Cathy O'Toole (Herbert, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Last week we celebrated Mental Health Week and this week we celebrate National Carers Week. In 2016 the World Mental Health Day theme is 'Dignity in mental health—psychological and mental health first aid for all', which provides an opportunity to focus on an area that continues to provide challenges for people with mental ill health and their families and carers—getting the right help at the right time and in the right place.

According to the World Health Organization, mental health is:

… a state of well-being in which every individual realizes his or her own potential, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively and fruitfully, and is able to make a contribution to her or his community.

Nearly half of all Australians will experience some form of mental illness during their lifetime, and those who do not will most likely know someone that does. Carers make an enormous contribution to our communities as well as our national economy. Should all carers decide to stop performing their caring role, it would cost the country $60.3 billion per year—that is over $1 billion per week.

I have worked for 15 years in the community-managed mental health sector, where the aim is to work with people to live a life of purpose, choice, meaning and citizenship and to support their families and carers. I would like to talk about the perspective of living with mental ill health from a person with lived experience. When talking about mental health and potential support services it is essential to engage with people with a lived experience. In this instance I will draw on the words of Helen Glover, who is a qualified teacher and social worker with a wealth of lived experience of mental illness. She very eloquently states:

My experience of mental illness has given me far more than it has dared to take away. In essence, my journey has given me an opportunity to learn and thrive. I lost my way for some time during the years of seeking help. Despite good intention, I was inadvertently invi ted to ultimately believe that ' others ' , whether they were family, friends or mental health professionals, were my experts and that they were the only people who could get my life back on track. I have learnt since, that it is nearly impossible to reclaim a sense of citizenship and personal recove ry from the position of seeing ' others ' as being the ' expert ' of your own life. Now, as a mental health professional, the wisdom of lived experience challenges me to be ever mindful of the fact that:

We cannot recover people— but we can get in the way of people in their own efforts of recovery.

We cannot empower people but we can utilise our power to dis-empower others.

We cannot create a person’s sense of citizenship but we can offer programs and services that reinforce a person's sense of ' illness-ship ' .

We cannot teach people to have hope or rediscover themselves, but we can inadvertently inhibit a person' s sense of discovery and learning.

Our responsibility is not to assess, manage, monitor, teach and rehabilitate, but to create environments where a person can recognise their own mastery, and continue to learn and thrive beyond the limitations invited by the experience of mental illness or distress.

There is a real need for governments at all levels to develop policy that is deeply grounded in the perspective of people with lived experience.

The electorate of Herbert is home to the largest army base in the nation and also home to a large number of veterans, ex-servicemen and ex-servicewomen and their families—and the mental health of our Defence community is in need of desperate attention. As such, we welcome the Prime Minister's announcement to engage the National Mental Health Commission to undertake a review into suicide prevention for veterans and their families.

However, the Defence community has also identified the fact that there does not appear to be any family representation included on the review panel, and this must be addressed. We would also like to see the timeline for this very important review re-assessed, given that the report is due in February 2017 and that it will be interrupted by the Christmas season.

The life expectancy of people with a severe mental illness is estimated, in some international studies, to be as much as 25 years lower than the general population. Such a reduction in life span is unacceptable by any standard. This is a major social and public health issue that warrants urgent and sustained attention by all levels of government. Many causes of death and illness which contribute to this reduction in life expectancy can be treated or prevented through timely access to targeted health promotion effort, preventative physical health care and effective chronic disease management care.

The level of physical health inequality experienced by people with severe mental illness is also driven by complex, interrelated factors, including poverty, homelessness and poor living conditions. The proposed cuts to Medicare, especially in relation to pathology testing and reductions in GP bulk-billing do nothing to support these people live longer and healthier lives.

Some of us wore wristbands last week that said, 'mental health begins with me'. This most definitely includes the government and particularly the policy decisions made in this place. (Time expired)