People Planet Peace

Mental Health Forum in Perth Tuesday September 29 on plans for the coming decade – be part of the change in Western Australia

*Vale Carina Berg from the Overnight family

Further on media, in a bitter irony a few years ago, when Dr Geoff Gallop was Premier we held a rally on the steps of Parliament to raise awareness of suicide in W.A. and lobby for funding for the life saving Lifeline counseling service.

Dr Geoff Gallop

About 20 MP’s joined Lifeline crew, broken hearted mothers and grieving, confused familes and advocates in a far too small gathering…there was no sign of mainstream media despite the alerts.

Then as if the clouds had parted to reveal the warming sun, the TV crews pulled in, one after the other in front of us…

The first and then the second “dismounted” with all their cammos and makeup… and walked straight past us!

I walked up to the next broadcast sationwagon to arrive and asked a young reporter I had mentored for a while years back where they were going.

He told me the then captain of Fremantle Dockers had made some politicially sensitive sports comment earlier in the day and they were there to catch Peter Bell after his confab with Premier Geoff Gallop, whose retirement due to Clinical Depression was a long way off.

Dr Gallop came to visit me at my home after his resignation and we spoke about our experiences and what had worked for one or the other – I never had the heart to tell him what happened that day – he didn’t need to know, not then. I doubt his minders even gave the notices of the Rally a second look, let alone put them in front of their embattled boss.

I’ve lost too many friends and colleagues to mental illness to just hope for change, three haunt me still, but I’ll tell you about them another time.

For now, please speak up to whomever might listen about the tragic and AVOIDABLE toll of death and suffering from mental illness.

Effective and meaningful change will not come without major campaigns of public and professional education, guided by those of us the system calls “mental health consumers” and a policy enunciated by my heroes Margaret Cook, her sister Pauline and Lyn Mahboub – nothing about us without us.

There is much we can do to bring the taboo issue of suicide to the wider community in a way that won’t freak them out.

An example is the “Out of Darkness” overnight walks to fight suicide in the US.

I’ve been privileged to work with the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention on the Chicago walk, where my dear friend and fellow traveller Amy Kiel lit the way down the rocky path for those who follow.

Amy is now working on the coming Walk in her home town of Kansas City and you can follow her on twitter @abeeliever to find out more.

The AFSP and Amy are keen to help us set up walks and programmes here in Oz, so, interested parties please contact via the comments link below.

There are many groups and individuals doing life saving and affirming work in Western Australia, most are working with their hands tied behind their back because of a lack of Government and Community support ( there are no smiling kiddies to put in front of cameras to represent those battling brain dis-ease.)

I’ll end this missive with the promise of more to come and 3 important links that shed light for us all.

2 focus some very dark places through fact or fiction, and one is a local inititiative of the dedicated team at RUAH Outreach that I was privileged to be a small part of.

1 – Please see Family to Family by RUAH -” telling it like it is” by clicking this link

2 and 3 Click here for an extended trailer of the Documentary that showed at a Sydney Festival over the weekend an is available online - a brilliant work of fiction where diligent research underpins a story of madness and love spanning centuries – and an interview with the producer and author.

and to end f r now - Here are most of the Mental health stories I’ve posted, including a well recieved talk with UK Dr Alun Jones and interviews with Inspirational Amy Kiel.

Here is the Flyer in downloadable PDF format please send it to your contacts – mentalhealthforum[1]

This is your chance to see the future plans for Mental Health in WA
Mental Health
Forum
Information session on development of the WA
Mental Health Policy &Strategic Plan 2010-2020
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Where: Foyer
Perth Convention Centre
(get off at Esplanade Train station)

When: 2pm – 6pm
Tuesday, 29 September 2009
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Presented by Department of Health WA
Mental Health Division