Ambivalent Attendees! Honor here! (That's right it's not Graham this time!)

Exciting news! For the past few months Graham and I have been working with Science Gallery Melbourne to cook up something special for all our Big Feelers, and today we finally get to tell you all about it!

First, some quick context...

Big changes are happening in the mental health system

A lot’s been happening in the mental health landscape in Australia (and particularly Victoria where Big Feels HQ is - that’s the state where Melbourne is for our far flung feelers). Most recently I had the huge privilege to work on the recent Royal Commission into Victoria’s Mental Health System, and that resulted in some huge changes being recommended as well as the massive investment from government needed to go with it (woohoo! Double policy yay!)

One of the big changes has been establishing more services that are run by people who’ve been through these experiences themselves. These kinds of services have a deep and rich history of grassroots advocacy, and have been established in small ways across the world (one example is Piri Pono, a “peer respite” in New Zealand that’s an alternative to hospital run by people who’ve been through it themselves).

(There’s a story about Piri Pono actually that a couple of nurses stayed there as “guests” when they were having a rough time of it, and thought the service was so great they quit their jobs to work there! This is not a story you usually hear when people visit a psych hospital eh??)

Common sense solutions, with lived experience at their heart

Services like Piri Pono are the kinds of supports are the kinds of supports that I’ve heard many people ask for over the years. The kinds of things that make common sense to people going through it, but are impossible to find (like having a safe place to go when you’re in crisis, surrounded by people who “get it”, as opposed to the fluro and lino of an emergency department).

But, in the mainstream sense, they are still incredibly new. So new, that most folks probably have never heard of them!

But dear friends, they exist, you’ve just gotta know where to find them. So we wanted to create an opportunity for Big Feelers to be able to hear directly from the people *on the ground* leading, innovating, sometimes bashing their heads up against policy brick walls, and ultimately finding better ways to support folks with big feelings.

April 6 & 9, come hear from people leading the change in Australia and beyond!

We’ve got three events lined up, and thanks to support from Science Gallery Melbourne, these are all FREE to attend (you just need to make sure you register, links below). 

One is online, available worldwide. And the other two are in person, in Melbourne.

Will it be a feelings nerd fest? Yes! 

Is that an awesome opportunity after 2 years to finally commune with our fellow big feelers and feel hopeful that there’s good things happening in the world? You betcha!

EVENT #1: Online panel, Wednesday April 6, 6.30pm AEST

We’ll be talking to people leading alternatives to hospital services specifically for mental health, as well as whole different ways of seeing what mental health even is, based on the oldest living cultures in the world. This event is online at 6.30-7.30pm AEST.

Featuring:

Avril Hunt, who runs a peer respite, Tupu Ake, in New Zealand, an alternative to hospital run by people with lived experience of this stuff. (Here’s a short video about Tupu Ake).

Leilani Darwin, the Director of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Lived Experience Centre at Black Dog Institute, which is tasked with making sure there’s culturally responsive services across Australia.

Max Simensen, who runs a peer-run alternative to emergency department services in NSW (part of a plan to roll them out across NSW - something slated to happen in Victoria also).

Book your free tickets for the April 6 online panel here.

EVENT #2: In-person panel at Science Gallery Melbourne, Saturday April 9, 11.30am

We’ll be talking grassroots supports for those experiencing thoughts of suicide, as well as hearing from those at the top of the mountain leading the big changes in Victoria. 

Featuring:

Amie Davis, who runs one of the Alternatives to Suicide support groups online, a grassroots effort to support people wrestling with thoughts of suicide.

Heather Pickard, who runs the Self Help Addiction Resource Centre (SHARC), a lived experience-led organisation that runs residential services for people struggling with addiction. She’s been one of the key advocates for more humane responses to crisis and distress for decades, and has been a key leader in the recent reforms.

Mary O’Hagan, who is the brand new Director of Lived Experience in the Victorian Government. Victoria managed to convince Mary (a NZ Native) to jump the ditch to help implement some of the big pieces of reform over here (including the new peer respite, which they’re planning to roll out across Victoria!) (Big Feels Excitement Levels on This = extreme!)

(Side note: Check out this little 3-minute doco Graham helped make about Mary here.)

Book your free tickets for the April 9 in-person panel here (we encourage you to stay for the drawing workshop (info below) with Gorkie afterwards for a FUN time).

EVENT #3: Drawing workshop at Science Gallery Melbourne, Saturday April 9, 1.15pm: shake off all those change-the-world feelings with a drawing workshop with cartoonist and feeler of feelings Gorkie!

Come for the Big Feels Club panel and stick around to decompress afterwards with a hands-on drawing workshop with artist, cartoonist and feeler of feelings, Sarah Nagorcka AKA Gorkie.

We wanted to put this on after the panel as an opportunity for Big Feelers to come together and do something FUN! The alternative title for this event was “shitty drawing masterclass” so if you feel like you can’t draw, you are especially encouraged to come along! More details here.

This is what people have to say about GORKIE’s drawing workshop:

"It was sort of like drawing as yoga." - Micki

"I invited my housemates to do this activity with me and although they came to it a bit nervous (not confident in drawing etc) they had an absolute blast." - Siobhan

Book your free tickets for the April 9 drawing workshop here.

Important news for members... this Sunday's meet-up is postponed!

Last weekend we went to a small wedding and 17 out of our 20 strong wedding group (including the two brides) got covid! And one of those 17 was our dearest Graham (feel free to hit reply and send well wishes to our fearless but also health-anxiety-plagued Graham).

He already does his best to avoid weddings owing to his introverted tendencies. This experience probably hasn’t won him over further. 

(I somehow managed to dodge covid but caught another virus - turns out other viruses still exist?!?)

In all truth, Graham is pretty darn sick, so we’ve decided to postpone our March monthly member meetup this weekend. 

We also thought this was impeccably good timing as we hope this means Big Feels members can join us for these special events in April with Science Gallery and not feel too overwhelmed by all the feelings-intake! 

Our monthly member meet-ups will resume at the usual ‘last Sunday of the month’ time on April 24. Not a member yet? Learn more here.

— Honor xx