My Dad was in the Airforce and that was my life until I was 15 , when I left and went to finish my schooling at Kildare College in Traralgon, Gippsland.
When I was 18, I craved my freedom so I left home for good and went back to Melbourne to work. I ended up working in a pharmaceuticals company (Lilly Industries) where I stayed for quite a while.
I don't know if this is what led me to a defining moment in my life....
In 1987, I got involved in something that wasn’t my fight, but someone needed to do it.
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Karyn with her husband of 30 years Eric is driven by a social conscience. |
A small paragraph way in the back of the Courier Mail piqued my interest when it stated that the Director of Surgery (I'll call him Mr X) at the Townsville Hospital was resigning as he couldn’t condone the treatment of their mental health patients who were being seriously harmed and even dying.
At that time I was running a Health and Nutrition consultancy in Capalaba, and I was loving it. Still, I picked up the phone. I rang the former Director of Surgery, Mr X and after a short conversation we decided to meet in Brisbane at a coffee shop.
What I learned horrified me.
On my way home after that meeting, I knew that I couldn’t pretend to not be concerned. I was, and his words ate at me for a few days until I made the decision to see what I could do.
Subsequently, I acquired a MIMs book, a medical dictionary, a copy of the Mental Health Act and started reading. The first thing I did was research the particular drugs being administered to the patients.
That very week I started receiving anonymous parcels of patient records almost daily. that arrived in brown paper envelopes because I guess people had heard about my campaign.
From these, I was able to find out what doses of the drugs patients were receiving and what those doses should have been. I documented everything carefully, as well as the effects that these doses had on the patients, making sure patient confidentiality was maintained.
These were real people who were victims of the system and, at the time, they had no recourse or platform to lodge complaints. Nobody was listening to them.
In my journey, I met a couple of wonderful journalists. One in particular was outstanding. My press releases were usually on pages 1 and 3 of the Daily Sun.
As a result of that partnership combining investigation and reporting, within just six months we really rocked the establishment.
Some of you might remember the campaign - the case of the infamous Ward 10B of the Townsville Hospital - which led ultimately to the exposure of the unethical mistreatment of mental patients in Queensland, and the subsequent actions, where:
- A Commission of Inquiry was established
- A Heath Rights Commission was set up
- A Mental Health Review Committee set up which is independent of the Health Rights Commission.
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An extract from Hansard, 26 February 1991 as Karyn's tireless work bore fruit. |
We forever changed the way in which mental health patients are treated in public hospitals.
This experience proved to me that just one person focused and on a mission can really make a difference at a high level.
Since those days, I have been involved in many other causes. For instance, I set up a Suicide Support Group and one memory I have is of rushing to Brisbane late one night to talk a young woman off the Story Bridge. Yes, this sort of thing really does happen.
Most recently, I found myself in the most important and difficult fights of my professional life,
I am currently Business Development Manager for Owen Custom Products which is owned jointly by my husband, Eric, and myself. We design and manufacture mining equipment. We have been in this business for many years and during that time, I've also looked after much of the business administration including financial management.
As a result of our innovative approaches to design, we have won numerous awards including an Australian Design Award, Prince Philip Prize for Australian Design, Finalist Premier's Award for Industry and, more recently, Winner of the Australian Engineering Excellence Award for Queensland. We both have the ability to think outside the square in problem solving, and I think our achievements are proof of that.
But more recently, a large multinational company attempted to 'steal' one of our company's key products, claiming it as their own. Eric had designed, developed and manufactured this product from scratch. But as it became obvious that the design was superior to any of the existing products on the market, we were at risk of losing our intellectual property.
As a result, many months of legal wrangling ensued, and in the end, when it was clear we would not back down, the multinational walked away.
I think I've demonstrated that I will not be intimidated, I am an independent thinker, and I will fight for what is right.
I believe I have strong social conscience and I happen to be a person who is overcome by a desire to act and to change things if I see something wrong. I believe in personal action and personal responsibility.
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Karyn is a keen gardener who loves the local wildlife |
We've lived and worked in the Redlands now for nearly 40 years and have been in Thornlands for 14 of those. We live on a half-acre block because my great passion is gardening. I love it.
I decided to run for Local Government because I am not good at 'sitting on the fence' and I felt this Division needed better representation.
One issue that is close to my heart is to work hard to Bring the Safety House Back. A Facebook page was set up late last year after yet another child was murderered and in a few short months there are over 6400 likes.
The level of help being offered by residents is astonishing and I am feeling quite excited about being able to bring some real skills to the table to help get this up and running.