It's a Mind Field!

In today’s episode, we examine some of the things we hold near to our hearts but might be afraid to talk about. We talk openly about suicide from those with personal experience and what the research says. This is a story of hope, not despair. 

We then have an interview we hope you’ll love as much as we do! 

We interview a sex worker who specialises in working with clients who have dementia, living within aged care facilities. Though eye-opening, this is a story of tenderness, not titillation.

*This episode has a significant focus on suicide. If you need to talk to someone, please visit the Mindframe website where you will find a list of contacts.

Guests: 

Associate Professor Fiona Shand is an expert in suicide prevention, driven from both professional interest and personal experiences. Dr Shand is a senior researcher at the Black Dog Institute and at the NHMRC Centre for Research Excellence in Suicide Prevention. She is also a practising clinical psychologist who has worked extensively with a variety of people, including those experiencing issues relating to mood, problematic eating and substance use. 

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Caz conducts Club Mind with Alyse, Brie and Steve who talk candidly about their personal relationship with suicide, and the ways in which they navigated it.

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Julie Bates AO has been a sex worker and activist for more than four decades. She’s been at the forefront of the Australian sex worker rights movement since the early 80s. She has been a pioneer and champion for the rights of sex workers and mobilising the sex industry against the spread of HIV/AIDS. Today, she is still a passionate advocate working as an adviser to the sex industry and other stakeholders and organisations in matters of work health and safety and local government planning matters. Julie is also sex worker, working primarily with clients in their golden years, often with dementia and living in aged care facilities. 

IAMF! is supported by the Mental Health Commission of NSW.

Content warning -
Interviews include explicit language and feature topics such as depression, stigma and suicide. We acknowledge that this content may be difficult and we encourage listeners to take care of their safety and well-being.

Help is available -  
Lifeline - call 13 11 14
Suicide Callback Service - call 1300 659 467 / suicidecallbackservice.org.au

IAMF! Facebook /  Instagram /  Website

Have you ever felt lonely? Are you lonely now? French writer, Honoré de Balzac wrote that “solitude is fine but sometimes you need someone to tell that solitude is fine.” Ain’t that the truth! In this episode, we investigate what causes loneliness and how it is different from solitude. And where does our drive to connect come from? How and why do we connect, with words or without them? Though it can feel like it sometimes, you’re not alone. We promise! 

Dr Michelle Lim is a Senior Lecturer in Clinical Psychology and leads the Social Health and Wellbeing Laboratory at Swinburne University of Technology. She is also the Chief Scientific Advisor for Ending Loneliness Together, and the co-director of the Global Initiative on Loneliness and Connection. Dr Lim’s work is focused on how loneliness can negatively impact social functioning and exacerbate mental health symptoms such as social anxiety, depression, and paranoia.

Alise Blayney is a poet, writer, artist, editor and peer educator who has worked in mental health services since 2013. She holds a Bachelor of Creative Arts from the University of Wollongong and enjoys alchemising her creativity and lived experience in mental health education. You can find her book of poetry Grief for Hire on Verity LA.

Ben Frater was a unique surrealist Australian poet who saw poetry as both confession and exorcism, drawing on his lived experience of the schizophrenic vernacular. His legend and legacy live on with the creative writing project Clozapine Clinic — The Frater Project. You can find his book of poetry 6am in the Universe on Grand Parade Poets.

Tim Heffernan is an experienced consumer peer worker and is the Mental Health Peer Coordinator at COORDINARE, South Eastern NSW PHN. Tim has been a member of the Commission’s Community Advisory Council since its establishment in 2014, and a past chair of Being (NSW Consumer Advisory Group) and the NSW Public Mental Health Consumer Workers Committee. He is the Deputy co-chair for the National Mental Health Commission’s Peer Workforce Development Guidelines Steering Committee.

IAMF! is supported by the Mental Health Commission of NSW.

Content warning -
Interviews include explicit language and feature topics such as depression, stigma and suicide. We acknowledge that this content may be difficult and we encourage listeners to take care of their safety and well-being.

Help is available -  
Lifeline - call 13 11 14
Suicide Callback Service - call 1300 659 467 / suicidecallbackservice.org.au

IAMF! Facebook /  Instagram /  Website

Is there a connection between religious involvement and mental health? Hell yeah! Though it is a long and complex relationship indeed. For some, religion and sport has been a source of deep joy and connection, whereas for others it has been an irritant. Of course, there are many shades in between. Funnily enough, the exact same thing could be said about sport. What do you reckon? 

Carole Cusack is a Professor at Religious Studies at the University of Sydney. Her research interests include medieval European religion, religious conversion, modern Paganism, new religious movements, and religion and popular culture.

Visit: www.sydney.edu.au

James  Lolicato is the co-founder of Pride Cup Australia and was previously the founder/CEO of Proud 2 Play. James was named Australian Community Leader of the Year by the Australian Institute of Managers and Leaders.

Visit: pridecup.org.au

IAMF! is supported by the Mental Health Commission of NSW.

Content warning -
Interviews include explicit language and feature topics such as depression, stigma and suicide. We acknowledge that this content may be difficult and we encourage listeners to take care of their safety and well-being.

Help is available -  
Lifeline - call 13 11 14
Suicide Callback Service - call 1300 659 467 / suicidecallbackservice.org.au

IAMF! Facebook /  Instagram /  Website

In this episode, we unearth the connection between invisible illness and its propensity to result in 50 shades of displacement -- from friends, family, work, visibility in public discourse, and the home itself. Join in on our chats with SHOW ME WHERE IT HURTS: LIVING WITH INVISIBLE ILLNESS author Kylie Maslen, and Yfoundations CEO Pam Barker.

Kylie Maslen is a writer, critic and the author of SHOW ME WHERE IT HURTS: LIVING WITH INVISIBLE ILLNESS. She lives on unceded Kaurna Country in Adelaide. 

Visit: www.kyliemaslen.com

Pam Barker is the CEO of Yfoundations, the peak body for youth homelessness in NSW. With a background in psychology, Pam is passionate about helping young people out of homelessness through a mixture of advocacy and leadership.

Visit: yfoundations.org.au

IAMF! is supported by the Mental Health Commission of NSW.

Content warning -
Interviews include explicit language and feature topics such as depression, stigma and suicide. We acknowledge that this content may be difficult and we encourage listeners to take care of their safety and well-being.

Help is available -  
Lifeline - call 13 11 14
Suicide Callback Service - call 1300 659 467 / suicidecallbackservice.org.au

IAMF! Facebook /  Instagram /  Website

In this episode of It’s a Mind Field! We’re focusing on youth and some of the challenges that young people have faced in the past and still deal with today.

Our expert interview is with 2010’s Australian of the Year, Professor Pat McGorry. Pat is a psychiatrist known world-wide for his development of early intervention and youth mental health services and for mental health innovation, advocacy, and reform. Leon speaks to him about the difficulties navigated by young people and mental illness, as well as some of the wins we’ve seen today. 

Caz convenes Club Mind with Bree, Jarod and John, a trio with lived experience of mental illness commenting on Pat’s interview and reflecting on how mental health struggles affected their own lives.

Samuel Leighton-Dore is a writer, screenwriter, director and visual artist based on the Gold Coast, where he lives with his production designer husband and two cats. Chris speak with him about changing his relationship with alcohol, and the unique efforts it presents.

You can visit Samuel’s website here:
www.samuelleightondore.com

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This podcast includes discussion around topics such as depression, stigma and suicide. We acknowledge that this content may be difficult. We also encourage you to care for your safety and well-being.

You can call Lifeline on 13 11 14 or access the Suicide Callback Service on www.suicidecallbackservice.org.au or 1300 659 467

IAMF! is supported by the Mental Health Commission of NSW.

Content warning -
Interviews include explicit language and feature topics such as depression, stigma and suicide. We acknowledge that this content may be difficult and we encourage listeners to take care of their safety and well-being.

Help is available -  
Lifeline - call 13 11 14
Suicide Callback Service - call 1300 659 467 / suicidecallbackservice.org.au

IAMF! Facebook /  Instagram /  Website

Welcome to It’s A Mind Field!

In this first episode of ‘It’s A Mind Field!’ presenter, Leon Fernandes, has a conversation with Australia’s premier ‘Psychologically Diverse Citizen’, Fay Jackson, about the discrimination, stigma and self-stigma that PDCs like her experience every day.

The show’s three presenters then have a chat about what Fay had to say, and how discrimination, stigma and self-stigma affect them in their daily lives, in ‘Club Mind’.

In ‘Outside The Box’, we hear from a Sydney man, ‘John’, about his experience of Gay Conversion Therapy.

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This podcast includes discussion around topics such as depression, stigma and suicide. We acknowledge that this content may be difficult. We also encourage you to care for your safety and well-being.

You can call Lifeline on 13 11 14 or access the Suicide Callback Service on www.suicidecallbackservice.org.au or 1300 659 467

IAMF! is supported by the Mental Health Commission of NSW.

Content warning -
Interviews include explicit language and feature topics such as depression, stigma and suicide. We acknowledge that this content may be difficult and we encourage listeners to take care of their safety and well-being.

Help is available -  
Lifeline - call 13 11 14
Suicide Callback Service - call 1300 659 467 / suicidecallbackservice.org.au

IAMF! Facebook /  Instagram /  Website

Welcome to this 13 episode pilot season of ‘It’s A Mind Field!’ an audio-based multimedia community engagement project for, by and about Australians with lived experience of mental health challenges, launching on 23 July 2021.

We are Caroline Savransky, Chris Jaeger and Leon Fernandes  – all experts by experience. Join us as we discuss the issues that matter to us all as we manage our lives through our challenges.

For this pilot season, we talk through 13 themes chosen by a poll of experts by experience, like us, exploring them with the best knowledge and names in the country. Listen on as we pick these themes apart in a chat among peers about how these affect us in our daily lives in a segment called ‘Club Mind’.

Stay tuned, because after Club Mind we have ‘Out of the Box’, where we talk about an interesting, mental health-related story, like ‘Praying the Gay Away’; ‘Surviving Sandy Hook’; Vicarious Trauma; and Expression through Poetry.

From 23 July, you can get ‘It’s A Mind Field!’ on your Google, Apple or Spotify podcast app, or go to our website to stream or download our episodes.

This pilot season is kindly funded by a grant from the Mental Health Commission of NSW.

IAMF! is supported by the Mental Health Commission of NSW.

Content warning -
Interviews include explicit language and feature topics such as depression, stigma and suicide. We acknowledge that this content may be difficult and we encourage listeners to take care of their safety and well-being.

Help is available -
Lifeline - call 13 11 14
Suicide Callback Service - call 1300 659 467 / suicidecallbackservice.org.au

IAMF! Facebook / Instagram / Website