WE NEED TO TALK
INSIDE: HOW YOU CAN START A LIFE-SAVING CONVERSATION
THE Darling Downs is in the grip of a mental health challenge with a rising suicide rate that has outpaced the national average.
Mental health services are stretched thin, wait times are ballooning and there are calls for a greater focus on prevention.
Today is R U OK Day. It is a day when we reach out to those around us, ask how they are doing and help shoulder their burdens.
But these conversations should happen every day, to break down the stigma of mental illness and prevent the tragic and unnecessary loss of life.
I was the fish inside the fish bowl, and I needed an exterior perspective.
FOR seven years Jason Hateley was a prisoner in his own home.
Crippled by anxiety and bipolar disorder, he shut himself off from the world.
“It got so bad, when my mum had a heart attack I could not bring myself to go outside, to go to the hospital to get her essentials and toiletries,” he said.
Today is RUOK Day, and Mr Hateley is encouraging others battling mental illness to learn from his story of beating mental with support, medication, therapy, exercise and nutrition.
Mr Hateley’s illness started gradually with depression and anxiety as a teen.
It took his mum noticing the problem and persisting with a second opinion from a GP before Mr Hateley was diagnosed with bipolar disorder when he was 27.
“I was the fish inside the fish bowl, and I needed an exterior perspective,” he said.
The result was a long journey, full of ups and downs, and perhaps the lowest was that period of agoraphobia.
He beat it with small steps, first to his door, then to the clothesline, then to the shops.
Now Mr Hateley is back at university and has started applying for part-time jobs.
But most days he can be
JASON HATELEY
found cooking up a feast at the Momentum Mental Health kitchen.
The organisation’s CEO, Debbie Bailey, said RUOK Day was vital for breaking down the barriers that isolated people with mental illness.
She wants people to trust their gut and look for physical signs that someone is struggling.
This could be as simple as the person not enjoying the things they used to, or more acute signs, such as declining personal hygiene or cutting themselves off from their friendship group.
“It’s not about invading someone’s privacy, but humans have really great instincts,” Ms Bailey said.
“It might be as simple as saying, ‘You don’t look like your usual self’.”
The next step was to listen and not judge.
“Our job is to encourage someone to take action, and of course check back in,” Ms Bailey said.