Submissions open for Royal Commission
Residents of Lyrebird Villages have been working their fingers to the bone – literally – on a project creating awareness around elder abuse.
The Purple Road project grew out of a roll of material some forgotten balls of wool and a lot of enthusiasm from a group of volunteers in Western Australia in 2017.
The craft project is an opportunity to encourage conversations about how people treat and care for elders in the community and how they can be positively support to live lives with meaning and joy.
The purple road comprises hand made purple flowers sewn on to purple fabric.
Purple is the colour of age and wisdom, the material they’re sewn on symbolises the road of life.
Lyrebird’s purple road creative piece is currently on display at the West Gippsland Arts Centre until the end of the month.
Residents of Lyrebrid along with residents from Cooinda, Fairview and Abbey Gardens assisted with the creative blanket.
Assistance also was provided by Drouin South CWA.
Lifestyle co-ordinator Glenda Aurisch also thanked staff at the arts centre for assisting with the display.
In recognition of world prevention of elder abuse day on June 15 staff and residents dressed in purple and hosted an afternoon tea.
More than 1600 people have talked about their experiences in the mental health system during community consultation sessions as part of the Royal Commission into Victoria’s mental health system.
The Royal Commission ran more than 60 consultation sessions in more than 20 regional, rural and metropolitan areas, including a session in Warragul.
Community members can still make online submissions to the Royal Commission.
Commission chair Penny Armytage said it had been a great start to the Royal Commission, with the community showing a high level of interest and generous engagement everywhere they visited.
“This once-in-a-lifetime opportunity has enabled us to hear so many individual reflections and insights. The courage people have shown in sharing their often heart-breaking personal stories has been very powerful,” she said.
Ms Armytage said there also was a strong commitment by people to contribute to improving the system.
She said there was great representation at the sessions from all areas of the community including people with lived experience, carers and families, mental health professionals, GPs, emergency service personnel and service providers.
Several common themes were shared at the sessions including there being little or no services in the gap between GPs and crisis support.
Ms Armytage said the ongoing stigma and discrimination for those experiencing mental illness also came through as a major concern as did the inequity of treatment between different locations, but also the differences in the way mental health and physical health are treated.
She said one of the consistent challenges was about people being told they weren’t sick enough to get help.
“There is this incredible frustration in not being able to get their mental health needs responded to,” Ms Armytage said.
“These community consultations underlined the incredible responsibility of the Commission – to listen and hear these personal stories, to understand and think deeply about the issues and to use this information to make the necessary changes.
“Our job is to come up with recommendations that are practical, implementable and will make real improvements to the future mental health system and hearing from the community has been an important first step,” she said.
Online submissions are open until July 5 and can be made at www.rcvmhs.vic.gov.au.
The Commission’s interim report will be delivered in November this year and the final report will be delivered in October 2020.
If you or a family member has immediate concerns or requires assistance, contact beyondblue on 1300 224 636 or Lifeline on 13 11 14.