia),
- Consumer Research: Lei Ning on the Consumer and Carer Experience project (Victorian Mental Illness Awareness Council Consumer Research and Evaluation Unit project),
- Tech Corner: Sara Clarke on using email,
- Stories from the Trenches: Mark Lacey on Working as a regional/rural consumer consultant,
- Ideas you can nurture: Sara Clarke on Advance Directives,
- Our Consumer Place Update: what Our Consumer Place has been up to (networking, an example of a CDI we've supported to start up, training plans), 'Thumbs up, Thumbs down' (an assortment of things we like and don't like), feedback, corrections and how to contact Our Consumer Place.
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- Soapbox [formerly "State of the Nation"]: 'Is Mental Health Legislation Discriminatory?'
- Feature article: Isabell Collins on 'Truth, morality and defensive reasoning in psychiatry'
- Interview: Shery Mead, (amongst other things) teaches peer-run alternatives to crisis services
- Introducing a CDI: Sara Clarke on Online Groups
- Consumer Research: Nicci Wall on 'Glimpses: A compilation of uncensored real life experiences with Mental Illness.'
- Stories from the Trenches: Except from Alvina Hill's 'To Dance Across the Heavens - a personal journey through mental illness'
- Ideas you can nurture: The supermarket manager and late night shelve stockers
- Our Consumer Place Update: How Our Consumer Place began, how to find us (including by public transport), 'Thumbs up, Thumbs down' (an assortment of things we like and don't like) and a feedback form - what do YOU want from us?
Other News
New Resource: Real Lives, Real Jobs
This very important consumer research gives an up to date snapshot of the environments and expectations surrounding consumer worker roles in the mental health field across the state.The report identifies both the the potential for the consumer workforce and some of the associated issues and challenges.
This is a must read for consumers currently working in the mental health sector, consumers who want to know more about these roles, and for service managers and anyone with an interest in continuing to develop and promote consumer worker roles and consumer leadership.
Download a copy here.
Announcing the Peer Worker Social & Professional Network
We're online and coming to a dinner venue near you!
http://meetup.com/peerworkernetwork
Are you a peer worker working in a paid capacity or as a volunteer in the mental health sector in Queensland? Perhaps you have just left a peer worker role and are seeking a new one? Or perhaps you're a peer worker in Victoria and would like to connect, when in Brisbane, with your peers here?
If so, you're invited to join the Peer Worker Social & Professional Network! The Peer Worker Social & Professional Network offers fortnightly dinners and an online site for networking and to share resources.
Join up on our website as a member (joining is free) and come along to one of our fortnightly dinners for networking, friendship, food and fun. The restaurants are BYO and reasonably priced and chosen by members. (As a member you're not under any obligation to go to a dinner - you are welcome to enjoy the networking and resources online.)
The Network has been created by Rachael Krinks who is a peer worker and who wanted to provide a networking and learning environment for herself and others that offers:
- a fun and friendly atmosphere
- independence from any service or government or peak body
- out of hours dinners at a variety of venues so more peer workers can come
- no protracted consultations, paperwork, preparation
- an online presence so workers who can't get to a dinner can still see discussions online, download resources, upload their own resources for sharing with others etc....
- share a meal and network
- hear about innovative recovery based practice
- learn about what other peer jobs are like from the people actually doing them
- share tips, triumphs and news
- share opportunities (jobs, training, other)
- have a laugh and a lovely time in a cosy BYO restaurant with good food with our peers!
NOTE: As this Network is independent and without sponsorship, auspicing or any funds, each of us will need to pay for our own food and drinks at our dinners.
You need not go to any or all of our dinners, that is why the online presence of this Network is so important - you can keep in contact with your peers via this Network's website: http://meetup.com/peerworkernetwork.
Online you can:
- Suggest and vote for your favourite venue for upcoming dinners
- See the Meetup Links for our dinners
- RSVP and if you change your mind you can change your RSVP to 'no'
- Upload helpful resources
- Download helpful resources
- Start your own discussion threads and assist your peers with their queries when they post their own questions or discussions
This Network is envisaged as being a social and professional network for people working in a paid capacity or as volunteers as:
- consumer companions
- peer recovery workers
- peer support workers
- consumer consultants
- PHaMs or other mental health sector workers with a lived experience of mental health issues but who have not necessarily disclosed this to their team
- independent consultants who identify as having a lived experience of mental health issues & who work with or mentor their peers
- peer development workers
- team leaders or managers who identify as having a lived experience of mental health issues