World Bipolar Day – Promoting Awareness at UoM

World Bipolar Day is held on March 30, the birthday of Vincent Van Gogh, who has famously been known to experience bipolar disorder (BD). It is a day to honour and bring awareness to BD in the hope of reducing stigma and misinformation around the condition.

During this time, a number of initiatives took place with contributions from the Department of Psychiatry team:

CREST.BD World Bipolar Day ‘Ask Me Anything’ Event Q&A

A/Prof Tamsyn Van Rheenen, Dr Elysha Ringin and Georgia Caruana participated in the annual CREST.BD World Bipolar Day ‘Ask Me Anything’ event. This annual event brings together a multidisciplinary team of research, clinical and lived experience experts, for a multiple day international Q&A discussion. The team contributed to answering more than 500 questions asked by the public, to inform and advocate for BD. Learn more about this initiative and Q&A here.

Bipolar Life World Bipolar Day Community Event

Georgia Caruana, PhD Candidate & Research Coordinator, also attended the ‘Bipolar Life’ World Bipolar Day community event. ‘Bipolar Life’ is a Victorian peer-led organisation that runs peer support groups across the state for people living with BD and BD carers. This community event featured a lived experience panel and truth telling about the BD experience.