In May 2023 at the 107 Projects in Sydney, Australia, our research team hosted an original art exhibition showcasing contributions by women with lived experiences of involuntary mental health treatment, whose perspectives are often missing from mainstream conversations about mental health.

The digital download allows new audiences to experience the exhibition. We invite you to consider what changes are needed to better understand and respond to women’s distress.

We invite you to question the entrenched idea that there are no alternatives to coercion in mental health, and to imagine alternative worlds with us.

All members of the community are encouraged to download and explore the digital exhibition.

Along with our Community Learning Resources, Unscheduled is ideal learning material for:

• Tertiary educators and students interested in women’s mental health and human rights.

• Professionals working in the health and human rights spaces such as social workers, psychologists, general practitioners, psychiatrists, and psychotherapists.

• Professionals working in frontline services such as domestic and sexual violence crisis centres.

• Researchers and policymakers working to improve the mental health and social service systems.

• Women who wish to explore the bigger picture and contextualise their own lived experiences of involuntary mental health treatment, as well as their loved ones and caregivers.

• Survivor advocates and activists.

Producing Unscheduled has been a vital part of our ongoing co-produced research project. Participants were invited to join regular art-making gatherings over eighteen months. Women told us they did not just want their testimonies and creative contributions analysed for academic publications, but wanted them to have a broader impact. The idea of a public art exhibition emerged as a way to make their untold stories visible, and to invite people from all walks of life to consider how they can contribute to a different way of doing things.

Read more about our ongoing research in our academic publications.