Written by: kerriwalters
Monday, October 04, 2010 

50% of the population will suffer a mental disorder in their lifetime, but luckily for many this will be something from which you can recover. For some, this will be the onset of schizophrenia or bi polar – the most serious of mental illnesses – for which the prognosis is not nearly as good.  It takes five to ten years for most people suffering with schizophrenia to get an accurate diagnosis, by which time, for many, their long term outcomes will be seriously compromised.  What if that’s your child? Or your neice? Or your best friend?

What horrifies me even more than the statistics is that, as a society, we’re so accepting of the constant stream of daily celebrity updates and so happy to be blissfully ignorant of the state of serious affairs happening right here, perhaps next door, in our own neighbourhood.  Why is no one talking about this? 

For one thing, mental illness still retains the stigma that once dogged cancer, before the community openly accepted the need to talk about the problem to increase the prevalence of testing.  Interestingly though my abhorrence for our celebrity-obsessed culture has given mental health its first real example in years, in the concerned plea of Bert & Patti Newton for the treatment of their son, Matthew.  Tell me it didn’t change your attitude to what he’s facing, knowing that the Newton’s tried to get the help they needed when Matthew was younger, with little success?

If this didn’t change your attitude, ask yourself why? It is because you think he should be able to control his behaviour? This is the stigma to which I refer because if mental illness is the cause of his difficulties simply expecting him to change his behaviour is an unrealistic expectation - the precise prejudice people with mental illness struggle with every day.  I’m not condoning what he did, simply providing an example of the type of community attitude we’re fighting against to improve mental health services, while demonstrating how only celebrities – or very drastic actions – can really generate any significant community and, more importantly, media awareness.

Media and community awareness are akin to the chicken and the egg... what comes first?  Does the media seek out the story and fire-up the community or does the community rise-up and be captured on camera?  All I’m trying to generate via my protest is a conversation that brings the plight of people with mental illness into the community conscience.  I’m no one special, I don’t suffer from mental illness but schizophrenia touches most lives indirectly. It briefly touched my life in the form of a school friend who was diagnosed long after we lost contact.  Other people live with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder (also known as psychotic illnesses) in much more profound and confronting ways as sufferers, carers, family and friends directly coming to terms with the range of issues it forces them to cope with.

I volunteer for ClearThinking – a program dedicated to improving the lives of people with mental illness through research and increasing community awareness.

My commitment comes from witnessing ClearThinking Founder Professor Stan Catts’ dedication and absolute belief in the potential for adequately funded mental health research finding a cure, in the meantime providing earlier and better treatment, preventing lifelong mental illness and preventing suicide.

Now, what are you going to do about it?

Tomorrow: youth mental health, parenting, what to look out for, where to get help

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