CEO Update - #YouCanTalk and 'flush the negativity'
#YouCanTalk and ‘flush the negativity’
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
National Multicultural Mental Health Project
Help contribute to a new name and brand!
Take the five minute SURVEY
The National Multicultural Mental Health Project provides a national focus on mental health and suicide prevention for people from culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) backgrounds.
This new Project builds on the important work of previous national multicultural mental health projects (e.g. Mental Health in Multicultural Australia [MHiMA], and Multicultural Mental Health Australia), and works towards an equitable mental health system which reflects and responds well to the needs of Australia’s multicultural population.
Project activities include:
• Providing support for organisations to evaluate and improve their cultural responsiveness through further development and promotion of the
Framework for Mental Health in Multicultural Australia
• Establishing, maintaining and promoting a quality-assured knowledge exchange and repository platform on the project’s website
• Increasing mental health awareness, knowledge and capacity in CALD communities.
• Mapping available evidence-based resources and tools and from these findings, identifying priorities and developing new resources and training
More information about the Project can be found here:
Mental Health Australia is working together with the Federation of Ethnic Communities’ Council of Australia and National Ethnic Disability Alliance to deliver the project, and we are seeking your thoughts, feelings and ideas on the brand values and a new name for the National Multicultural Mental Health Project.
Naming & Branding Activity - Take the five minute SURVEY
We welcome your contributions to the discussion and development of a new name and brand that will capture the essence and identity of the National Multicultural Mental Health Project.
Click here to take the five minute survey by Friday 15 March 2019.
Additional Multicultural Mental Health Project updates:
• This week we held our second Stakeholder meeting in Canberra with 16 services from around Australia giving valuable input into the Project. We focussed on the Framework re-development and our upcoming work engaging services including Primary Health Networks.
• Next week we will hold our third CALD Consumer and Carer meeting. This fantastic group of people come together from every state and territory across Australian to provide input into the Project from lived experiences. They are a valuable source of information and great ambassadors for the Project.
• Later this month Project staff will be travelling to the 2nd Australia and New Zealand Refugee Trauma Recovery in Resettlement Conference in Brisbane. We will also be visiting Primary Health Networks and services while we are there.
How would you like to join the Mental Health Australia team?
Mental Health Australia is currently recruiting for an experienced Director of Policy and Projects to join the team in Canberra, on a full-time basis.
Reporting to the Deputy CEO, the Director of Policy and Projects will be responsible for providing strategic leadership and managing a small team to develop successful strategies and policies, and deliver successful projects that aim to inform and influence mental health reform, policy development and implementation. Applications close Wednesday 13 March.
Click here to find out more about the position.
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