Recently my friend and Flourish Australia colleague, Annie Sykes, passed away.
Annie was an early advocate in Australia for mental health recovery and mental health lived experience (peer) work. Annie worked for Flourish Australia for around 20 years as our Senior Independent Advocate supporting people accessing our supports to raise complaints, to self advocate and to resolve service challenges.
As someone living with complex mental health issues, Annie knew the worst of “supports”, having experienced lengthy forced institutional care. But she always reflected to me that even in the darkest of experiences there were also staff who showed her kindness. Annie knew some of the worst of life, but that never destroyed her sense of hope, something she believed was an essential part of mental health recovery.
Annie lived in the community and was part of it, playing club grade tennis, attending the cinema and concerts, travelling the world, and catching up socially with her circle of friends. Her great love were her cats.
Annie truly believed in the importance of integrated supports. She always talked about her ‘team’ that supported her on her recovery journey. She valued each team member deeply, and was always grateful for being connected to them; and she hoped for the same experience for others.
More recently, Annie rediscovered some of the work she did on The Recovery Toolkit in the 1990s, something she wrote, had printed and promoted widely. She also was invited to share her personal story of recovery in 2021 through the work of Professor Hans Pol at the University of Sydney, an engagement she was very proud of. Annie reflected on the significant contribution she had made to modernising mental health services, something recognised in the NSW Mental Health Commission’s 2022 publication, Hope, strength and determination.
Annie’s example of hope, perseverance and endurance, of generously sharing of her lived experience, and of mental health recovery, is a great counterpoint to the stigma associated with some recent mental ill-health narratives.
The support Annie was able to scaffold around herself is an example of what is possible, and how people can move through periods of complex mental ill-health, and live contributing lives. Annie’s contributions to her community, to Flourish Australia, and to the mental health sector were many, and we are all much the better for them.
I’ll miss Annie and our weekly discussions. But, her wisdom and guidance will remain with me always. It will help ensure the mental health reform discussions I have, and the decisions I make, are always informed by Annie’s example, her belief in possibilities, and her deep commitment to human rights.
Vale Annie.
Mark Orr AM
Chief Executive
