Last Friday, when heading home from another thought provoking TheMHS Summer Forum in Sydney, I met one of Australia’s great champions of mental health.

I don’t know his name, nor age, nor religion, nor family situation. But I do know that this particular Sydney taxi driver was, and is, a champion for mental health in his community, and the wider world in which we all live.

His story could easily have been transcribed for a feature film, a sliding doors type moment, where change is possible if people stop, listen and are prepared to have a conversation.

As often happens, the taxi driver asked me about the Flannel Flower pin on my suit jacket and we began to talk about mental health.

The taxi driver recounted a story that had clearly moved him, and then moved me.

A 14-year-old boy had sat quietly during a ride in his cab, politely paid his fare, and then handed the driver a suicide note. That’s right a 14-year-old.

The taxi driver, who spoke in broken English, spent the next hour or so sitting on the side of a Sydney roadway, with commuters, travellers and the wider world streaming past. He sat there talking to the 14-year-old boy who intended to take his own life.

“I taught him how to flush the negativity from his mind,” said the taxi driver.

And then after some time, and once he was satisfied the boy was OK, he went back to ferrying Sydneysiders around the city.

I congratulated the taxi driver on his efforts, and I asked him what it was that had given him the confidence to engage with someone who he had only just met, and clearly someone who was in such distress and despair.

“I did not go to school too much when I was younger”, said the driver, “but I like to read books that I take out from the library,” he said.

“I am not a psychologist, but I have read books about the mind.”

Books and knowledge that clearly helped in this instance.

While none of us will ever know exactly how the story ends, I like to imagine the scenario where the 14-year-old boy, now an older man surrounded by family and loved ones, recounts how a Sydney cabbie, born in Afghanistan, took the time to have a conversation with him on the side of a Sydney road. A conversation that saved his life.

Many people who need support, who need to connect, who need to find new hope, will never come into contact with what we might call the ‘mental health system’, because the reality is they are more likely to find support from within their own community, or in this instance a random mental health champion to help ‘flush the negativity’ from their mind.

Most of the people who offer support, connection, and hope will not complete Mental Health First Aid Training, nor an Accidental Counsellor course.  

A number of things seem to have saved this 14-year-old boy’s life at this time; his apparent willingness to reach out to a stranger; the taxi driver’s awareness of the needs of the boy; and, perhaps most importantly, the taxi driver’s willingness to stop, listen and have a conversation.

Talking about mental health is not enough. People need access to high quality, evidence based services and programs. We need to address the social and political circumstances that contribute to people’s pain and hopelessness.

But talking can save a life, we know that. And clearly a chance encounter like this can change the trajectory of a life.

As we work to secure those services and programs that are so desperately needed, we must also keep reassuring people that #YouCanTalk and acknowledge that there are many people in our community who can listen and help.

I gave the taxi driver my Flannel Flower pin, and my thanks.  If you see him, you might want to give him your thanks too!

Warm regards,

Frank Quinlan
Chief Executive Officer