CQU expert no longer 'banging on doors' about mental health
ROCKHAMPTON academic Dr Louise Byrne has been appointed to the Queensland Mental Health Commission to provide expert advice and guide reform to improve outcomes for mental health consumers.
Dr Byrne appeared on the ABC's Q&A program last year, filmed live from the Pilbeam Theatre, to discuss mental health, particularly in regional and rural Australia.
Queensland's Mental Health Commissioner Dr Lesley van Schoubroeck said Dr Byrne's focus would be on increasing acceptance that people with lived experience were well suited to making a valuable contribution to better outcomes.
She takes up the one-day-a-week role in August while continuing to lecture and conduct research at CQUniversity.
"The Queensland Mental Health Commissioner has a really strong commitment to lived experience and consumer participation as well," Dr Byrne said.
"Instead of banging on doors and having to beg, I've been invited in... to hear them say things I would have thought impossible from senior managers 10 years ago."
