AustLit

'The 2020-2021 Covid-19 Pandemic

'What was it like to live in Melbourne during the 2020-2021 lockdowns? Capturing the day-to-day struggles of lockdown, the daily news, Dan Andrews’ 11am morning press conferences, the tensions between Victorians and the rest of Australia, Trump’s chaotic America, the conspiracy theories that circulated and battling her own mental health, Sandy Jeffs takes us through the whirlwind of events in imaginative haiku poems. These became her sanity while the world spiralled into madness.

'First wave fear is back.
Before an end was in sight
now there is no end.

'Trying to make sense
of an unravelling world
that is downright mad.

'This is not only a book about the pandemic but also about political wins and political failures. From Dan Andrews to Donald Trump. Each day brings news that creates despair or joy: the pandemic numbers and the voting numbers side by side. And as the world is in the grip of COVID madness, sanity is found in poetry.'

Source : publisher's blurb

'Larundel Psychiatric Hospital was ‘the madhouse on the edge of town’ – until the 1990s, a Melbourne cultural icon shrouded in mystery in the outer suburb of Bundoora.

'What was it really like inside this madhouse? 

'This story takes us into the heart of Larundel through the voices of former inmates and staff, exposing the best and worst aspects of the mental institutions of the times.  It shows the shifts in psychiatric treatments, the social forces at play, and changes driving mental health policy.  It explores what de-institutionalisation and ‘care in the community’ actually meant for those suffering mental illness, as well as for those treating, and caring for them.

'What did we lose with Larundel’s closure in 1999 and the move to acute psychiatric wards in general hospitals? The notion of asylum? Is the more recent notion of ‘recovery’ a hopeful signpost towards a brave new world for mental health? 

'The authors are Sandy Jeffs, a former inmate of Larundel, who became an advocate for her ‘mad’ comrades and is now a poet of distinction; and Margaret Leggatt, sociologist, occupational therapist and activist for the friends and families of mentally ill people. 

'‘A significant and lively contribution to the history of mental health services in Australia, offering vital insights for the progress we must work for.’  – Jack Heath, CEO, SANE Australia'

(Source: publisher's blurb)

'but I am madness

and madness is me

it holds you captive

like a hapless bunny

caught in the headlights.

'In this moving collection of poems, award-winning writer Sandy Jeffs shares her journey through madness over four decades, drawing inspiration from Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland and the motley gathering of characters at the Mad Hatter’s tea party. Both delightful and insightful, playful and serious, witty and whimsical, The Mad Poet’s Tea Party provides a devastating commentary on how our society treats those with mental illness from the perspective of someone who has experienced all its interventions. It captures in poetic form the enigmas and contradiction in madness.' (Publication summary)

'The world is a place full of dark and light as is that of Sandy Jeffs. She explores this tension with a clarity that is troubled by shadows. Humour and sadness intermingle in a show that must go on. Popular culture and parodies of classic poems are used to illuminate the world for what it is.' (Publication summary)

'Sandy Jeffs grew up and went to school in Ballarat. She has lived with schizophrenia and all its moods for 33 years. She has published many articles and five volumes of poetry, concerned with the disparate topics of madness, domestic violence, the trials and tribulations of playing midweek ladies' tennis and the mad world in which we live - and some of these have inspired other artists to compose music, libretto and dance. Sandy has also become a community educator who speaks to school kids, university students, community groups and clinicians about what it is like to live with a mental illness. Her home, with friends human and animal, is at Christmas Hills, in the country near Melbourne, 'where it's Christmas every day'.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.