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Over the last decade or so we’ve come so far in reducing stigma. I am heartened to see my own children and their friends having conversations that were simply not possible when I was their age.

This week alone, World Suicide Prevention Day and R U OK Day have continued to raise awareness and encourage people to seek, and provide help to family and friends.

We’ve come so far, but still have so far to go.  Stigma, and the discrimination associated with it, is still the biggest hurdle we have to climb when it comes to mental illness.

This World Mental Health Day – 10 October – Mental Health Australia is calling on the nation to further reduce stigma and promise to see mental health in a more positive light.

‘Do you see what I see?’ challenges perceptions on mental illness and aims to reduce stigma.

‘Do you see what I see?’ promotes a positive approach to tackling an issue that affects one in five Australians.

‘Do you see what I see?’ aims to shed a new light on the mental health conversation… and will again incorporate the successful #MentalHealthPromise initiative, which last year saw the Governor General, Prime Minister and Opposition Leader and thousands more Australians make a mental health promise to themselves.

We’ve all seen it before… The stock black and white photo of someone sitting with their head in their hands signifying despair, and signifying mental illness. That’s stigma… and stigma is still the number one barrier to people seeking help. Help that can prevent, help that can aid recovery, help that can treat.

As a nation we have to see things differently, and we have to see the benefit of tackling this issue if we are to see real reductions in the rate of mental illness affecting our community.

We have to see mental health, and mental wealth, not through stereo-types, but through the eyes of a family member or close friend, and through the eyes of those in our community who don’t have the support they need.

We have to see tackling stigma around mental health not as a cost, but as an investment: as a way to improve the health of the nation, improve our productivity, improve our community engagement, and improve our quality of life.

Yes we’ve come a long way to challenge and change perceptions, and paved the way for many to tell their story, but there is still so much stigma associated with mental illness, and much more to do.

So this year, for World Mental Health Day – 10 October – my #mentalhealthpromise is to challenge Australia to look at mental health through a different light, in positive bright colour, not black and white.

Let’s look at the positives we can achieve as a community by reducing stigma.

What will your #MentalHealthPromise be?

Warm regards

Frank Quinlan
Mental Health Australia CEO

Mental Health Australia has a clear vision of mentally healthy people, and mentally healthy communities.

This weekend, thousands of people in our community will celebrate the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras. For nearly 40 years, Mardi Gras has grown to represent so much more than a march of pride through city streets. And for many LGBTIQ Australians, it is an important, and sometimes the only weekend where routine discrimination does not cast its dark shadow. Discrimination that is a huge contributor to poor mental health.

In recent years, Mardi Gras and the push for marriage equality have walked hand-in-hand. So much so that we are now seeing major Australian corporations such as the ANZ join the chorus of those pushing for equality. The ANZ’s #HoldTight (link is external) campaign, and the subsequent interviews with staff video (link is external), shows just how far we’ve come, but also highlights how far we still have to go.

From a mental health perspective we know that LGBTIQ Australians experience routine discrimination, along with all its negative mental health effects and that marriage equality is squarely a mental health issue. That led us last year to release our own statement on marriage equality late last year.

We know the determinants of mental health are the same for LGBTIQ Australians as they are for the rest of the community, but ongoing discrimination creates additional challenges.

We know that LGBTIQ Australians experience triple the rate of depression and double the rate of anxiety when compared to their heterosexual counterparts.

And we know that more than half of the LGBTIQ population have experienced verbal homophobic abuse, while LGBTIQ Australians are also between 3.5 and 14 times more likely to attempt suicide.

In a community where mental health impacts 1 in 5 Australians and where our suicide rate is at a 10-year high, the push for marriage equality has to continue, and the chorus must get louder if we are serious about prevention and support for all.

Earlier this week our good friends at the National LGBTI Health Alliance launched a plan (link is external) for strategic action to prevent mental ill-health and suicide, and promote good mental health and wellbeing for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex people and communities across Australia.

The plan outlines intersectionality, evidence, access, lived experience and social inclusion as five key strategy principles to improve the mental health of LGBTI Australians, and I would encourage all in the sector to support this plan.

Holding tight and more importantly people feeling they can do just that, is a real start, but we are also looking for real change, and real reform. And a big part of that is marriage equality for our community… for all.

#Holdtight this weekend, hold hands with pride every day, and keep pushing for real change and #EqualLove (link is external)

mhaustralia.org/newsletters-bulletins/ceo-update-holding-tight-marriage-equality-and-mentally-healthy-communities

Simon Champ is a pioneer for the rights of people with mental illness in Australia. He believes that one of these fundamental rights is to be recognised and respected as human beings like anyone else — a simple yet distressingly difficult right to achieve, as the battle against stigma continues to this day.

As a young man in the 1980s, Simon attended a public discussion on mental illness organised by Anne Deveson and Dr Margaret Leggett one night at the Teacher’s Federation Hall in Sydney. Simon will never forget seeing jaws drop in the packed hall when he boldly stood up and said, ‘My name is Simon Champ and I have schizophrenia’.

‘There were very few places for people with mental illness to meet up and talk openly 30 years ago,’ says Simon.

‘The early meetings we had were very important. It was the start of a movement in Australia where people with mental illness began to talk about challenging our role as ‘helpless sufferers’ and being more active – focusing on strengths, developing ways of providing peer support, and building awareness of the fact that mental illness can affect anyone, not just an invisible, despised minority.’

After that defining night in Sydney, Simon worked with Anne on her documentary film about schizophrenia – Spinning Out – broadcast on the ABC. He later served on SANE Australia’s Board of Directors for nearly a decade.

‘I was impressed with how SANE gave a platform for people to turn their experience into stories … and then to turn those stories into advocacy, calling for improvements to attitudes and services,’ says Simon.

‘SANE worked equally with people affected by mental illness including families, friends and health professionals. There was common humanity from the very start.’

While Simon acknowledges progress in mental health services over the past few decades, he still sees a number of challenges persisting.

‘Lack of affordable housing for people with mental illness is a big problem,’ says Simon. ‘We are also still tackling stigma. Other mental health illnesses are getting plenty of attention, but schizophrenia remains something that many people don’t want to talk about, even today.

‘We’ve a long way to go, and thank goodness SANE Australia is there to help in our fight for better attitudes and services in the community.’

We were once called ‘sufferers’. Since then we’ve been called patients, consumers, service users, clients and goodness know what else. I like that SANE Australia has always referred to us as people, just like anyone else.

www.sane.org/the-sane-blog/mental-illness/sane-pioneers-simon-champ

Living with a mental illness can be a daunting situation.

People often feel ashamed, alone, and totally misunderstood. Add to that the misperception and stigma of mental illness. This is particularly exacerbated for people who suffer from a severe mental illness.

Due to this misunderstanding and judgement, people are often categorised into ‘the weirdo’ basket. What most people don’t realise is that mental illness can affect anyone.

As the last word states, ‘illness’, that’s exactly what it is. Just like cancer, just like a skin disorder, the only difference is that you can’t see it.

And just like these other illnesses, mental illness can be treated for recovery.

I recently lost my youngest brother, 32, after a long battle with what we ‘think’ was schizophrenia, depression, severe anxiety, and a long list of other health issues stemming from his illnesses. Unfortunately, I can’t tell you exactly what he suffered from because he never chose to disclose it. We were also denied the right to access his information. We weren’t allowed into his illness; therefore we couldn’t provide support to help him recover.

Personally, I have always enjoyed success in my career and my studies. I am intelligent, I am caring, I am a loving mother of two young boys, I am a loving wife, and a great friend. And I too have suffered from severe depression and anxiety for more than 20 years.

I was medicated and hospitalised due to anxiety. I saw numerous therapists, tried acupuncture and herbal remedies. Anything to make it all go away. That is, until I saw an amazing therapist who introduced me to Neuro-linguistic programming (NLP). NLP uses communication, personal development, and psychotherapy to help people achieve specific goals in life. I changed my diet and omitted all sugar, alcohol, and caffeine; and I started walking everywhere, eventually running long distance trails in the Mountains.

I now have strategies to stay on level ground in terms of my depression, but mostly my anxiety. I know when I need to slow down, I know when I need more sleep, and I know when I need to run that extra 10kms. I celebrated the small steps to recovery, and didn’t beat myself up over little setbacks. I wanted and needed to change. I took responsibility for my illness by putting my hand up for help, asking for support from my friends, family and a therapist, as daunting as it was.

Due to my brother’s death and my situation, I want to help raise awareness of mental illness. That it is a treatable disease. It is not something that people can just snap out of. They are just normal people. By simply sharing my story it may just help a young person like my brother or myself to overcome the hurdles that mental illness throws at you and get back to leading a ‘normal life’. By becoming a SANE Speaker I hope I can do exactly that.

I also want to share my story of recovery and hope. I would love for anyone out there with a mental illness to feel the freeness I feel, simply by making a change for themselves. Remember there is help out there.

www.sane.org/the-sane-blog/my-story/this-is-my-story