scone.com.auMeeting of the Minds
YESTERDAY key local organisations and individuals gathered to learn from each other with an aim improve the management of mental health in our community.
Inspector Joanne Schultz is a police officer based in Singleton who mental health liaison for the regional is keen for local police to be better educated and for the community to trust them as part of a positive mental health response.
“We often see the end result of mismanagement or no treatment,” said Inspector Schultz.
“We want to work with other services to make the end result better for everyone,” she said.
“People are often frightened with police attend or embarrassed, but we want them to see us as first responders in an emergency team who can help get them to treatment,” she said.
“The closest treatment facility is Maitland and in small country towns police often do other roles and we may take them to care, so that the local ambulance is still available,” Inspector Schultz explained.
Pauline Carrigan and Daryl Dutton, from the Where There’s a Will Foundation explained while their focus was on prevention and education in schools they see the need for a community approach to mental health for management and treatment.
“It’s an illness, not a choice and the community needs to come to terms with that,” said Mrs Carrigan.
“The message needs to go out that it’s ok to talk about it,” Pauline Carrigan said.
Several members of the Men’s Shed shared their experiences and explained how they can play a role in helping people, stressing you don’t need to ‘build stuff’ when you go to the shed.
“If you drink coffee and tell lies, you’re in,” laughed John Pratley.
“No commitment to the joint if you want to drop in for five minutes, do it,” he said.
“It is a form of respite and we’ve noticed members are now more inclined to discuss things,” Mr Pratley said.
Lee Watts from the Scone Neighbourhood Resource Center agreed just being there to listen to people in the community is important.
“Just listening makes all the difference, open our ears and our hearts a little bit more, ” said Ms Watts.
“The changes in the last 22 years in mental health are extraordinary, but we all agree we need to keep improving and an initiative like this is a wonderful thing to get us all talking as organisations and members of the community,” said Lee Watts.
Inspector Schultz said she was also heartened by the positive direction of mental health in the local community.
Robert Thurgood, who convened the conference shared some of his own experiences about treatment and was pleased the conference was productive.
“Judging by the valuations and the general atmosphere which was very positive the conference was successful,” said Mr Thurgood.
“There was a general concern about the lack of resources, the lack of knowledge of the services available and the acknowledgment that we need to reach rural people such as farmers,” he said.
“The Upper Hunter Shire Council has agreed to put an flyer in the October rates notices about mental health and where people can access services,” he said.
“And we’d like to see medical records available to the patients for free, so that inaccuracies can be corrected,” Robert Thurgood said.
Due to the success of the conference the participants agreed to meet again in another six months to continue the dialogue about mental health in the community.
A few of the participants: John Pratley, Pam Seccombe, Amy Mills, Debbie Camps, Norman Cone, Fay Cone, Greg Newling, Robert Thurgood, Amanda Catzikiris.
Related story: