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Keith Garner: When you vote, remember Susan

1:00am Saturday, 7th August 2010

While the Council of Australian Governments was meeting with the former Prime Minister to discuss a new health funding arrangement for the nation, Susan Allan was out pounding the pavements of Sydney trying to bring into balance a healthy lifestyle and her bipolar disorder.
Later on that April day the government announced that just $174 million had been earmarked for mental health services in an overall health budget of $5.4 billion.
Susan had a bright future when she was in Year 12 at high school. She was school captain, and head of the debating team and student council. Then she was diagnosed with bipolar disorder.
This cruel condition, once known as manic depression, takes its victims on a bewildering and dangerous journey to the extremes of human emotion. When they’re up, they are confident, articulate and capable of extraordinary manic activity. But when the pendulum swings to the other extreme—black depression—suicide is often only a small step away, and Susan has tried to end her life several times.
The last time was quite recently and thankfully someone got her into Wesley Hospital in Sydney. For Wesley Mission staff, mental health is a pervasive issue that touches the lives of those they assist and support.
In January this year Wesley Mission surveyed more than 2,000 people. The results stunned us: a staggering 77 per cent of people in NSW had either suffered a mental health problem or knew someone who had.
The Wesley Report, Keeping Minds Well: Mental Health is Everybody’s Business also found that 53 per cent of the community will experience a mental health problem during their lives while mental illness among one third of young people goes undiagnosed.
It also showed that those under 25, do not seek early formal care, despite the fact that the sooner a sufferer acts, the more likely he or she is to recover, and recover quickly.
People should feel free enough to access help and access it early. Our research evidence shows that the issue of mental health is far more pervasive in the community than many of us would believe. It is a telling warning to governments of all persuasions: the long-term cost of marginalising the issue is far too great.
Keith Garner is Superintendent of Wesley Mission