Exploring the Mental Health Royal Commission
In this hour-long presentation we will explore the current Royal Commission into Mental Health in Victoria, its recommendations and the likely encumbrances facing those who will be responding to the report over the next few years.
About the speaker
Moderated by Andrew Apostola, CEO, Portable
Mary O’Hagan, international speaker and mental health advocate
Mary O’Hagan used mental health services in New Zealand for eight years as a young woman and has ever since worked to make a difference to the way government and service providers respond to people with lived experience of major mental distress. She is the author of her award-winning memoir called Madness Made Me and is former director of the international social enterprise PeerZone, which provides peer support and resources for people with mental distress.
She is a leading advocate for mental health reform in her country and abroad, acting as a full time New Zealand mental health Commissioner and an advisor to the United Nations and the World Health Organisation. Mary was a key initiator of the psychiatric survivor movement in New Zealand in the late 1980s, and was the first chairperson of the World Network of Users and Survivors of Psychiatry between 1991 and 1995. In 2015, Mary was made a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit and in 2017 was awarded the Wellington Gold Awards New Thinking Award. She currently leads New Zealand’s Like Minds, Like Mine programme to counter prejudice and discrimination against people with mental distress.
What we'll cover
In this discussion, we’ll be looking at the system wide failures in the Victorian mental health context and exploring the challenges and opportunities that arise from the interventions recommended by the Commission.
We’ll delve into not only the mental health sector but the myriad of overlapping services including education, justice and housing and draw upon some of the experiences that took place in a New Zealand context. How can we learn from previous approaches to reform and what do professionals, implementers and advocates for change need to keep in mind in the years to come?
As a person with lived experience and a former mental health commissioner, Mary O’Hagan has had the unique advantage of seeing mental health reform from the dual lenses of political implementation and personal experience in New Zealand and we’ll be drawing upon her experience to look at the methods of reform and their implementation in Victoria.
Who's it for?
This event is designed for a wide range of audiences but specifically:
- Policy makers and practitioners working in the mental health sector seeking to understand the context of their work in relationship to the Royal Commission
- People working with people affected by mental health related issues across adjacent service delivery areas i.e. justice and the courts, educational settings, family violence matters and housing
- Academics and students seeking a broader understanding of the Royal Commission itself
Webinar details
1pm AEST, Thursday the 4th of November
A link to join the webinar will be provided to registered participants via email prior to the day.
After the 50 minute presentation, attendees will be invited to stay for a Q&A session with the panelists for up to 10 mins, and a recording of the webinar will be distributed to all registered participants in the days after the event.
What if I can't make it?
You're in luck. This webinar will be recorded and published as a video on the Portable website at a later date.
If you cannot make Thursday's event but would like to know when this video goes live you can register for the 'Send me the video' option in the registration section.
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