Hi @chibam
First let me assure you that you're efforts are worthwhile and you are making a difference. I believe we are also making slow but steady progress.
For a start you would recall the SANE audit that took place in November last year. After that audit I asked for a copy of the transcript which I eventually got after a lot of argy bargy and a complaint to the Sane CEO Rachel Green. At that time she tacitly gave me the OK to do a full review of the SANE forum which will be an extension of the audit that you took part in. I have just pulled out all that audit stuff and will post something soon to get the discussion going again. There are certainly things that need to be said and talked about. I suspect a few people are going to feel a bit uncomfortable with some of them but Rachel seems to be quite keen to hear things from the members point of view so it is going to be an interesting experience.
My frustration with the SANE forum as a means of advocating for mental health reform probably peaked around September or October last year. Apart from the problems and limitations about what we can say, I came to the conclusion that the SANE forum just doesn't have the necessary infrastructure or flexibility to effectively organise reform activities from. We could spend a lot of time and effort trying to get the SANE people to change but that sounds to me like an extremely difficult way to try and go about things with a high likelihood of failure.
I have been very busy with other advocacy work over the last few months. If you have a few minutes you might like to google "the pink panther movement mental health". Hopefully it will give you some idea of what has been going on behind the scenes and what input from yourself and others on this forum have already helped accomplish. Hopefully this will be the start of some proper mental health reform efforts in Australia. All I have seen happening so far from others is a lot of stuffing around.
I turn 75 this year. I am still chugging along reasonably well but with a lot less energy than I had in my younger days. Life for me has certainly been a rough ride at times but nevertheless an interesting one. I was dragged, kicking and screaming to Larundel psychiatric hospital in Bundoora Melbourne in 1971, more than 50 years ago. I spent several months there and was diagnosed with schizophrenia because I had started hearing voices and was naive enough to ask people who I thought could be trusted what it was all about. I came out of that place a complete and utter mess. If I knew then what I do today about mental health, things would have been a lot easier but in those days nobody knew much. Knowledge about mental health has increased dramatically over the last 30 years but most of it just hasn't filtered through yet into public awareness. That I believe is what mental health reform is predominantly about i.e. taking some of the excellent research and experiments from the last 30 years or so and using it to increase public knowledge and awareness.
In my experience perseverance is also very important. Those who eventually win are usually those who persevere. It is also important to realise that you can't win every battle. Nobody does. My impression of you is that you are an intelligent, capable person. Once you get a couple of wins under your belt I think you will quickly gain a lot of confidence.
This mental health reform stuff is something that desperately needs to be done. Thank you for your past support. I hope it will be ongoing because I would genuinely like to work with you on this reform project. I think you can help make a big difference to a lot of peoples lives including your own of course.
Regards
Willy
