Page 21 - ReAwaken Ebook 1st Ed
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Prof. Bernard Guerin - Contextualizing ‘mental health’
behaviours, talking and thinking: Turning mental health
inside-out
Psychology and psychiatry have always explained human behaviour
as arising from within a person, and this is implicit in current
models of mental health and interventions. When we expand our
ideas and observations of people’s external worlds to include the
social, economic, patriarchal, cultural, and opportunity contexts in
which they are embedded, we can view mental health issues as
arising from painful or stressful situations in which a person has become trapped. To
intervene, we must change the person’s contexts (where we can) rather than superficially
treat them as internal problems or brain diseases.
Bernard Guerin is Professor of Psychology at the University of South Australia, where he
teaches social and community behaviour, language and discourse, and social science
interventions. He has published eight books and his research has focused on working
alongside communities, in partnership with Indigenous Australian, Māori, Somali refugee,
and migrant communities.
Indigo Daya - A Clarion Call: Stop Hurting, Start Helping!
The time is NOW. After decades of activism, the consumer/survivor
movement is in a period of bright and creative growth. We will no
longer accept being passive recipients. We will call out systemic
abuses. We have unparalleled expertise and drive. In this
passionate talk, Indigo will reflect on the themes of Reawaken
Australia, and her experience from 14 years of consumer/survivor
activism. What CAN we do? What MUST we do?
Indigo Daya is Human Rights advisor at Victorian Mental Illness Awareness Council
(VMIAC) and a Research Fellow at the Melbourne Social Equity Institute. She has lived
experience of trauma, madness and coercive mental health services, and has used her
experiences in leadership roles across the mental health sector, academia and
government for over fourteen years.
To watch this keynote click here
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