Mental Health Month
Last month, my family and I joined around 300 members of our local community for the Suicide Prevention and Awareness Network Walk, hosted by SPAN and Hope Bereavement Geelong.
It was a beautiful Sunday morning. We walked through the Eastern Gardens, taking in the views across the bay and looking towards the You Yangs. On any other morning, it might simply have felt like a wonderful celebration of our beautiful region.
But everyone walking that morning was there for a deeply personal reason.
My family and I walked in honour of a dear friend and his brother. Around us, others walked for their sons and daughters, mothers and fathers, brothers and sisters, nieces and nephews, friends and colleagues.
Three hundred people. Three hundred stories of lives touched by suicide.
One moment from that morning will stay with me forever.
Following the remembrance ceremony, a woman approached us carrying a small, hand-painted rock. On it were the words “pocket hug”. She handed it to us and encouraged us to put it in our pocket as we walked, to hold in memory of the people we were there to remember.
It was such a simple gesture, yet an incredibly powerful one. Here she was, carrying her own grief, and still giving so kindly to others.
For me, it was a reminder of something much broader: the important role we can all play in caring for the mental health and wellbeing of those around us and the important role that services such as those provided by Barwon Health play.
This October, Mental Health Month gives us an opportunity to reflect on just how many Australians are impacted by mental illness. Almost half of Australians aged 16 - 85 have experienced a mental condition at some point in their lives, and more than one in five experiences one in any given year. Anxiety disorders are the most common, followed by mood disorders such as depression.
These are not statistics that belong to someone else. They represent people in our families, workplaces, friendship groups and communities.
Mental and emotional distress exists on a continuum, and our experiences are all different. For some, it may be a period of anxiety or overwhelming stress triggered by a particular event. For others, it may mean living with a diagnosed mental illness or requiring ongoing professional care.
While professional mental health care and support services are vitally important, so too is the community we create around one another. This year's theme for Mental Health Month is 'Together we Thrive".
Sometimes care looks like genuinely asking someone, “Are you okay?” Sometimes it means listening without trying to solve the problem, encouraging someone to seek support, making a phone call or simply reminding them that they matter.
And sometimes, it can be as small as handing a stranger a painted rock.
Many years ago, a very wise man, Robert Costa, explained to me the true meaning of philanthropy: “for the love of humankind.”
Those words have stayed with me because philanthropy, at its heart, is about people caring for people. It is generosity, compassion and the belief that through what we give - whether that is our time, our support, our resources or simply our kindness, we can make life better for someone else.
I still have that little “pocket hug”.
For me, it will always be a reminder that we never truly know what another person is carrying, and that we can make a difference in someone’s life without even knowing their name.
So check in. Listen. Notice. Be kind. Together we thrive.
And, sometimes, the smallest gesture can carry more than we will ever know.
