I have had a very busy time over the last days giving talks on overcoming depression. On Friday night I spoke at a fundraising dinner for Lifeline, On Sunday at the Brahma Kumaris in Ashfield, and Monday at Forster on the NSW north coast.

There were probably about 500 people at the 3 talks and I was constantly reminded by the questions, how hard it is for those living with depression and their loved ones,  to navigate your way around the mental health system and find the right help.

I will just talk about Forster as an example (pop about 25000). My talk was at 1.30pm and I wanted someone to be there to answer questions about local resources. The Minister who had organsied the talk had sent a brochure to the local community health group but hadn’t heard back from them. I spoke with them and they said they hadn’t been specifiically invited and everyone was busy so they weren’t able to attend. I then mentioned that I had stumbled across a 24/7 access line for the North Coast. I called that line and found the person on the other end to have a pretty good data base of local  resources. As no local mental health people were able to attend I mentioned that I was going to let people know about the number. We then get a call back to request that the number not be disclosed as it could swamp the system. There is something gravely wrong with this situation. I’m sure the local mental health people are probably under resourced but as the number was listed in the local directory I had no hesitation in disclosing it to the audience. Carers in particular are desparate for information and support. Apparently most Area Health Districts in NSW have these Access lines. I found it by looking up the local yellow pages and their was section called “Community Services”. It was called “Mental Health Access Line”

If you have a success story of how you found your needle, please respond to this blog.

Kind Regards

Graeme

Tags:

Trackback URI | Comments RSS