Visible has landed!

After 18 long months of keeping this hidden from the world, I am ecstatic to finally be able to share what I, and the thirteen other Australian Youth Advocates for Mental Health (AYAMH) have been working on. WELCOME TO VISIBLE!

Visible is a creative collaboration between young Australians experiencing mental heath challenges and artists. These partnerships have produced an insightful collection of creative expressions that share the real and vivid experiences of mental health challenges faced by young people.

Visible grew out of desire by Government and Peak Bodies to recruit a group of diverse, experienced, and accomplished advocates’ from all corners of the country to seed change in the way young Australians identify with and engage in a conversation on mental health, it’s persisting stigma, and the importance of reaching out for help.

Among many ideas generated, discussed, stripped to their foundations and built anew, one common theme emerged: the need to provide a unique and engaging community of creative stories that speak to an often hidden or raw experience of human struggles and triumphs in the face of mental health challenges. It would need to be accessible, captivating, provide a platform that future advocates could build on to create or share their own experiences, or find reassurance or guidance from the experiences and insights of others. It’s with those values in mind that the idea of pairing each advocate with a creative talent to produce works based on each advocate’s individual lived experience of mental ill health emerged; and with that Visible was born.

The development of advocate stories as a process itself would encourage openness and clarity of communication between one person and another - meaning that every creative expression you’ll see today has been the result of an ongoing cycle of understanding and personal expression. It would empower a relationship between advocates and stakeholders that is built on principles of honesty, integrity, meaningful frameworks for co-design, and compassion in our approach to engaging with one another’s lived experience.

As a group of advocates, with the support of peak bodies and talented facilitators, we attended a series of co-design workshops intended to cast as wide a net as possible to catch any and all ideas, and then to refine them over time according to the goals and principles agreed on when we first came together.

Visible itself embodies the importance and inspiration of reflecting on lived experience of mental ill health, and the act of making stories, experiences, and insights accessible to young Australians. Conversations about mental ill health can have a tendency to focus on the cold and clinical, meaning that the dialogue itself is difficult to engage or identify with. By using creative mediums, we have injected a flourish of vividly colourful insight and genuine diversity into the national dialogue - giving young people the ability to witness and be part of the conversation without the often confronting ’mental health’ headline.

Each creative expression can stand on it’s own as a work of art, or can be enjoyed in the context of the creative processes and lived experiences that underpin them - meaning they carry a weight of insight that is meaningful to the context that people are engaging from. They are each unique, and draw focus to insights and values that have been foundational for each advocate in their professional and personal lives. We wanted to make sure these expressions created a platform for a community that promotes and validates the value of each individual experience as a part of a whole, encourages the safe and healthy sharing of the challenges of mental ill health, and celebrates the healthy and effective ways we manage and respond to these challenges.

I am so proud of my creative expression, created in collaboration with the stunningly talented and wonderful Josh Muir, an award winning Gunditjamara/Yorta Yorta Visial artist. As one of my fellow AYAMH I had the pleasure of working, sharing, and learning with Josh over the 18 month journey - from the group coming together and meeting at the headspace National office in Melbourne for the first time in late 2018 to the national campaign launch on November 16 2020.

We hope that through this collection we can reduce stigma and help other young people feel safe, supported and accepted for their mental health.

I encourage you to discover the full digital exhibition at visible.org.au

Visible is an initiative from the Australian Youth Advocates for Mental Health (AYAMH), coordinated by headspace and supported by a cross-sector group of batyr, Beyond Blue, Black Dog Institute, Butterfly Foundation, Consumers Health Forum of Australia (CHF), Mind, Orygen, ReachOut Australia and SANE Australia.