General News
15 July, 2024
'Accidental activist' aims to inspire
One of the leading campaigners behind the creation of a medically supervised injecting room in Richmond says she hopes to inspire community activism in the Horsham district.
Judy Ryan will lead a panel discussion hosted by Grampians Community Health in Horsham tomorrow.
Ms Ryan was born and raised in Wangaratta and raised her own children in Wodonga before moving to Richmond in 2012.
In 2016, she led a community campaign in favour of the medically supervised injecting room that opened in 2018.
She describes herself as a non-medical “accidental activist” who saw a problem in her community and responded.
Ms Ryan says her message is simple - if she can identify a problem and do something about it, so can others.
“I tell my story as an accidental activist and then throw it open to the audience," she said.
"Is there an issue here and is there something you can do about it?
“People can become activists without marching up and down the street.
"It can be as easy as contacting your local politician.
"We can change the world just by doing that.”
Ms Ryan said she was prompted to act by what she described as “traumatising heroin overdoses, deaths, and never-ending ambulance sirens and attendances in our streets and laneways”.
She was made a Member of the Order of Australia in 2022 for service to community health and awarded a Churchill Fellowship in 2023 to study how international governments engaged communities to implement life-saving health solutions.
In 2023 she published her account of the grassroots campaign titled You Talk, We Die: The Battle for Victoria’s First Safe Injecting Facility, and she has since spoken at libraries and community health centres across regional and remote Victoria.
Ms Ryan said she was not advocating for medically supervised injecting rooms in regional centres but wanted to destigmatise conversations around alcohol and other drugs and provide an example of respectful activism that achieved positive outcomes.
“The biggest issue seems to be government funding and the provision of practical services close to key centres like Horsham so people needing assistance don’t have to travel far from home,” she said.
The panel discussion will run 4pm-5.30pm in the Horsham Library tomorrow.
Dr Felix Ritson from Horsham’s Lister House Medical Clinic will facilitate the panel conversation and Ms Ryan will be joined by Grampians Community Health AOD treatment practitioner Jenni Bellin and Grampians Health AOD practitioner Sally Pymer.
Ms Bellin said the panel discussion would give local people an opportunity to discuss what was important to them.
“For example, there is a lack of residential rehabilitation and withdrawal facilities in this region that people might want, but this forum gives us a chance to hear the many and varied concerns that could be in the community and then see what we can do about them,” she said.
Bookings for the panel discussion can be made on 5382 1777 or at https://www.wimmeralibraries.vic.gov.au/events/you-talk-we-die/