Me, until now
I began working in the mental health system in 2015 after a period in international development and having had my own experience of mental health distress and crises.
Shaped by studies in law, politics and psychology, I was passionate about bringing a blended social justice lens to my advocacy work at the Victorian Mental Illness Awareness Council and Independent Mental Health Advocacy. After working in a senior role at the Mental Health Complaints Commissioner, I worked with consumers across Victoria to co-produce a suite of self-advocacy resources, before I took a policy role at the Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission. In 2020, I was fortunate to assist 34 consumers to give evidence to the Royal Commission into Victoria’s Mental Health System at Victoria Legal Aid through their own personal stories.
Since then I have provided individual consultancy to the Royal Commission, while also undertaking my own writing and providing training and support to my fellow consumer workers.
Underpinning all of this work is an understanding that consumer leadership and co-design are critical to service transformation, and that a functioning system will be one that respects human rights.
About me
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Bachelor of Laws (2nd Class Honours, Griffith University, 2014)
Bachelor of International Relations (Griffith University, 2014)
Graduate Diploma in Psychology (University of Melbourne, 2018),
Masters in Regulation and Governance (Australian National University, continuing).
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I have written nine peer reviewed articles and a range of other reports. If you can’t access them please reach out via the contact page:
Kellie Gilbert, Ian Muchamore, Simon Katterl, Hayley Purdon, Andy Allen, Ingrid Ozols, and Piers Gooding. "Digital futures in mind: Why lived experience collaboration must guide digital mental health technologies." Australian Journal of Social Issues (2024).
Magenta Simmons & Simon Katterl, ‘Cautions on digital mental health’ (2024) Nature News and Views.
Simon Katterl ‘From principles to practice: clarifying new obligations under Victoria’s Mental Health and Wellbeing Act 2022’ (2024) Australasian Psychiatry 10398562241251595.
Simon Katterl. "Letter to the Editor regarding ‘Do compulsory mental health patients have a right to receive a second psychiatric opinion on their treatment under Australian mental health legislation?’." Australian & New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry (2024): 00048674241291320.
Simon Katterl, ‘Resolving mental health treatment disputes in the shadow of the law: the Victorian experience’ (2023) Lexis Nexis Dispute Resolution Bulletin, 1.
Simon Katterl, ‘Regulating rights: developing a human rights and mental health regulatory framework’ in The Future of Mental Health, Disability and Criminal Law, edited by Kay Wilson, Yvette Maker, and Piers Gooding. Routledge, 2023.
Simon Katterl, ‘Words that hurt: how mental health stigma remains outside the law’ (2023) Alternative Law Journal 1.
Simon Katterl, ‘Not so creepy: A reflection on Jackson and Haslam’s article, “Ill-defined”’ (2022) Australasian Psychiatry 10398562221142459.
Simon Katterl, ‘Not so creepy: A reflection on Jackson and Haslam’s article, “Ill-defined”’ (2022) Australasian Psychiatry 10398562221142459.
Simon Katterl, ‘Examining the workplace rights of mental health consumer workforce members’ (2022) Online First Australian Health Review 1.
Simon Katterl, ‘Regulatory oversight, mental health and human rights’ (2021) 26(1) Alternative Law Journal 149.
Simon Katterl & Chris Maylea, ‘Keeping human rights in mind: embedding the Victorian Charter of human rights into the public mental health system’ (2021) 27(1) Australian Journal of Human Rights 58.
Chris Maylea, Simon Katterl, Brendan Johnson, Susan Alvarez-Vasquez, Nicholas Hill and Penelope Weller, ‘Consumers’ experience of rights-based mental health laws: Lessons from Victoria, Australia’ (2021) 78 International Journal of Law and Psychiatry DOI: 101737.
Simon Katterl, ‘The importance of motivational postures to mental health regulators: Lessons for Victoria’s reforming mental health system’ (2021) 29(6) Australasian Psychiatry 638.
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Recent writing includes:
Simon Katterl, ‘Labor promised to fix our mental health crisis. I made the mistake of believing them’, The Age (online, 16 October 2024)
Chris MacBean et al, ‘Australia’s Mental Health System Transforms People into “Things”. It Is Causing Harm’, The Guardian (online, 25 June 2023)
Simon Katterl, ‘Mental health remains a challenge for the Victorian government’, the Age (online, 8 November 2022)
Simon Katterl, ‘It’s Frightening What Happens to Patients in Australia’s Mental Health Units. Change Is Overdue’, Guardian Australia (online, 26 June 2022).
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Recent talks:
Simon Katterl, Advancing a Human Rights Act, (Presentation to Mental Health Lived Experience Tasmania Members, 2024).
Simon Katterl, Human Rights and Mental Health Queensland: Wellbeing, Agency & Systems-Change (AGM Presentation to Queensland Alliance for Mental Health Members, 2024).
Simon Katterl, Human Rights, Mental Health and the NT (AGM Presentation to the Northern Territory Mental Health Coalition Members, 2024).
Aimee Sinclair and Simon Katterl, Peers and Justice (Keynote presentation for the Western Australian Peer Support Network, May 2024).
Simon Katterl and Shona Louis, Locating Myself: Young People, the Human Rights and the Consumer Movement (Keynote presentation to Centre for Mental Health Learning Consumer Workforce Day, March 2024)
See publicly available talks here.
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Academic Board Member at Cairnmillar Institute (2024-Present)
Former Chair of the Victorian Mental Illness Awareness Council (2023-2024)
Public interest legal cases in Mental Health and Wellbeing Commission v Katterl Z405/2023 (2023-2025)
Taskforce Member, National Mental Health Stigma Reduction Strategy (2022-2023)
Previous projects
Election for Mental Health
In 2024 I assisted Consumers of Mental Health WA to develop their election platform for the 2025 March election. Learn more here.
Advice to Government
In 2022-2023, I facilitated a project of more than 10 people that advised the Minister for Mental Health on how to formally acknowledge harm from the mental health system. Read here.
Your story, your say
In 2020 at Victoria Legal Aid, I managed a project to support 34 people with lived experience to give evidence - in their own words - to the Royal Commission into Victoria’s Mental Health System. Read more about it here.
Speaking our Minds
I worked with Croakey’s Dr Ruth Armstrong and Melissa Sweet to support lived experience voices in the 2022 Mental Health Week series. You can read from consumer and carer voices here.
Legal Service Design
In 2021 I assisted Inner Melbourne Community Legal to establish what became their Community Lived Experience Advisory Group to oversee project and service design developments. In 2022 I facilitated a process to design an integrated practice model for lawyers working in mental health settings.
Royal commission
In 2019-2020 I worked alongside other consumer leaders to provide education to the Royal Commission into Victoria’s Mental Health System. In late 2020, I was brought on as a Consumer Advisor to advice on consumer leadership, human rights and regulatory oversight.
Evaluations
Between 2021 and 2022 I was consumer lead and human rights adviser for Cube Group, which evaluated the Hospital in the Home pilot in Barwon Health and Orygen Youth Health, as well as the evaluation of the Consumer Carer Feedback Loops Pilot.
Self-advocacy
In 2018-2019 while with Independent Mental Health Advocacy, I worked with consumers across Victoria to co-produce a suite of self-advocacy resources for people on compulsory treatment orders, including videos, fact-sheets and digital self-help tools. Learn how I worked with others.
