Dr Rosiel Elwyn
1Thompson Institute, University of Sunshine Coast, Sunshine Coast, Australia
Biography:
Dr Rosiel Elwyn (they / them) is a post-doctoral researcher and Lived Experience Academic at UniSC's Thompson Institute. They are also a casual Lived Experience Academic for research and research translation projects with a number of other university and industry partners, such as co-development of Lived Experience leadership and workforce skills in suicide prevention. Dr Elwyn is also a Lived Experience Commissioner for the Lancet Psychiatry Commission on Lived Experience in Mental Health Research.
Dr Elwyn's work centres around trauma-responsive care, human rights and health equity, and epistemic justice.
Abstract:
As part of this panel, I will provide dual perspective as a post-doctoral researcher and person with lived experience of civil involuntary treatment for severe longstanding anorexia nervosa, psychosis, and suicide attempts as an adolescent and adult. I will discuss needed reform to the mental health system, with examples of how involuntary treatment and use of coercive and restraint practices can lead to iatrogenic harm and re-traumatisation (e.g., Elwyn, Clarke, & Jones, 2025; Elwyn, 2025). I will discuss how Psychiatric Advanced Directives are inadequately utilised and can be overridden without justification, leading to re-traumatisation (Elwyn, 2026; Lerman et al., 2026), and how a lack of restorative just and repair practices can retraumatise patients, creating a cycle of healthcare avoidance, crisis, medical mistrust and perpetual survival mode (Downs, 2025; Elwyn, 2023, 2025, 2026). I will provide a Lived Experience example of lack of capacity assessment in any involuntary treatment orders, and reliance on diagnosis alone as 'evidence' of incapacity; consistent violations of due process. Finally, I will provide a Lived Experience example of an alternative approach and attention to restorative justice has begun to break cycles of re-traumatisation and involuntary treatment orders for me, becoming life-saving and life-changing.