New to Cards of Kindess?
The festive season is a happy time for most of us. It’s a time for meeting friends, family and talking about a good year that has passed. However, if you’re in hospital the festive season can be a difficult time. People who are often lonely are those in the Acute Mental Health Units at Austin Hospital.
Yarra Plenty Regional Library, in partnership with Banyule Council’s Arts and Culture team, has an annual project to bring a little bit of light and kindness into people’s lives. The project is inspired by one started by two sisters in the United States when one sister was in hospital over Christmas. The project is overseen by Banyule resident and mental health advocate, Heidi Everet.
We encourage you to write a friendly message for someone in the local mental health units over December.
How to get started:
Gather all your unused season’s greeting cards. Look in Op Shops and ask around. Make your own card!
Or come along to one of our card-making workshops:
- Cards of Kindness: Card-Making Workshop, Thursday 30 November, 6.30pm— 8.30pm at Watsonia Library
- Cards of Kindness: Card-Making Workshop, Tuesday 5 December, 6.30pm— 8.30pm at Ivanhoe Library
- Cards of Kindness: Card-Making Workshop, Thursday 7 December, 1.30pm—3.00pm at Diamond Valley Library
- Cards of Kindness: Card-Making Workshop, Friday 15 December, 2.00pm—3.30pm at Thomastown Library
What to write:
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Address the card ‘Dear friend’ -
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Add some gentle and compassionate words of care. Try not to encourage people to be happy or to look for the positives in life. Many people enduring mental health crises have experienced a long period of trauma including family breakdown, grief, housing and financial stress.
Sign your cards with your first name or ‘from a friend in the community’. -
Please leave your envelopes unsealed.
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Drop your cards into a Cards of Kindness red postbox at your branch of Yarra Plenty Regional Library by Saturday 16 December. We will arrange for delivery to the psychiatric wards at the Austin Hospital.
Butterflies of Kindness:
We invite children to choose and decorate a Butterfly with colors and designs to bring a bit of light and love into the ward. All the Butterflies will be taken to the hospital and added to a tree mural on the wall in mid-December.
Wondering what to draw? Think about when you’re feeling really down, or alone. What art would make you feel a little less lonely?
Butterflies will be available at some library activities, and on display with cards of kindness at some locations.
Books of Interest:
Twelve Days of Kindness by Sophie Beer
Sophie Beer's Twelve Days of Kindness is all about the lovely things you can make and do for others during the festive season. Whether it's making a card to say thank you, baking cookies to share, or bringing joy to someone in need, everyone can spread kindness at Christmas. An uplifting, joyful story about simple ways to celebrate the festive season with kindness.
Not waving, drowning : mental illness and vulnerability in Australia by Sarah Krasnostein
Mental illness is the great isolator, and the great unifier. Almost half of us will suffer from it at some point in our lives; it affects everybody in one way of another. Yet today Australia's mental health system is under stress and not fit for purpose, and the pandemic is only making things worse. What is to be done? In this brilliant mix of portraiture and analysis, Sarah Krasnostein tells the stories of three women and their treatment by the state while at their most unwell. What do their experiences tell us about the likelihood of institutional and cultural change? Krasnostein argues that we live in a society that often punishes vulnerability, but shows we have the resources to mend a broken system. But do we have the will to do so, or must the patterns of the past persist into the future?
My Friend Fox by Heidi Everett
Also available as an eBook (Libby).
'Tender, wise, and deeply true.' – Andrew Denton 'Do not be deceived by the size of this book. It is big in all the ways that matter.' – Sydney Morning Herald 'Blazingly beautiful and devastating. I wept but felt less alone as a human. I want everyone to read this book!' – Favel Parrett, author of Past the Shallows and There Was Still Love The fox sits on the outer waiting for me to discover him because at the moment, I am on the outer too. He watches me. Can you see him? He's clever at hiding. Just like fox, Heidi has lived on the outer. The 'official record' of her life has been her mental health record: Primary diagnosis – Schizoaffective; Comorbidity – Major depression, juvenile autism, and not her own memories. This is the living, breathing version of Heidi's mental health file that psych wards, doctors, mental health staff or rehab workers know little about or worse, use as evidence of diagnoses. This is Heidi's account of what happened, shadowed by the story of a fox who knows he'll never belong. Part parable, part memoir, My Friend Fox is a story that might be familiar to some – searching everywhere to finally feel at home.