About Vision in Mind
Vision in Mind offers a variety of unique services, consultancy, keynote presentations, training and education. We specialize in:
- Mental health and motivation in workplaces, educational institutions, services and the community
- Continuing Proffesional Development points for Mental Health First Aid Recovery
- Managing Staff With Mental Health Issues
- Well being
- Resiliency and Stress Management
- Peer Support Worker training
- Bullying and Harrassment
- Public Speaking
- Media Representation
CEOs, managers, HR, Diversity and WHS practitioners are realizing how important mental health is to their workplaces. However they often do not have the knowledge to deal with these issues. If your workplace wants to improve its outcomes, Vision in Mind can help. If your service or community is in need of recovery training we deliver practical training to workers, Psychologically Diverse Citizens (consumers) and carers..
Fay is a multi-award winning national motivational speaker, educator, advocate and voice for mental health. She was raised on a farm, has lived in rural, regional areas of Australia and in Sydney. One of the most engaging things about Fay is how she adapts to each of her audiences. People often make comments to conference organizers such as:
- Mental health and motivation in workplaces, educational institutions, services and the community
- Continuing Proffesional Development points for Mental Health First Aid Recovery
- “She makes you feel like she is talking directly to you”
- “She is the best speaker I have heard in years”,
- “She was the best speaker at the conference”
- “I laughed and I cried, she is hilarious but so real”
- “when you go up to speak with her after the conference she makes you feel like you really matter to her”
Fay was appointed as the Inaugural Deputy Commissioner of NSW Mental Health Commission and is the General Manager of Inclusion with Flourish Australia. She has been the driving force in the Peer Support Movement in NSW and Australia and is consulting to international services about this important workforce. She conceived of the famed “Why Not A Peer Worker?” strategy for Flourish Australia. She has also worked as a Peer Worker, Peer Work Manager and Director of Consumer, Carer and Community Affairs in the NSW public mental health sector.
She has been awarded Principal Master Trainer status with Mental Health First Aid and was awarded the inaugural MHFA Champion Award. She is regularly engaged to advise the NSW and Federal governments, public health services and non-government organizations (NGOs), on mental illness, mental health, wellbeing and Peer Work in the community, services, and all workplace sectors.
Fay is proud to be a person with a lived experience of a mental health issue and recovery. She refers to herself, with tongue in cheek, as a Psychologically Diverse Citizen or PDC. She also refers to people without mental health issues as Psychologically Ordinary Citizens or POCs and laughs at the number of people who come out of the wood work and honestly declare themselves as PDCs if the alternative is to be called a POC.
Fay is a leader in mental health, the lived experience and peer workforce. She tours internationally and across Australia as a keynote speaker, consultant, educator and trainer. Her aim is to impart knowledge and motivate positive change in services, communities, workplaces and individual lives. Her addresses are emotional and humorous. Her audiences laugh and cry as she breaks down myths and helps them feel empowered. She ignites fires in peoples bellies to make positive change happen. She believes that all professions and communities should embrace innovative, productive and sustainable change with a focus on human rights, compassion, embracing and valuing emotions and lived experience and the power of shared vulnerability and laughter.
She was the first Consumer speaker for Beyond Blue and a national media representative consulting to Rotary Health Research Fund, SANE Australia, Beyondblue, the NSW Centre for Mental Health, the National Mental Health Commission and other services.
Her aim is to destigmatize mental health issues in the workplace and community and to ensure that it is seen as an integral part of WHS and performance outcomes in the workforce, services, educational institutions.
Fay presents on a diverse range of subjects about mental health, recovery, prevention,early intervention, resilience, lived experience and peer workforces and wellbeing. For example, she has spoken on subjects as far reaching as mental health in:
The workplace
Peer Work
The Lived Experience Workforce
NDIS, the National Disability Insurance Scheme
Pregnancy, families, early childhood
Youth and schools
Rural and remote communities and services
Trauma
Wellbeing and ageing
Long Term Unemployment
Mental health and climate change
Human and disability rights
Managing change
Long term unemployment
Drugs and alcohol misuse
MH in the animal industry
Whole of government approaches to MH
Rural and remote mental health
Mental and physical health
The importance of laughter and comedy in mental health
Drugs and alcohol use
The animal industry
The transport industry
Whole of government and whole of life approaches
The arts
Improving mental health services
Dual disability
Cancer and mental health
She relates well to people from all cultures, for example she was a keynote speaker about Mental Health and Climate Change at the South East Asian Summit on Climate Change which was attended by climate change specialists from across the globe including European countries, Asian Countries, Britain etc. She is honoured to be called Aunty by a number of Aboriginal Communities. She has been invited to speak at both state and federal parliament on a number of occasions. Fay is passionate about leading employers, employees and the community to be proactive in the mental health of our nation. She has been honored with several awards for advocacy and consultancy at state and national levels including the prestigious International Meritorious Service to Community medal and the Rotary Paul Harris Fellowship award.
Fay is also an accomplished artist and writer. She has had several successful exhibitions and has had academic papers, short stories and poetry published. She has worked as a stand-up comic and clown and has a background in secondary education and the building industry. Diverse… yes! Knowledgeable, absolutely! Engaging… definitely. She has an incredible story to tell of overcoming great hardships but she loves a good challenge. Fay lives by two mottos, ‘A life lived in fear is a life half lived’ and ‘Make your mark but don’t leave a stain’.
