New Equally Well Ambassador leads by example in a commitment to embedding holistic health as a baseline in mental health care
Meet Shannon Harwood from Tasmania, the new Equally Well Lived Experience Ambassador.
“For me Equally Well feels like a “bridge” between Physical and Mental Health. As a person, I cannot put my mental health in one place and my physical health in another. I carry both these things within my one person. My goal for Equally Well is that it continues to break down silo-ed thinking that physical and mental health are separate issues. The goal is health.“
Shannon is currently employed as an early career Researcher and project Coordinator at the University of Tasmania – Tasmanian Centre for Mental Health Innovation, on the No Body Left Behind project. The project investigates effective physical health interventions in Public Mental Health Settings for people experiencing mental illness, where Shannon is the Tasmanian Project Coordinator, and Lived Experience team member.
Shannon’s background incorporates learnings from direct lived experience of severe mental illness, as well as Lived Experience (LEx) expertise in LEx philosophy, advocacy, and workforce development. Previously a lived experience practitioner in Public Mental Health Services (peer Support), and private Recovery coaching, her interests encompass lifestyle mental health care, hyperbolic tapering principles, and ketogenic therapies within the emerging field of Metabolic Psychiatry, having used such ketogenic therapy to effectively to achieve remission of Bipolar 2.
As an Equally Well Ambassador Shannon is committed to forging new connections and collaborating on innovative ways to breaks down siloed thinking and legacy practices and systems that do not serve the holistic health principles on which the Equally Well National Consensus is founded on.
“ I knew about the life expectancy gap, and had personally experienced harmful diagnostic overshadowing, long before I knew of Equally Well. Equally Well gives me a language and a frame of reference that is accepted by service providers. Equally Well gives me a suite of resources and statistics that are accepted as having validity. “
Read more about Shannon’s vision for her role with Equally Well on our Ambassador profile page.
