Welcoming Diverse Consumer and Survivor Views and Voices into Mental Health (Video Available)
In 2021, the Melbourne Social Equity Institute is launching a new seminar series as part of its Mental Health and Society Research Program.
In the second event in this series, Indigo Daya speaks about consumer and survivor views and voices.
Download Indigo Daya's Presentation Slides (PDF)
The mental health system is not good at welcoming diversity. Many groups who are disproportionately impacted by the mental health system have their voices left out, particularly Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander voices, people from culturally diverse backgrounds, and older people. However, there is another aspect of diversity which is frequently forgotten: people with diverse experiences of the system.
Increasingly, consumers and survivors are being included in mental health sector projects. However, despite some positive shifts, engagement processes often employ the tokenistic curation of ‘convenient’ consumer/survivor views and voices, while other views and voices are excluded.
In this talk, Indigo Daya presents a conceptual model which explains how diverse experiences of treatment and care often map onto distinctly different views about the nature of experiences, services and reform. Indigo explores ways the model can be applied in practice, including in the context of the recent Royal Commission into Victoria’s Mental Health System.
Indigo Daya is a Consumer Academic at the Centre for Mental Health Nursing, Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences. Indigo has lived experience as a survivor of childhood trauma, madness and coercive mental health services. Her research interests include Mad Studies, consumer/survivor perspectives in mental health contexts, human rights and reframing ‘mental illness’ as a meaningful response to trauma.
Other seminars in this series
(videos available)
Thursday March – Professor Bernadette McSherry
O Brave New Brain? Regulating "Neurointerventions"
Thursday 6 May – Dr Magenta Simmons
Involving Young People as Partners in Mental Health Research
Thursday 3 June – Professor Helen Cahill, Melbourne Graduate School of Education
Using School-based Social and Emotional Learning Programs to Advance Wellbeing Post Emergency