Stand up even when your voice shakes

Over the last 12 months, CriticLE have been pushing advocacy within Suicide Prevention Australia (SPA) for key changes that will deepen their engagement with people with lived experience. It all started in 2019 when key lived experience leaders raised the need for SPA to embed a designated lived experience position on the board. But due to the response from SPA’s board, members were never invited to have a discussion on the changes.

For too long SPA has been managed in the same vein as health services generally, with self-declared “experts” making decisions on behalf of the people they are employed to support. CriticLE believe we need to think deeply about how we label “expertise” and whether those with no training or experience in suicide prevention really can lead our sector. We believe that it is time that those with lived experience were given the same power and status as other leaders in the sector.

Last week, our advocacy with SPA came to a head. At their AGM, the two proposals that CriticLE had raised were voted on by members. We are pleased to report that our first proposal to embed a designated lived experience director on the board was passed with a landslide approval and only 2% of members who voted against the change.

Our second proposal would have returned the right to vote on the election of directors to associate members and it required a vote of all members and a vote of organisational members both reaching 75% support. The vote obtained 35% and 24% support respectively.

We describe this as a loud and clear voice for support of people with lived experience and returning decision making control to them. Although SPA is not the first mental health or suicide prevention organisation to designate leadership positions to people with lived experience, it has been a long time coming for our peak. We also describe this as a success, as SPA have tried to silence this topic from members for discussion for years and members have finally had their say, with some disagreeing with the recommendation of the board on these decisions.

Our Founder, Hayley, offers her thoughts on the AGM:

“It was an early start for me on the day I had been working towards for over 12 months. I rose at 5am to make the trip from Canberra to Sydney in time for the 10am meeting. With a belly full of caffeine, walking into the KPMG Barangaroo offices for the meeting, I began to feel very nervous. The AGM organisers could not find CriticLE on the membership list and told me I was only entitled to receive an associate member vote. I assured them CriticLE was an organisational member and that I was entitled to the full vote. There was confusion and I started to feel sidelined, yet again. Was this an intentional move for SPA to make their AGM as intimidating as possible for everyday people like me?

“As the meeting unfolded, it was all very formal with the directors lining up behind the meeting chair like a battle line drawn. Members were invited to take a stand, to the side of the general presentation, and voice their thoughts. It was then that my voice faltered and the weight of months of difficult advocacy started to be felt. I had familiar faces in the room who gave me comfort but I felt completely out of my depth and deep in the middle of the “shark tank”.

“Reflecting after the meeting on what CriticLE had achieved, and the difference it meant for people with lived experience, I knew that despite it being extremely difficult and all consuming, it was the right thing to do. We received so many messages and phone calls of support from our community that I know it was all worth it. Plus we got one of the proposals through! I also wonder if the SPA board have lost touch with what the sector wants given that about a third of their members disagreed with their recommendation on our associate voting rights proposal!

“There is still a way to go to resolve further disputes with SPA including their mismanaged director election process. CriticLE will not be intimated and believe the SPA board need some accountability for their actions. It seems they believe they can make a ruling about any decision they want under the guise of a “by-law”, but as a member organisation, rather than an autocracy, the SPA board and CEO must be accountable to SPA members.

“I want to personally thank everyone who has reached out with their support in this process. Your kind words, interest and passion in this advocacy has meant everything to me.”