Battler for better mental health care
Tony Southall battled some hefty legal matters during his 34-year career as a lawyer, but his biggest duel was with the black dog of depression. For eight years it lurked, sometimes in the shadows, sometimes lumbering around at his side.
In times of reprieve, he took on that beast using his own experience with mental illness and his well-honed legal nous to fight for changes in our mental health system, which he recently described as ‘‘broken’’.
In 2011, Southall’s stable and largely successful world started to unravel, triggered by events in both his personal and professional life.
A year later he was diagnosed with situational depression.
In an interview published in LawTalk in February this year, he described his breakdown as like having an ‘‘emotional stroke’’.
At his worst he considered suicide. It was only the support network of family and close friends that would bring him back from the brink, he said.
He attributed his periodic recovery over the years to understanding GPs, effective medication, but most of all his pillars of strength: the important people in his life who rallied round to support him in the darkest times.
Southall believed society had it wrong in how it dealt with mental illness. As well as the need to destigmatise mental health issues, he said there was an overdependence on prescription medicine and not enough focus on self-care through talking therapy, yoga, cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), and counselling.
He walked the talk when it came to the need for changes to the mental health system, which he said was underresourced and over-medicalised.
He made a submission to the Government Inquiry into Mental Health in 2018 demanding, among other things, a look at our ‘‘shameful’’ record on suicide.
‘‘Why can’t we lead the world in having the lowest rate of suicide?’’ he wrote.
‘‘If we can win Rugby World Cups, America’s Cups, and launch space rockets and satellites from New Zealand, why can’t we be No 1 in wellbeing and mental health?’’
He fought for change within his own occupation, calling for a shift in the culture of the legal profession.
At least 17 lawyers took their own lives in the 10 years to August 2017, he told
LawTalk. ‘‘That’s 17 too many.’’ Debilitating stress was at the heart of mental stress. Much of the profession, he said, was suffering a bad case of ‘‘affluenza’’.
He believed law firms needed to focus less on meeting fee budgets and more on the wellbeing of staff.
He wanted a holistic approach to how firms were run. He wanted a ‘‘go-to’’ organisation for lawyers suffering mental distress modelled on Farmstrong – the nationwide mental health and wellbeing programme for farmers.
He believed firms needed to remember why people got into the profession: not for the sole purpose of making money, but to make a difference. The profession had just got a bit lost along the way, he said.
Born and raised in Christchurch, Southall was the youngest of three children.
Known by his family as Ant, he attended St Teresa’s Primary School and later St Bede’s College for a short time before moving to St Patrick’s College, Wellington.
He studied law at Victoria University, graduating in 1979. His choice of career was driven by a lifelong commitment to help others, often at great personal expense.
During his marriage to Linda, he had three children, Tom, Alex, and Anna, the last of whom died at birth.
After a number of years spent at smaller boutique law firms, where he was a partner at the age of 25, Southall joined Gibson Sheat in 2002. He specialised in property law and was a successful chairman for nine years before making the decision to retire in 2012.
It was through his legal career that he became involved with the Wellington Cancer Society and the establishment of Margaret Stewart House. Stewart had been a client of Southall’s when she sought advice on a bequest she wanted to leave. He suggested she consider Wellington Cancer Society’s project of a home away from home for outof-town cancer patients coming to the capital for treatment. Stewart left more than $1 million to the building, which was named in her honour.
Southall was widely regarded as a fundraiser and event organiser extraordinaire, someone who was generous with his time, knowledge and contacts that could be used for the betterment of his community.
Only last year he helped raise more than $200,000 at the Wellington Cancer Society ball.
He spent 16 years on the board of the society, and was appointed a life member in 2016.
He cast his fundraising net widely. Through his strong and passionate links with university rugby, he raised money for several players who suffered serious injury.
He spearheaded a fundraising campaign for Michael Girling-Butcher, who was paralysed in a game in 1988. He raised enough money to buy him and his young family a house.
The fundraising effort raised a lot more than money, Girling-Butcher wrote in a tribute to Southall.
‘‘It raised hope and it was the ideal tonic or incentive to keep fighting for life during the early weeks of my rehabilitation. I know I would not be writing this tribute today had it not been for the involvement of Tony Southall.’’
In 2016 he organised a fundraiser for eight-time cancer sufferer Phil Kerslake and his family while Phil was unable to work, garnering the support of All Black and Rugby World Cup-winning captain David Kirk, among others.
Southall’s mental health waxed and waned over almost a decade, but he found that doing pro bono work helped alleviate his sporadic mental distress.
He always knew the black dog could make a stealthy return.
And so it did. Despite the love and support from his pillars of strength, he took his own life on September 9.
He is survived by his Alex and Tom, his sister Diane, his partner Janice, and her daughters Sophie and Grace.
He leaves a community of friends and beneficiaries whose lives were changed by his life, and his death. –
‘‘Why can’t we lead the world in having the lowest rate of suicide? If we can win Rugby World Cups, America’s Cups, and launch space rockets and satellites from New Zealand, why can’t we be No 1 in wellbeing and mental health?’’ Tony Southall to the Government Inquiry into Mental Health