Anthony Harris

I have worked as a psychiatrist for over thirty years mostly across western Sydney usually in community positions but also in teaching and research.

I grew into my professional role while some of the battles that form the basis of this project were being fought and the pattern of care that came out of deinstitutionalisation crystallised and then hardened into its present maladaptive form.  

At the same time, I was active in the community mental health movement being a member, group leader, board member and then chair of a leading non-government organisation, the Schizophrenia Fellowship of New South Wales - now One Door - an organisation that has always put the lived experience of a person with a mental illness at the heart of its work.  

The multiple perspectives that the project is bringing to this area is helping me better understand not only the history but also the present and the way mental health services should evolve.