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Mental Health Commissioner for South Australia, PO BOX 287 Rundle Mall, Adelaide (2025)

13/10/2025

Finding Our Rhythm Again

Daylight savings always catches me off guard. One day it’s dark by dinner, the next it feels like the evening could go on forever. The light lingers differently now, and with it comes that slow invitation to shift pace again.

The bottlebrush along our street has burst into colour, and my sunflowers are finally poking up, reaching for the sky. They’re still a while off flowering, but there’s something hopeful about watching them stretch a little taller each day.

I’m still easing back into work this week after some post-op recovery time, moving slower than usual but noticing more. The light. The warmth. The small signs that life keeps nudging forward, even when we’re still finding our footing.

Maybe that’s the lesson of this season… to give ourselves permission to unfurl at our own pace, just like everything else coming back to life.

13/10/2025

Lying awake with night sweats, forgetting words, experiencing mood swings or feeling anxious? These may be symptoms related to a change in your hormone levels.

These symptoms can occur when your hormone levels change during perimenopause or menopause. You can also experience these symptoms if you have changed or stopped your hormone replacement therapy (HRT) medication.

A change in your hormone levels can affect your body and mental wellbeing.

If you’re experiencing these symptoms speak with your GP, pharmacist or gynaecologist.

If you or someone you know is feeling distressed or needs support, call Lifeline on 13 11 14, Beyond Blue on 1300 224 636 or Mental Health Triage on 13 14 65.

10/10/2025

Weekend reflection #14: The Beauty of Wise Elders

It’s my mum’s birthday today. She’s in her 80s and somehow manages to be stylish, grounded, and endlessly generous all at once. The kind of person who can cook for a crowd without a hint of stress and listen so fully that you forget the world outside the conversation.

I’m lucky. I still have both my parents, two people who have modelled compassion, kindness, humour, and strength in quiet, steady ways. It’s something I don’t take for granted.

Not everyone has that. For some, days like this bring grief or longing, for parents or mentors who are gone, or for relationships that were never what they needed to be. If that’s you, it’s okay to feel the mix of love and loss. Sometimes honouring what’s missing is part of healing too.

So today, I’m celebrating the wise elders in our lives, the ones still here, the ones we miss, and the ones who helped shape who we’ve become.

Happy birthday Mum!

(Posting with a photo
of me and Mum because 80 really is the new 50.)

10/10/2025

EXCITING TIMES 📣🎉💚

Just Listening Therapeutic Community is excited to announce the Just Listening World Hearing Voices Congress 2026 will take place in Noarlunga, South Australia.

The Hearing Voices Congress will take place 13 - 15 September 2026.

Just Listening has been invited to host the event and will partner with Humane Clinic Psychotherapy Collective to create a listening community with and for friends from across Australia and the world as we value all the voices in a just and compassionate way.

With gratitude to all those who make up the world wide hearing voices movement Intervoice: The International Hearing Voices Movement and all those who want to walk together in emancipatory journeys, celebrating the unique and common human reality of hearing voices, non-ordinary and altered states and realities.

More information to follow on socials and at justlistening.com.au/hearingvoicescongress

We welcome you to be part of the change here in Australia in 2026 💚

Mental Health Commissioner for South Australia Chris Picton MP Adelaide PHN Mental Health Coalition of South Australia Human Services SA Intervoice: The International Hearing Voices Movement Australian Hearing Voices Network Hearing Voices New York City Hearing Voices Network - USA National Empowerment Center Mad in the UK AD4E: CPD events that challenge the culture of diagnosis and disorder. Moira Were Mayor City of OnkaparingaCity of Onkaparinga SA Health National Mental Health Consumer & Carer ForumHearing Voices Network Aotearoa NZ Humane Clinic Psychotherapy Collective

09/10/2025

It’s been a month since the Start the Chat campaign launched, and today is officially Mental Health Awareness Day. Another day, another reminder.

You might’ve heard the voices on FIVEAA, seen the stories, or bookmarked the training and thought “I’ll come back to that.”

If that’s you, this is your gentle nudge.

The training’s still free. The stories are still there. The conversations still matter.

We don’t need to wait for another campaign to talk about mental health, or su***de. We just need to keep making space - when we can, how we can.

There are some wonderful events on this month so check out https://mhcsa.pulse.ly/micr3ysrnf

https://StartTheChat.pulse.ly/xkdl21u3mq

***deprevention

08/10/2025

Mental Health Month: what’s on after today

There’s some great stuff coming up over the next week. If you can, pick one and go with a friend.

• Inside Out Loud
Strath Neighbourhood Centre, Fri 10 Oct, 10.00 am to 12.30 pm. Immersive lino print art workshop with artist Rebecca Prince. Free.

• Murray Bridge Mental Health and Wellbeing Expo
Murray Bridge Performing Arts and Function Centre, Fri 10 Oct, 10.00 am to 3.00 pm. Community, services, speakers, food and entertainment. Free.
• Understanding Stress and Building Resilience for a Healthy Mind
Cheltenham Community Centre, Fri 10 Oct, 6.00 pm to 7.30 pm. Practical session with Grounded Wellbeing. Small fee.

• Stronger Minds, Stronger Community
Elizabeth Civic Centre, Sun 12 Oct, 10.00 am to 1.00 pm. Session facilitated by Nepali-speaking mental health nurses.

• Mindful Reverse Colouring Art Session
Allendale Hall, Sun 12 Oct, 10.30 am to 11.30 am. Relaxed creative session with artist Susan Briffa. Free.

• Community Gathering for Sharing in Wellbeing
Wandana Community Centre, Gilles Plains, Mon 13 Oct, 11.00 am to 1.00 pm. Garden walk, info sharing and creative activity.

• 2025 Barton Pope Lecture: Mental Health in the Shadow of Violence
U City Function Centre, Mon 13 Oct, 6.30 pm to 9.00 pm. Free public lecture.

• Free Community BBQ for Mental Health Month
Mount Barker Community Centre, Wed 15 Oct, 2.00 pm to 4.00 pm. BBQ and activities. Free.

• Laughter is the Best of Meds
The Howling Owl, Thu 16 Oct, 7.00 pm to 10.00 pm. Comedy night for connection and a good laugh. Ticketed.

See the full calendar and details here:
https://mhcsa.org.au/mental-health-month/

If crowds are not your thing, a phone call, a cuppa with a mate, or a short walk still count. Pick what helps you feel a little more connected today.

07/10/2025

Wednesday Wellness: Boundaries as Care

We often imagine boundaries as rigid walls. In truth, the best boundaries are more like the fences that keep a garden safe. They protect what matters most, while still leaving space for connection and growth.

Just yesterday, I was talking to someone who was offered some contract work. It was right up their alley, exciting, and a great opportunity. But their first thought wasn’t joy, it was panic. They still had a list of important commitments to follow through on before they could start. The worry was that if they raised those commitments, they’d lose the offer altogether.

We talked it through. Instead of saying yes to everything and drowning later, they were upfront about what was realistic. They set clear, practical boundaries about when they could start and what they could deliver. The result? Instead of seeing them as uncommitted, the potential employer saw someone organised, grounded, and likely to deliver well within realistic timeframes.

That’s the heart of boundaries. They’re not about saying no to opportunity. They’re about saying yes to what you can do with integrity, without breaking yourself in the process.

Wellness isn’t always about doing more. Sometimes it’s about choosing less… and doing it well.

06/10/2025

Supporting someone you love through addiction

I had another conversation this week with someone trying to help a friend who is caught in the cycle. They asked the hard question so many families ask: where is the line between support, help, and compassion, and enabling. There is a lot of guilt, fear, and second-guessing when you care about someone who swings between commitment, rehab, and harm, often with shame and secrecy in the mix.

Heres what we know…

Addiction is not a simple choice problem
Dopamine pathways in the brain’s reward and learning systems get hijacked, which pulls attention and behaviour back toward the substance or behaviour, even when harm is obvious. see:
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fncir.2021.752420/full

• Anna Lembke talks about restoring balance in an overstimulated reward system, seehttps://www.med.stanford.edu/profiles/anna-lembke

• Gabor Maté frames addiction as an adaptation to pain, not moral failure. Check out;
https://drgabormate.com/addiction/

What helps?

• Families and people with lived or living experience consistently say that peer workers reduce shame and improve engagement.

• Family Drug Support offers 24/7 support, groups, resources, and a non-punitive approach. https://www.fds.org.au/

• Know Your Options is SA’s directory for alcohol and other drug helphttps://knowyouroptions.sa.gov.au/

• Naloxone saves lives in opioid overdose and is free to take home. See the SA Health website (search Naloxone) for info and factsheets.

Practical tips

• Lead with connection, curiosity, and calm language. Avoid all-or-nothing ultimatums.

• Use CRAFT-style “small asks,” reinforce any step toward health, and keep goals bite-sized.www.robertjmeyersphd.com/cra-approach/community-reinforcement-and-family-training-approach

• Set boundaries you can keep. Support is food, lifts, and listening. It is not funding..

• Remove shame from the conversation. People often lie because they fear losing the relationship.

• Plan for crises. Learn overdose signs, where to get naloxone, and who to call,

• Look after yourself. FDS have local groups and a wonderful support phone line. 1300 368 186

If you have lived experience personally, or as kin, a family member or friend and feel safe to share, I would genuinely value what has (and hasn’t) helped.

05/10/2025

The Weight of Waiting

If you’ve ever sat in a waiting room for longer than ten minutes, you’ll know the strange time warp that happens. You flick through an old magazine, you check your phone twice, you start wondering if you’re actually invisible. Now imagine (many of you won’t need much imagination) that waiting stretched into months or years for an appointment, a service, or the next step in recovery.

That’s the reality for too many people in mental health. Waiting becomes its own kind of burden, and sometimes the hardest part is not knowing when it will end.

What helps? Not grand solutions, but small mercies: a friend who checks in, a daily routine that gives shape to the day, a reminder you haven’t been forgotten. Even humour can help. One person told me they renamed their place on the waiting list “limbo lounge” because if you can’t shorten the wait, you can at least lighten the mood. For me, recovery began when I had a realisation that I couldn’t, and wouldn’t wait anymore for someone or something else to “fix” me but to start taking small steps on my own.

If you’re in that space right now, you’re not alone. Holding on is hard work, but it matters. And while we keep pushing for shorter waits, we can also keep making the wait more bearable by holding each other close.

04/10/2025

Weekend Reflections #13: Stitching Change

Following on from yesterday’s dive into crochet activism, I’ve been thinking more about how fibre and fabric have long been part of movements for human rights, justice, and innovation.

South Australia has a proud history of leading change, from women’s suffrage to marriage equality, to community-driven mental health reform. What’s often overlooked is that craft has been part of that story too. Here in Adelaide, “Radical Craft” groups once yarn-bombed our streets with stitched slogans. Around Australia, collectives like the Knitting Nannas Against Gas used quiet craft circles to resist fossil fuel projects. And globally, artists like Olek have transformed public spaces with crochet, not just for beauty, but as protest and visibility.

It’s fascinating how something as soft as yarn can carry messages that are strong, edgy, and profound. A banner stitched together can be just as political as one painted in bold ink, and sometimes more powerful because it disarms.

All of this has sparked an idea I’d love to grow. But before I run ahead with it, I want to pause and ask:
Would you want to be part of something like this? Would you contribute to something that grows, one square at a time, into a collective message of care and resilience?

More soon… but for now, I’d love to hear your thoughts.

02/10/2025

Joy as Rebellion (with stitches attached)

Yesterday I went down a rabbit hole of YouTube crochet tutorials (recovery time plus wool equals obsession). But instead of just learning how to keep my tension even, I stumbled onto the history of crochet activism.

During the Irish potato famine, women learned crochet lace to sell to the wealthy, giving them a way to support their families while still staying within the narrow expectations of the time. In the 1960s, crochet turned up again, this time in counterculture movements, used as both identity and protest. And today, yarn-bombers cover fences, poles, and trees with stitched messages that soften what might otherwise feel like sharp protest.

It struck me that joy itself can be a form of rebellion. The act of making, of delighting in colour and rhythm, of leaving behind a small square of beauty in a world that feels heavy… it matters.

Real examples bring this home:

• In East Harlem, artist Carmen Paulino and local women crocheted fences and public spaces with bold messages of love and feminism, reclaiming community space through yarn. (Photo: Artofit)

• In Ripley, UK, townsfolk “wool bombed” their high street: poles, fences, and even bike racks wrapped in colour. What began as play has become tradition. (Photo: Lynda Higgins Blog)

• Across the world, trees dressed in crochet remind us that protest can be joyful and soft. (Photo: Aaron Levine Blog)

So yes, sometimes jo-rebellion is simply dancing in the kitchen with the dog. Sometimes it’s a stitch repeated until it forms something bigger. Either way, joy isn’t escapism. It’s fuel. It’s how we resist despair.

01/10/2025

Mental Health Month continues

This October’s theme is Connecting When It Counts and there are events right across SA to help us do just that.

Here are a few coming up from tomorrow:

• Voices of Resilience – Lived Experience and Carer Stories
Victor Harbor, Tuesday 7 October, 10am–1pm
Stories of lived experience and caring that show the power of connection and healing.

• mindshare Visual Art Exhibition
Adelaide City Libraries, running all month (3–31 October)
Creative work from South Australians living with mental health challenges.

• The Power of Movement for Health
Cheltenham Community Centre, Friday 3 October, 2–3:30pm
An interactive workshop with Veronica Wood from Grounded Wellbeing.

See the full calendar of events here: https://mhcsa.org.au/mental-health-month/

Mental Health Month is about small moments that add up to real change. If you can, get along to something near you or simply check in with someone in your life. Connection matters.

Mental Health Commissioner for South Australia

13/10/2025

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