About us
The Impatient project is a joint equal partnership between Ms Sue E. Armstrong and Professor Jayashri Kulkarni.
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Many people have commented that there is a lovely symmetry that a female peer advocate with a lived experience of mental illness, and a respectful psychiatrist, are working together.
In October 1990 Sue E. Armstrong chose to come out in public on the 7.30 Report (ABC TV Victoria, Australia) as an ex-patient discussing a sexual assault at Royal Park Psychiatric Hospital.
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Sue represented the Mental Health Legal Centre, and together with Terry Melbourne, representing the Victorian Mental Illness Awareness Council, they called for the reinstatement of female only psychiatric wards.
Professor Kulkarni became a Fellow of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists in 1989 and was awarded a PhD from Monash University in 1997 for her thesis “Women and Psychosis”.
Sue E. Armstrong and Jayashri Kulkarni, between them, have 60 years working on female mental illness issues. They have much expertise, knowledge and wisdom to share.
Ms Sue Armstrong
Award winning trained fine artist, video producer, mental health consumer and peer advocate, I come from a family of advocates and activists, so I am considered genetically radical among my friends and colleagues.
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During the past 3 decades, I have experienced numerous forms of assault whilst being hospitalised and witnessed far too much harassment from the male patients and staff of these supposedly safe places, so I have dedicated my life to advocating for positive progression for female rights and welfare in all areas and all sectors, especially for those females that have mental health issues and are admitted to hospital when they are at their most vulnerable.
Photography Courtesy of Arlene Sachon and the City of Moonee Valley
Professor Jayashri Kulkarni
Currently the Director of the Monash Alfred Psychiatry research centre (MAPrc), and Head, Central Clinical School, Department of Psychiatry.
Immediate Past President, International Association for Women's Mental Health
Professor Kulkarni is internationally recognised for her expertise in the treatment of mental illness, particularly in women’s mental health, where she works in the area of hormone impact on the mental health of women and also broader research in the area of women’s welfare.
