OUR CONSUMER PLACE HELP SHEETS

These help sheets have been wrtten by a range of consumers. They're designed to provide a consumer perspective on issues affecting people diagnosed with 'mental illness'.

The writers of these help sheets have years of experience in the consumer movement, but they don't speak for all consumers. Of course, people with a diagnosis of 'mental illness' do not all have the same views; we disagree with each other on many points. We know that you will find your own path - we offer these documents in a spirit of "take what you like and leave the rest".

Getting What You Need

• How do I find help?
• The question of 'choice'
• Finding the right psychiatrist
• Training your new psychiatrist
• Understanding clinical relationships
• Advance Directives
• Breaking up with your doctor

Money Matters

• How money (or lack of it) affects a consumer's choices
• Making sense of the Medicare Safety Net and the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme

Communication & Information

• Communication with clinicians
• Accessing your files
• Privacy, secrecy and confidentiality

Clinicians' Guides - a Consumer Perspective

• Accreditation & registration
• A consumer's guide to General Practitioners
• A consumer's guide to Emergency Department staff
• A consumer's guide to psychiatrists
• A consumer's guide to psychiatric nurses
• A consumer's guide to case managers
• A consumer's guide to clinical psychologists
• A consumer's guide to counsellors
• A consumer's guide to social workers
• A consumer's guide to occupational therapists
• A consumer's guide to student clinicians
• "Two Hats" - Consumers who are also clinicians

Troubleshooting

• Dealing with inappropriate behaviour by clinicians
• Making a complaint
• Saying thank you to a clinician

Consumers and "Other People's Committees"

• Introduction to consumer committees
• Consumer 'representation'
• Consumer perspective
• Committees and power
• Committee training
• The collaborative committee model
• The role of the secretariat
• Using story on committees
• Problems and politics within the consumer movement
• TEMPLATE: Committee agreement
• So you've been asked to sit on a committee
• Ebony and Georgina: The story of two consumers on a committee

Working with Groups, Committees, Organisations, Networks and Movements

• Introduction
• How to set up (Victorian) Consumer Advisory Groups (CAGs) - an Overview
• Consulting with Groups of Consumers
• How Consumers can make the most of 'Time Limited Groups'
• Deakin Workshops: pioneering groups moving towards co-production
• Deep Dialogue Groups
• The case for Peer-Run Groups
• How GROW works
• The Maine Connection: an inclusive, volunteer, consumer community
• There are Therapy Groups and then there are...groups
• Facilitating 'Hearing Voices' Groups
• The Compassionate Friends Victoria: Peer Support Groups for Bereaved Parents, Siblings and Grandparents
• The Borderlands Cooperative as a welcoming, supportive, connected, inclusing and co-productive group/organisation and place

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