WentWest

Mx Jay Gardener works on unceded Dharug land as the Program Manager, Mental Health and Suicide Prevention, at the Western Sydney PHN (WentWest). Jay joins the forum holding dual lived and learned roles. They have previously worked in a designated Lived Experience role with the Illawarra Shoalhaven Suicide Prevention Collaborative and as a Lived Experience advisor with the NSW Mental Health Commission, BEING Mental Health Consumers, LGBTQIA+ Health, Agency of Clinical Innovation, AIHW and research projects with the School of Psychology at the University of Wollongong. With a work history that spans education, peer work, events, retail, hospitality and with credentials in Performance, Business and Auslan, Jay uses these viewpoints to drive systems reform through meaningful relational practices. Jay predominantly shares from an intersectional lens of being from a working-class background in rural NSW, queer, trans, neurodivergent and as a person with lived and living experience of psychosocial disability, suicide, bereavement, addiction and chronic illness. Jay offers their reflections with care - conscious of the privileges they hold - in solidarity with movements for social justice.