There is, I believe, only one struggle for human rights. It’s been fought over many years, under many names, and by many diverse groups but it’s the same fight and it won’t be won until it’s won for all of us. Because as long as the rights of any group…
What do we mean by Consumer Perspective?
Consumer Perspective I’ll try to get to some sort of nuanced academic understanding of this term, but I’ll just start with simplicity. A Consumer Perspective is the ‘perspective’ of, or how the social world looks to, ‘consumers’ or people using or being provided services or product (voluntarily or otherwise) by…
‘Peer work’ vs ‘Peer Support Work’
. There are sometimes differences in ‘Worldview’ when it comes to interpreting the terms above, especially in the context of the Certificate 4 in Mental Health Peer Work’. In the context of The Cert IV in Peer Work, the term ‘Peer work’ was the one, at the time, and still…
A Diary of a PSW
Or ‘Two Big Days’ Day 1 It’s the Day. The Big Day. I start work. I’m going to be a peer support worker. Week 1 It was great, overwhelming, gratifying and challenging. It felt great to have all those professionals accepting me. The ‘NUM’ explained she’d be ‘managing’ me and…
Our Muses
Verse, Music, and other Arts
About
Me I have been hanging around the Consumer Participation/Consumer Worker/Peer Worker/Lived Experience/Lived and Living Experience profession here in Melbourne, Australia since the late ’90s. I’ve worked at consumer organisations, big hospitals and many places in between, in peer support, independent advocacy and systemic work. However the stuff you see on…
The Consumer Version of LLEW’s origins
Below is a poster, originally written for our Pride Day. It forms part of LLEW’s oral history as related to me by more than one source. I cannot vouch for its historical accuracy, but it is certainly True in the deepest sense. It describes and references the ‘history-book facts’ of…
Mad Pride Day – July 14th
Our Day, people. Be Proud of being us.
‘All of the Above’ Posters
THE PROBLEM When we get a diagnosis we also get a whole new identity. Instead of students, or workers or parents, or teenagers, we are now ‘consumers’, ‘people with mental illness’ Efforts at ‘psychoeducation’ and development of ‘insight’ into what changes are required to maintain recovery – pills, a permanent…
