In recent months and years, I have finally found my ‘tribe’, other people who are truth-tellers, and who refuse to stay silent on the matters that impact and harm them, and harm others. Some are academics and/or activists, and many, like me, have survived trauma. These are people also appear to have put their quest for truth and change, above their own physical and/or mental health, probably unconsciously, because of their commitment to truth, changing mindsets and social justice.

It’s been some time between posts here, as I have other priorities, but the reason for todays post, is to highlight an important report commissioned by the Victorian government in Australia.

Quoting directly from the EasyRead Report, to quickly highlight why and what this report is about;

“In February 2021… The Royal Commission into Victoria’s Mental Health System handed down its final report, with 74 recommendations in total. This was a policy-focused Royal Commission that outlined a future mental health and wellbeing system.

However, consumers and survivors, and families, carers and supporters continued to confront unresolved trauma from the system. It was difficult to see a future mental health and wellbeing system when that system failed to acknowledge its past and confront its present.

In May 2022, the Department of Health commissioned advice to the Minister for Mental Health on how their government could formally acknowledge harms in the mental health system.

This became the State acknowledgement of harm project.“

The report focus is to address traumas caused by mental health systems, and is a call for restorative justice.

That the Victorian government tried to prevent the preport from being published, is not only shameful, but highlights further just how hard it is to question the ‘systems’, and actually tell not only the truth, but achieve any progess. One of the report authors, Simon Katterl interviewed Tim Heffernan (he/him) who, alongside Kerry Hawkins (she/her), helped facilitate the Reference Group that decided on the recommendations in the report (you can read more about the process on the website or full report). Tim has been a consumer leader working as a peer worker, consultant and government official for decades.

Read the full report, Not Before Time: Lived-Experience Led Justice and Repair here…

Read the Easy Translation here…

I encourage everyone to read it, support it, and share it, and to take the lessons it provides into our own field of work.

It is very relevant and applicaple to people with dementia, who when harmed, rarely receive justice, and builds on the work on Exploring the need for redress and reparations in response to violence, abuse and neglect of people living with dementia in residential aged care in Australia I’ve been doing with friend and colleague Associate Professor Linda Steele from the University of Technology.

Read about the authors, Simon Katterl, Caroline Lambert, Chris MacBean, Flick Grey, Lorna Downes, Morgan Cataldo, Katrina Clark, and Sharon Williams (hopefully the links to each author are correct…).