Simon Champ: Artist and Mental Health Activist
Simon Champ (b. 1957) is a pioneering consumer activist who has advocated for the rights of individuals with mental illness in Australia since the early 1980s. He has been active in fighting the stigmas associated with mental illness, motivated by the conviction that individuals experiencing mental distress are individuals like everybody else and that they should be recognised as such
Donald Scott-Orr, Consultant Psychiatrist
In an interview with psychiatrist Donald Scott-Orr for the Re;Minding Histories research project in 2020, Scott-Orr summed up his approach to mental health – and could have been describing the philosophy of this research project. He said:
[W]e really need to start where people are, and where they feel and where they relate and are engaged, when we’re dealing with mental health. And then work out from there … what people are exposed to, what they get in their gut. The practical situation, the people they meet, and what their interests are, their heroes.1
