Author Talk with Kim Hodges

Especially for Mental Health Month, we have invited Kim to speak about her two memoirs detailing her lived experience of mental illness, taking us into severe episodes of depression, on the road to recovery and everything else in between.

“If you break your leg, you get it fixed, if you have diabetes, you watch your diet and take medication. If you suffer from mental illness you need to access treatment from bealth professionals.

After many hospitalisations and as I wrote my memoir Girl Over the Edge, I came to realise that people who experience mental illness are everyday people. I am a mother, had worked at a university and am now an author but I was debilitated by mental illness to the point of being unable to
function. It is a myth that all people with mental illness are homeless, alcoholics or drug addicts and a risk in society. Although rates of homeless and addictions are higher for those experiencing mental illness these are not defining factors. Those people who experience mental illness are parents, teenagers, women and men and yes farmers. People just like you and me.

Mental illness may affect a family member, friend, loved one so come and listen to a presentation on mental illness that will also ignite a discussion in your community. Mental illness is here to stay so let’s get our heads out of the sand and start to engage in a discussion about it. Let’s challenge the stigma and shame around mental illness by talking about it.”