Tell Me I'm Here

Anne Deveson was born in Kuala Lumpur, Malaya on June 19, 1930. During World War II, her family was evacuated from Great Britain to Malaya and then Australia as refugees. After a brief return to London, she moved back to Australia in 1956. She was a journalist, author, and social commentator. She wrote three memoirs Resilience, Tell Me I'm Here, and Waging Peace: Reflections on Peace and War from an Unconventional Woman. Tell Me I'm Here is the story of her son Jonathan's experience of living with schizophrenia and his eventual death of a drug overdose. The book was later made into a documentary entitled Spinning Out. Deveson became an advocate for mental health awareness and helped establish Schizophrenia Australia. She was made a Member of the Order of Australia for service to the media in 1983 and an Officer of the Order of Australia for service to community health in 1993. She was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease in 2014. She died on December 12, 2016 at the age of 86.