Executive Director Lived Experience, Department of Health, Victoria, Australia.
Mary O'Hagan
eMHIC Special Interest Group on Lived Experience
Mary O’Hagan was a key initiator of the psychiatric survivor movement in New Zealand in the late 1980s and was the first chairperson of the World Network of Users and Survivors of Psychiatry between 1991 and 1995. She has been an advisor to the United Nations and the World Health Organisation.
Mary was a full-time Mental Health Commissioner in New Zealand between 2000 and 2007. Mary established the international social enterprise PeerZone which provides peer support and resources for people with mental distress.
She has written an award-winning memoir called ‘Madness Made Me’ and was made a member of the New Zealand Order of Merit in 2015. All Mary’s work has been driven by her quest for social justice for one of the most marginalised groups in our communities.