Amber Gwynne

Amber Gwynne is a researcher, writer and editor based in Meanjin/Brisbane. Public servant by day and lecturer by night, in 2018 she completed a PhD in media studies at The University of Queensland investigating how readers with a history of depression choose and use self-help books, which received a Dean’s Award for Outstanding HDR Theses. She blogs at www.ladyberg.com and tweets intermittently at @AmberGwynne.

Articles by Amber Gwynne:

9 September 20217 October 2021 · Mental health

The harder questions we should be asking on R U OK? Day

Amber Gwynne

Even in its sensible bid to ask, listen and encourage action, R U OK? Day obscures a more complex and uncomfortable reality: that appropriate professional support is not always readily available, and that many individuals most at risk of depression, self-harm and suicide are those whose repeated efforts to take action have already been frustrated by demoralising interactions with the healthcare system.