The small circles of mental health consumer advocates

We had a guest lecturer this morning for neuropsych, a woman who has bipolar disorder. I thought her presentation was great; she told us a bit of her story, she emphasized that a person is not their diagnosis and that mental health issues should be treated on the same par as physical health issues. She was rather entertaining too, she told us that psychiatrists have all these letters following their name on name cards signifying their qualifications, so she thought she’d put letters in her name cards too. QBE she has, which stands for Qualified By Experience. Hah, now I have a qualification I could put next to my name too. 😛

When she walked in the lecture theatre, I thought she seemed vaguely familiar, but I wasn’t entirely sure. I knew she wasn’t someone I’d met in hospital, but otherwise couldn’t think of where I’d have met her before. It’s only now at night that I realise I have actually met her, very briefly at a community music festival promoting mental health in 2011. We were both volunteers at this event, though for different organisations. I must say, I’m pretty impressed at my memory, given it was about 15 minutes we actually spoke to her, over a year ago! What really prompted my memory was an experience she had with stigma she shared with us today, which was the same story I heard from her last year. She told us of her psych hospital admissions in which she barely had any visitors nor any flowers, yet when she was in hospital for a physical concern, her room was filled to the brim with flowers. I could reflect and relate to her experience, looking back at my times in hospital. My family thought it needed to be kept hushed up, and during all four admissions I’ve received a total of one card or gift- flowers from a group of lovely friends when I spent my birthday in a psych ward last year.

Whenever we get told we’re getting a guest lecturer in neuropsych, I always wonder whether there would be a chance it’d be someone I knew or had come across before, whether as a patient 0r a mental health advocate. It’s funny that it’s now actually happened which shows how small the circles can be in the area of mental health! I’m glad anyhow it’s someone I met when I was in my mental health volunteer role and not as a patient.