Elfy Scott on ‘The One Thing We’ve Never Spoken About’
Known for her accessible reporting on complicated issues, journalist and presenter Elfy Scott investigates complex mental health conditions in her debut book The One Thing We’ve Never Spoken About (Pantera, February). Reviewer Jacqui Davies calls it ‘a confronting but optimistic call to action that every Australian should read’. She spoke to the author.
The One Thing We’ve Never Spoken About deftly balances your own story, of growing up with a mother living with schizophrenia, with outstanding research and the stories of others living with complex mental health conditions. How did the process of writing the book differ from writing articles? Is it a form that came naturally to you?
I’ve actually mostly been writing scripts for podcasts for the past year, so this was rather different! The research aspect is similar to what I’m used to in my day-to-day work (only on a much larger and scarier scale) and it was an absolute pleasure meeting so many people with lived experience and who work in the mental health space.
Trying to establish the tone of the writing was the most fraught part of the process. I was extremely self-conscious about my writing at the start because I wouldn’t consider myself a naturally descriptive or verbose writer, particularly over this length, and I felt really embarrassed by that when I started trying to put chapters together in earnest. There were a lot of imposter syndrome–adjacent feelings to wade through. In the end, I think being a podcast producer may have served me because it meant that I wrote everything out in that succinct, conversational kind of way that you’re forced to when you only have 10 minutes to explain something extremely complicated.
You recently made your first appearance on the TV program The Project, where you discussed news and current affairs with other panel members. Explaining complex issues in accessible ways is a skill you’ve built your career upon, and one you put to expert use in your book. Is this a talent that comes naturally to you, or one you had to develop throughout your studies and early career?
I honestly think that I’m naturally skilled at distilling complex information because I have a fairly low baseline knowledge when it comes to most topics! I just convey information to people the way that I wish it was conveyed to me.
I understand why people are turned off or intimidated by jargon because I, myself feel turned off and intimidated by jargon. Of course, the skills had to be refined at some point and I really have my time at BuzzFeed News to thank for that—the editors in that newsroom and the small group of journalists I worked at that first job when I was hired as a science fellow absolutely shaped my work ethic and what I aim to do with journalism.
Trying to understand what’s going on in the world can be incredibly overwhelming, especially for young people. The overload of information available can be intimidating, and it can be difficult to know which sources to trust. How important is it for young people to actively engage with news and current affairs? Is this something you consider in your work?
I think it’s hugely important to be engaged with news and to understand what’s going on in our communities and our country, but I also empathise with people who tend to not consume a lot of news media. It’s time-consuming and really difficult to stay on top of everything as well as understand the implications of what you’re reading.
At this point in my career, I’m trying to produce content mostly for those people—people like my friends, who work in different industries outside of media and who read headlines but can’t spend an hour reading the articles that can make sense of them. I’m not working as a journalist who breaks news at the moment and I’m comfortable with that, as long as I feel as though I’m paving the way for people to understand those topics for when huge, consequential stories do break.
Your book reveals how deeply entrenched the silence and stigma surrounding complex mental health conditions is in Australia, not to mention the systemic problems within the nation’s mental health care system. Given this, how hopeful are you that positive change will take place?
I’m split on this. After the Royal Commission into Victoria’s Mental Health System, the state committed to all of the recommendations that were published in the final report and Victoria is now in the first stages of a massive overhaul of its mental health care system. That’s positive because, with any luck, in a few years the rest of the states and territories will be able to reflect on the success of an extremely progressive system and start instituting their own changes.
However, I would also say that right now the rest of the country has very little incentive to start critically assessing mental health care, particularly when we’re speaking about complex mental health conditions. In my book, I outline the frustrating cycle of stigma, silence and inaction, and ultimately something has to give within this cycle in order for the other parts to shift.
Based on your experience and research, what advice would you give readers wanting to make a difference to the lives of those living with complex mental health conditions?
I think it simply starts with education for most of us. The stigma around complex mental health conditions is so fortified by the fact that they’re less common than conditions like depression, so we feel much less responsibility to learn about them. Simply understanding the symptoms, the causes behind these conditions and the pressures that people living with complex mental health conditions and their families face can go a very long way.
Read Jacqui Davies’ review of The One Thing We’ve Never Spoken About here.
