Medication is a very controversial topic and one that can create a lot of challenges for those taking medications. There are many issues and these can vary for each person. The topic is even more critical in light of the impacts that medications have on a person’s physical health particularly when they have no choice or legally compelled to take them.

This workshop is consumer led and asks participants to put themselves in the shoes of the person taking medication for a brief while. It invites the participants to reflect on their personal attitudes towards medications and how these attitudes impact upon practice. It also creates time and space for discussions to unpack the issues and consider how personal practice may change as a result of this reflection.

Advocacy
IMHA is the first Independent Mental Health Advocacy service in Australia. It is a statewide non-legal advocacy service that provides advocacy to people who are at risk of, or are subject to, compulsory treatment under Victoria’s Mental Health Act 2014. IMHA advocates work with people using a representational model of advocacy that is based on taking instructions from the person. Advocates work from a Supported Decision Making framework that allows a person to make their own decisions and express these to people in their lives.

Physical health, and the response to these needs, is a concern for many of the people that advocates work with, being an issue identified across the state over the past three years. This presentation will give you an overview of IMHA and some examples of how its advocacy model works in practice.