1 Jan 2020 DRAFT

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 migrate 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
19