A woman who has made a significant contribution to community mental health in Orange has been named in the Queen's Birthday Honours List.
Jennifer Coleman of Orange is to receive a Medal for the Order of Australia (OAM) for helping people who have a mental illness and contributing to multiple community organisations.
Professor Lesley Forster will also receive a Member of the Order of Australia (AM), for service to tertiary education, rural public health, and medical administration.
Ms Coleman said she was surprised when she received the notification in the mail about two months ago.
"I thought I had a police fine," she said.
"My actual first reaction was I hope we can use this for the betterment of mental health."
Ms Coleman has been a consumer advocate working with NSW Mid-Western Mental Health District since 1996 and helped establish the O'Brien Centre in 1998.
She said she began working in the mental health field after receiving her own diagnosis while raising young children on a farm.
"I was diagnosed with bipolar in 1982 in the middle of a drought," she said.
She's made huge achievements in the mental health field, we are both just extremely proud of her.
- Daughter Anna Farrell
"When I was told I had a mental illness I didn't even [understand] what a mental illness was.
"The direction of mental health has come a long way in those 38 years but it still has a long way to go."
She said mental health needs to be seen as a health issue.
"I would like to see the head attach to the body in diagnosis," Ms Coleman said.
"People talk about it like it's your head, if you have a mental illness it's all parts of your body."
She has also been on the Orange Family Support Service committee, she was a founding member of the Rotary Club of Orange Daybreak, she is a life member of Friends of Orange Botanic Gardens, she is a Yarn Market Molong committee member and has volunteered with Meals on Wheels at Molong for 12 years.
Ms Coleman said a lot of the stigma about mental health has reduced over the years from when she was first diagnosed.
"These days there's more facilities once you know what's happening to you," she said.
She said now there are more facilities and services and people can get a mental health plan from a GP.
In Orange the volunteer-run O'Brien Centre has also become a place where people with a mental illness can socialise and enjoy various activities from arts, music and games through to gardening without the worry of stigma.
I hope we can use this for the betterment of mental health.
- Jennifer Coleman OAM
"People just come because they recognise we are operating a social space," Ms Coleman said.
"It's unique, it offers that non-medical non-clinical oasis.
"You cannot isolate, and if you isolate you dwell and it gets worse.
"They come from all different mental health reasons."
Ms Coleman said designs have been drawn up for a new bespoke centre in another building provided by the health district at the Bloomfield campus.
"What we offer there are things most people give up ... that's what I found out after I was diagnosed with bipolar, I didn't want to do anything anymore, I didn't understand it really."
Ms Coleman is a peer support worker employed by NSW Mid-Western Mental Health District and said she started in the mental health field after seeking information for herself.
Ms Coleman is also a grandmother of five and her two children David Coleman, and Anna Farrell are both proud of her achievements and recognition.
"She's made huge achievements in the mental health field, we are both just extremely proud of her," Mrs Farrell said.
Unfortunately due to COVID-19 the awards ceremony has been postponed.
However, Governor-General David Hurley, who visited the O'Brien Centre in 2014, remembered her and sent his congratulations.
Tanya Marschke
I am based at Orange and cover a wide range of subjects as well as the weekly business column. I've worked consistently in the the media industry since 2006 including the past seven years at the Central Western Daily. Before moving to Orange, I worked as a journalist at weekly newspapers the Beaudesert Times and the Gold Coast Sun in Queensland, as well as the Scone Advocate in the Hunter Valley. I started my career at the Ridge News in Lightning Ridge while I completed my journalism studies remotely at Charles Sturt University in Bathurst.
I am based at Orange and cover a wide range of subjects as well as the weekly business column. I've worked consistently in the the media industry since 2006 including the past seven years at the Central Western Daily. Before moving to Orange, I worked as a journalist at weekly newspapers the Beaudesert Times and the Gold Coast Sun in Queensland, as well as the Scone Advocate in the Hunter Valley. I started my career at the Ridge News in Lightning Ridge while I completed my journalism studies remotely at Charles Sturt University in Bathurst.
