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Breathe Connect Listen: I feel the profound significance of the content offered by our indigenous community. Breathing with one another, opening up space to connect and listen is unfamiliar to the Western ‘get ahead at all costs’ framework. Yet we are talking and listening now. So exciting.
My first experience of the world of ‘mental health’ was after I had actually had a near death experience, upon returning, those who were there witnessing were in a lot of fear. Two days later I was taken to hospital by them as I was presenting as if I was having a psychotic episode. They denied the death out of fear, and I was then and there diagnosed as bi-polar. I continue to live with this diagnosis after 30 years. The initial diagnosis has taken precedence over all other evidence since. First contact has an enormous impact. Every subsequent document is written based on the first.
I understand how easily we can be misconstrued, how easily symptoms can be assumed to be what they are not.
I would love to see change in this regard. That there is always someone working who can breathe with, be with and listen to someone entering the system.
The ALIVE National Centre is funded by the NHMRC Special Initiative in Mental Health.
We acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of Country throughout Australia and recognise their continuing connection to land, waters and sky. We pay our respects to their Elders past, present and emerging. We are committed to working together to address the health inequalities within our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. We accept the invitation to the Uluru Statement from the Heart.
WARNING: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander viewers are warned that this site may contain images and voices of deceased persons.
This map attempts to represent the language, social or nation groups of Aboriginal Australia. It shows only the general locations of larger groupings of people which may include clans, dialects or individual languages in a group. It used published resources from the eighteenth century-1994 and is not intended to be exact, nor the boundaries fixed. It is not suitable for native title or other land claims. David R Horton (creator), © AIATSIS, 1996. No reproduction without permission. To purchase a print version visit: https://shop.aiatsis.gov.au/
The ALIVE National Centre for Mental Health Research Translation is funded by the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Special Initiative in Mental Health GNT2002047.
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ALIVE Collective Application Form Click here
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