30 October 1998 .. a web newsletter for psych consumers in australia

from Linda Spithill , E-mail linda@acay.com.au. If you have ideas about this, please let her know .....

I am always looking for links and ideas and hope to get my own "Can't Cope" site off the ground shortly. Any thoughts, or things you'd like included in a new web site directed at simply helping people cope, diagnosed and otherwise . Seeing as I'm running out of room on my personal Home Page and have a growing interest in Mental Health I thought I would start a page at http://members.xoom.com/cantcope. While there will be some medication, diagnosis and even governemnt links included I'd like to add information on parenting, self-esteem, ideas on simply how to get out, happy messages, emergency and other support phone numbers, etc etc etc. Xoom provide 11 meg of space free so space shouldn't be a difficulty.

a review of the recent Our Lives Our choices conference in Adelaide :

"Simon Champ's keynote was excellent and reflected the mood of the gathering. It was really well organised and ran with very little tension or grief. The indigenous contribution was very important and certainly a highlight for me. I think the fact that there was an emphasis on art and performance helped to create a positive atmosphere. Some of the performers were really exciting to listen to.

One criticism could be that the absolute determination to make the event positive might have left some people with no where to put their anger and grief about the system. I also found the panel of psychiatrists a bit frustrating partly because they would only take prepared questions and did not accept them from the floor and partly because they are just so far behind in terms of knowing what is going on in terms of consumer participation at a national level. For example, the only way they seemed to be able to conceptualise consumer involvement in research was as subjects (objects!) to be studied. They didn't seem to have a clue about consumers as co-researchers or researchers. I think I would like to see psychiatrists invited next time to come as an audience to learn something from a panel of 'consumers'!! (Do you think they would come?)

Having said this I need to repeat that I got on a bit of high just having the opportunity to meet so many other 'consumers' and to feel the sense of community amongst us all. It was terrific. The complimentary therapies approach to workshops was also good. I got a chance to experience reiki for the first time ..."
thank you Merinda

A report being considered by the AMA recommends that Australia's main car manufacturers fit new cars with interior sensors and cut-off switches to prevent exhaust suicides. 509 such suicides occurred in 1996. from the Melbourne HeraldSun

A new National Centre for Human Rights in Mental Health will open on 9 November, in Footscray, Melbourne - it will offer a range of advocacy and support programs for consumers and committed people.

More details: e-mail Kon at nchrmh@hotmail.com or phone the centre .. (03) 9689-5075

The national cønsumer Network conducted its AGM in Hobart during the 1998 THEMHS conference, and a new Network committee was elected.

We now have details of the 1998 committee: [thank you Gwyn]
Dianne Pope (delegate for Queensland), Helen Connor (Qld.), Gwyn Jones (Secretary and delegate for Tasmania), Jo Easton (Tassy) , Justin Liebmann (NSW), Karen O'Hara (NSW), Douglas Holmes (Chair, NSW), Lorraine Retallick (SA), Margaret Cook (WA), Kevin Whitton (WA), David Mithen (Vic), Robyn Souter (Vic), Pat Daniels (ACT), and Peter Wise (ACT).

More info. on the Network page.

more on the question : Why did the chicken cross the road?

MOSES
and God came down from the Heavens, and He said unto the chicken, "Thou shalt cross the road." And the chicken crossed the road, and there was much rejoicing.

FOX MULDER You SAW it cross the road with your own eyes. How many more chickens have to cross the road before you believe it ?

RICHARD NIXON The chicken did not cross the road. I repeat, the chicken did NOT cross the road.

MACHIAVELLI The point is that the chicken crossed the road. Who cares why ? The end justifies it whatever the chicken's motives.

JERRY SEINFELD Why does anyone cross a road? I mean, why doesn't anyone ever think to ask , what the heck was this chicken doing walking rouund all over the place, anyway?

FREUD The fact that you are at all concerned that the chicken crossed the road reveals your underlying sexual insecurity.

BILL GATES I have just released the new Chicken Office 2000, which will not only cross roads but will lay environmentally-friendly eggs, file your important documents and balance your cheque book.

OLIVER STONE The question is not "why did the chicken cross the road ?" . Rather it is "who was crossing the road at the same time, whom we overlooked in our haste to observe the chicken crossing ?"

DARWIN Chickens, over great periods of time, have been naturally selected in such a way that they are now genetically disposed to cross roads.

EINSTEIN whether the chicken crossed the road, or the road moved beneath the chicken depends upon your frame of reference.

BUDDHA Asking this question denies your own chicken nature.