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“A Place Where Somebody Understands“

Have you ever felt that nobody really understands what you’ve been through?

A lot of people have had this experience. It is why community mental health programs are so important. We need places where people can come and talk, share experiences or just sit and listen and most importantly be listened to. Institutional style facilities usually struggle to do this.

If you are a carer, supporter, a person with lived mental health experience or anyone in anyway interested in community mental health you are very welcome to join this weekly online conversation.

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Hearing Voices Network

* Now Online

Many people hear voices, see visions, or have similar unusual sensory experiences. When treated with respect , empathy and understanding, most people are able to learn to manage these extra sensory faculties. Moving away from a bio-medical framework that labels and then treats people as victims of an “incurable brain disease” has helped many reduce isolation and reclaim a sense of hope and ownership over their lives.  You are welcome to join our weekly meetings.  Read more…

 

Mad Dixit – A Different Way of Seeing and Being

Mad Dixit is a board game based on a variation of the popular board game Dixit. It has been modified to encompass a transpersonal theme and provides an easy and interesting way to explore beyond ordinary realms of consciousness.
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On The Human Rights Of “Mental” People

Australia, has become one of the worst countries in the developed world for the abuse of people suffering with mental health problems. If you are one of the 5 million or so Australians who at the moment are feeling anxious, depressed, hopeless or are struggling to cope and you turn to any of the public mental health services for help or support you are at risk of being involuntarily confined, restrained, assaulted and subjected against your will to injections of long acting addictive medication that some describe as “torture”. If you don’t co-operate you could be subjected to electro shock (ECT) treatment. You may also be deprived of all your legal rights and are likely to receive a questionable diagnosis that will subject you to public stigmatization and label you as “mad” for the rest of your life.

According to the The United Nations Human Rights Commission, the field of mental disorder has been co-opted for purposes that suit the state and the psychiatric industry, not for purposes that suit the sufferers.

It is not only the patients who are complaining. Many mental health practitioners are also fed up with the abuses they see on a daily basis.

Most are afraid to speak out. To do so is to risk not only losing their jobs but also their professional accreditation. Many are moving on to other fields creating a shortage of competent, capable mental health professionals.

But some professionals are speaking out. One of then is an experienced Australian psychiatrist who has worked in both the prison system and with indigenous communities. Here is what Dr Niall McLaren has to say about the human rights of  “Mental” people.   More …

Niall McLaren On Critical Psychiatry

Niall  is a retired Australian psychiatrist with a lifetime of practical clinical experience. He generally takes an adversarial position towards main stream psychiatric practices. While views expressed in his articles are obviously his own, we have read some of his books and many of his publications and generally support what we regard as his common sense approach to mental health.

Subscribe directly to his articles here. If you are in a position to do so, please support his work with a donation that would undoubtedly be appreciated.  

 

Community Mental Health Project

I am involved in developing and promoting various non clinical mental health facilities and related programs in the outer eastern suburbs of Melbourne  (Maroondah Whitehorse areas). I invite people in my area to get in touch and ask about or become involved in this important work. I am particularly interested in hearing from retired people who feel they would like to make a difference to peoples lives as well as people with lived mental health experience who have recovered sufficiently to help others and would like to develop their skills and experience .

I invite others throughout Australia to take a look at what we are doing, explore specific needs and how they can be best addressed within your own local communities. You don’t need a large bucket of money to do these things. What you need is a caring, supportive community and a desire to make a difference.

A new, in depth article on community mental health in Australia, the consequences on past decisions and the possibilities for a different and better future will soon appear in this space.

Can We Help?

People who have what is regarded as Severe and Persistent Mental Illness (SPMI) are often pretty badly catered for under the existing mainstream mental health system in Australia. Over the last few years we have been able to help people with various things including –

Sharing our own experiences of navigating and managing the mainstream mental health system.

Supporting people at mental health tribunal hearings,  Coming off psychiatric medication (tapering) Facilitating Open Dialog style meetings, usually on-line over Zoom. Helping people find professional mental health practitioners who work outside the mainstream biomedical model of  mental health.>

It is encouraging to see that increasing numbers of professionals are becoming disillusioned with the mainstream system. Such people can still be hard to find but we are more than happy to work with those who have decided they want to be part of the solution rather than part of the problem. Please note we are NOT an agency or referral service.

All these services are free and are provided on a  voluntary basis. 

Use the Contact Us tab (top menu) to get in touch.

The Pink Panther Story

Back in late 2022, I got together with a few friends with lived mental health experience with a view of setting up a movement to try and do something about Australia’s mental health system.

To say that I was were angry hardly describes the way I felt about the dysfunctional mental health services and practices that have become commonplace throughout Australia. I soon discovered that many people who had been caught up in the mental health system had lost all confidence in both governments and most of the organisations who claimed they wanted to help or represent us.

In reality, our needs and voices were simply being ignored.

Many of us have been subjected to considerable violence by the Australian mental health system.

We have also noticed how passive pleas for change to government over many years has had no effect. It is generally conceded that mental health services in Australia have gotten worse.

Activism can take many forms. People like Mahatma Gandhi in India and Martin Luther King Jr in the USA were staunch supporters of non violent protest while organisations like the Black Panther Party, dealing with the same issues as Luther King and others took up arms against racial inequality and police brutality.

All of these people can be looked to in terms of their spirit, passion and commitment but any form of violent protest was not an option. It only adds to a person’s trauma and makes mental health problems worse. This is something the Australian government and many mental health practitioners seem completely unaware of.

We needed a positive way forward. We heard about something called Soteria houses that exist or have existed experimentally in various countries. Soteria houses are about supportive, non-restrictive environments where individuals are treated with kindness and respect and empowered to work through their crises at their own pace. This approach seemed almost too good to be true but after a lot of investigation and petitioning it became obvious that while experiments with the Soteria approach around the world had yielded positive results, the mainstream mental health advocates opposed this approach out of reasons that can only be described as self interest. It has however become not only the basis for the reforms we would like to see take place in Australia but also our credo for what future mental health policy should look like.

The name for the Pink Panther Movement evolved from a fusion of Henry Mancini’s cool defiant jazz,  animator, Richard Williams’ sophisticated, spirited artistry and the revolutionary blueprint of the Black Panther movement converging into the concept of a  cheeky, cunning, but non-violent force for mental health activism and reform.

The word “Black” in The Black Panther Movement was changed to “Pink” and The Pink Panther Movement was born.

We are fiercely independent, peer owned, operated and self funded. We operate on a shoestring budget.

We use imagery  on this website inspired by the Pink Panther character, a registered trademark of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM). We acknowledge that we have no formal licensing arrangement with MGM and uses this imagery solely in a non-commercial, advocacy context for public benefit purposes.

What We Are And Are Not

We are not anti-psychiatry, anti-psychology, anti-medication, anti-government  nor are we mental illness deniers.

We are opposed to involuntary treatment, involuntary confinement, cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment including  punishment or  torture in accordance with  the World Health Organisation  (WHO) Comprehensive Mental Health Action Plan 2013-2030 and the United Nations  Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD).
We are also opposed to treating human beings who are unfortunate enough to succumb to mental health problems (it can happen to anybody) as sub humans who deserve contempt and abuse, rather than compassionate help and support. 

We are  aware that many people working in mental health services share these concerns but often feel powerless to do much about the current situation.

We support the international Mad Pride movement including Mad In America, website and magazine.  Some of the best and kindest people in the world refer to themselves as mad. Turn your madness into an asset and at the same time, help put a stop to those who think of us or try and treat us as broken or inferior.

You’ve got to be crazy. It’s too late to be sane. Too late. You’ve got to go full-tilt bozo. ‘Cause you’re only given a little spark of madness, and if you lose that, you’re nothing. Note, from me to you… Don’t ever lose that cause it keeps you alive.  – Robin Williams

 

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