HEARTS TO
HEARTS
Saturday & Sunday March 7th & 8th, 2009
10:00am to 3:30pm
Jagera Arts Centre
Cordelia Street (near Musgrave Park)
South Brisbane, Qld.
Mental Health consumers talking together about Recovery,
Rights and Leadership. With special guests
Anne Beales (England), Roy Muise (Canada), Dan Fisher
(US), Gary Platz (NZ), Shaun McNeil (Scotland).
All consumers welcome.
Roy Brown
• Roy Brown is a talented musician and
song-writer, mental health consumer and
General Manager of the Lighthouse Trust
in New Zealand. He once shared a psych
ward with Spike Milligan after being
removed naked from the roof of the Albert
Hall in London.
Shaun McNeil
• Shaun McNeil, Managing Director of Advocacy
Matters (Greater Glasgow), founding member
and Secretary to the Board of VoX Scotland, and
Board Member of the Scottish Independent
Advocacy Alliance. As well as having a lived
experience of mental illness, Shaun has a
Mental Health Nurse qualification and a BSc in
Mental Health Practice
Anne Beales
• Anne Beales MBE, Management
Committee member of the English
National Service User Network (NSUN),
member of the NHS Confederation Mental
Health Network, Director of Service User
Involvement at Together;
Dan Fisher
• Dr Daniel Fisher, consumer and
psychiatrist, Executive Director of the US
National Empowerment Centre, Director of
the National Coalition of Mental Health
Consumer Survivor Organisations,
Commissioner on the President's New
Freedom Commission
Roy Muise
• Roy Muise, President of the Canadian
National Network for Mental Health and
the Chair of the National Consumer
Advisory Council of the Canadian Mental
Health Association, Treasurer of the
Council of Canadians with Disabilities and
member of the Canadian Alliance for
Mental Illness and Mental Health.
1
 Gary Platz
• Gary Platz, Strategic Advisor to the
Wellink Trust of New Zealand, who has
established peer run services such as
Warmline, Homelink and Key We Way.
RECOVERY
• What does a recovery focussed mental
health system look like?
• What do we have to do to ensure that the
mental health system is recovery-
focussed?
LEADERSHIP
• What would a mental health system led by
consumers look like?
• What do we have to do to ensure that
consumers are recognised as leaders in
the mental health system?
Jenny Speed
• Jenny Speed is a mental health consumer
activist currently working in Brisbane in the
areas of disability advocacy and criminal justice.
She was formerly the Deputy Director of the
Australian Mental Health Consumer Network
and has worked in senior positions within the
Queensland and New South Wales public
sector, and in the non-government sector.
RIGHTS
• What would our community look like if
everyone’s human rights were recognised
and upheld?
• What do we have to do to make sure our
rights are recognised and upheld?
WHERE TO FROM HERE?
• How can we support each other, share our
knowledge and resources and influence
the way mental health services are
delivered?
• How would life be different for
Queenslanders (Australians) with mental
health issues if we had an independent
consumer organisation?
2

PROCESS
• World Café format, not talking heads
• Discussed questions in small groups, then
shared outcomes in larger group
• Two aspects to each issue—what would it
be like, and what do we have to do to
make it so
FORUM OUTCOMES
Rights
• Charter of rights for the mentally ill
• Individual budgets—purchase what you like,
when you like—from a menu of what’s available
• For society to embrace rights – look at things
through the eyes of the most vulnerable
• Would have more choices
• Treated as unique individual
• Right care/ wholistic
• To make decisions & mistakes
WHERE TO FROM HERE
• Purpose is to live a full Life
• Connected to each other
• Robust infrastructure—accountability
• Issues for Working Group
– Developing Core Principles
– Mapping Consumers—Individuals/Organisations
– Email List – conduit for information
FORUM OUTCOMES
Recovery
• Accept Uncover Discover Connect
• Self-righting, directed to person not service
• Accept difference & don’t put me in a box!
• Re-establish/Gain a Sense of contribution
• Tell our stories, to each other & the world
• ‘uncovering’ our own hearts & voices, recovery is
what we work together to do
• Take personal responsibility to do what we can to
make this happen
LEADERSHIP
• Participatory leadership—shoulder to shoulder,
not one charismatic individual
• Based on respect and engagement
• Focus energy in human to human encounters.
• More advanced, democratic mre effective model
• Harnesses diversity, build community, create
shared responsibility for action.
• Deepens individual and collective learning
yielding real development and growth
WHERE WE ARE
• Working Group continues to meet
• Purpose: “To provide a way for Queensland
consumers to link up to share experiences and
learnings, to support each other, and to
influence the delivery of mental health services”.
• Have voted for a name: “A Way Ahead
Queensland”.
• Piggy-backing on Self Help Queensland
mapping exercise
• Email list and Google Group
3
4