BPD Resources

Australian BPD Foundation

This is a great first step in learning more about Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD), its diagnosis and treatment throughout Australia.

At the moment, the Foundation’s work is carried out entirely by volunteers. We receive no government funding and as yet we have not secured private philanthropic support although our Lived Experience Forum is offered via the online forum organised by SANE . The work of the Foundation includes designing and maintaining the website, organising information evenings as well as the annual national conference. Most of that work is undertaken by the indefatigable Rita Brown who is the person behind the address of admin@bpdfoundation.org.au . Julien McDonald is the President of the Foundation and Estelle Malssed is another tireless member of the Victorian branch of the foundation and of the national foundation. Those three key figures rely on the generous support of professionals in the BPD field to donate their time to present at conferences and at information events.

We rely also on people who have BPD to speak out and to speak up as part of the Australian BPD Foundation’s campaign to Support, Promote and Advocate for Borderline Personality Disorder. In each state and territory there is a functioning support group comprising people with a lived experience of BPD – either as members of a family in which a parent or sibling has/had BPD or as a friend or carer of someone who lives with BPD.

BPD Support Groups and Resources around Australia

On the Home Page of the Australian BPD Foundation’s website, scroll down to the map. Click on your state for up-to-date information about what’s available locally.

Go visual: The Australian BPD Foundation’s YouTube Channel is a great source of information about the annual conferences organised by the Foundation. On that channel you can see highlights from all our national conferences. This video is one of the success stories from our 2014 conference. Success and its representation is a very important part of giving hope to people who currently have BPD – yes, you can recover fully from BPD.

Early Intervention for Young People with BPD: Prof Andrew Chanen

Below, is one of the presentations at that national conference by Professor Andrew Chanen who advocates for the earliest possible intervention to diagnose and treat Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD). As you’ll hear in his inspiring presentation, delaying the diagnosis of BPD “used to be thought of as a virtue by many people” However, Professor Chanen argues clearly and strongly that “we need to intervene early…(because) most of the harms that are associated with the disorder occur early…We need to intervene early….We don’t argue for late intervention in any other area of health care….but we do it in psychiatry and we do it especially in Borderline Personality Disorder.”

About radical acceptance

This YouTube shows Dr Marsha Linehan the creator of Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT) talking about one aspect of it – how to accept yourself whilst also being willing to change.

Borderline Personality Disorder and Parenting

This YouTube video is a recording of a very helpful information evening held in May 2016 by the Victorian Branch of the National BPD Foundation.  It is a frank discussion about how having a parent who has Borderline Personality Disorder can affect one’s life.  Hannah Dee who has BPD is also a mother of three sons.  Hannah speaks courageously with candour about the negative impacts on her sons’ lives and her efforts to seek help and to recover, so that her life and their lives are happier.

Some people, particularly those who have had a childhood with a parent who has had either undiagnosed and/or untreated BPD, may find this video very triggering. That applies also to the person who has BPD and whose parenting has been affected adversely by that mental illness.  Please make sure that you have support on hand before you watch it.

Back From the Edge

This YouTube video Back From the Edge offers guidance on treating  Borderline Personality Disorder. The video was created by the Borderline Personality Disorder Resource Center at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital.

You can learn more about treatment at the Hospital’s Borderline Personality Disorders Resource Center by visiting http://bpdresourcecenter.org/index2.html.

Words of hope and wisdom from someone who has recovered from BPD

Teresa Lynne’s site Essence Happens – that site will provide you with resources that can be accessed worldwide via the web as well as some services located in the USA.

One doesn’t have to have endured a particular condition in order to help others but Teresa Lynne is a highly inspirational woman who has reclaimed her life from the turbulence of BPD.  She works as a certified coach and she’s someone who has given back to the community by sharing her insights with others who have BPD.

Emotional Regulation classes

Emotional regulation – learning how to respond more appropriately to emotional triggers – is a big part of most approaches to helping people who have BPD. Dr Marsha Linehan who created dialectical behaviour therapy sees emotional regulation as fundamental to recovery.

Australian BPD Foundation Conferences 2011

Flick Grey who presented at the 2011 BPD Conference, was labelled with the diagnosis of BPD in 2005. In her prese ntation at the conference she opens up our thinking around the challenging and controversial diagnosis that is BPD.

Dr Perry Hoffman’s presentation in 2011: Family Matters
Dr Hoffman presented in Sydney via NY and the wonders of technology. She is President of the National Education Alliance for Borderline Personality Disorder. She has been highly successful in promoting awareness and positive culture change in the USA which has resulted in increased services, resources and access to treatment.

Australian BPD Foundation Conference 2012

Tim Cracknell wrote that he ‘made this video to detail my struggles with Borderline Personality Disorder. It is my hope that this video will help shed some light on a gravely misunderstood illness & to diminish the stigma surrounding it.

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