Working in Community Mental Health was not my initial career plan. 

I began my career working with youth, but when I started to realise I was no longer up to date with the latest fashion trends, music and technology, some of those important relatable topics in the toolbox of a youth worker, I felt it was time for a change in my career. 

Throughout my childhood, I grew up supporting a parent with a mental illness. My emotional connection towards mental health, lead me to work in this particular field.  I felt like I could put my personal experiences to good use.  

At 40 years of age, the passage of time lessened the rawness and emotions I had experienced and instead left me with a depth of understanding and empathy.

Growing up in a household with a parent with a severe psychotic illness is a challenging journey for any child and during the 1980’s, the prospect for any kind of recovery was extremely lacking.  Treatment was entirely medicalised with emphasis placed on lengthy hospital admissions, ECT and massive doses of medications.  Patients and families were not educated about what to expect in terms of the progression of the illness or how best to manage the condition outside of a hospital environment. Mental Health had a strong negative stigma back then, making it all that much harder to talk about. 

On leaving hospital, a person would be left to cope independently or be expected to rely upon loved ones who were distressed and ill equipped to manage caring for someone with a mental illness. The lack of psychosocial rehabilitation and any type of carer support available then, still astounds me now when I reflect back. 

If community outreach support had been available back then as it is today, the endless rounds of acute episode after acute episode may have assisted my family through the process and restored a sense of normality.

In my role as mental health support facilitator, I am happy to be a part of the positive changes being made within the mental health sector. It’s great to see more recognition from the community towards, the impact of social supports in promoting improved mental health.  Being a part of the process of change enables me to promote hope of recovery which was not previously discussed.