New voice speaks with experience Balance: New mental health deputy commissioner Bradley Foxlewin on his property near Canberra, where he spends half his time. Photo: Sahlan Hayes Stripped of your belongings and clothes, secluded in a bare room: it is mental healthcare at its most terrifying, and it is something Bradley Foxlewin, a new deputy commissioner of the Mental Health Commission of NSW, wants to stop. Mr Foxlewin said the practice of controlling seriously unwell people by locking them in solitary rooms must change. "The whole idea is seclusion keeps people safe, but the other side of it is [that] people experience being locked in, not having any room for escape, being observed, as very re-traumatising," he said. It stays with them for years. Mr Foxlewin is one of two deputy commissioners, whose appointments are being announced on Monday, who have personal experience of mental illness. Dealing with post-traumatic stress disorder spurred him to become an advocate for mental health, and his advocacy has helped lower seclusion rates in the ACT to almost a tenth of those in NSW. The commission, an independent body that began operation last July, has the power to develop a plan for mental health that involves all departments. Mr Foxlewin said seclusion, restraints and forcible medication are the main areas he hopes to address. Inadequate staffing, crowded wards and cultural problems within organisations all contributed to the use of force, he said. He will work one month on, one month off - a strategy he has developed to help him deal with the "slings and arrows" of the demanding jobs he takes on, and he does not want to let mental illness stop him working in roles he is qualified for. "Being identified as a mental health consumer, people don't always get the opportunities to contribute in a way that fits with their intelligence, passion and dearly held beliefs," he said. Sometimes if you are passionate about something it can be read as your mental illness. In his non-working months, he returns to his property in Binalong, an hour from Canberra, with his wife Elizabeth and daughter Ruby. Mental health commissioner John Feneley said the other deputy commissioner with personal experience of mental illness will be Fay Jackson, who is also chief executive of a company that provides workplace training on mental illness. "It is essential we are guided by the experience of people with mental illness at all times," Mr Feneley said. Professor of psychiatry Alan Rosen and psychiatrist Robyn Shields will also be deputy commissioners. State Mental Health Minister Kevin Humphries said the announcement was a milestone in the government's reforms of the mental health system. "It also demonstrates that mental illness should not be a barrier to work, leadership and contribution to our communities," he said.