Thursday was Mental Health Day. Morning radio was heavily laden with experts talking about the lack of resources for treating people with mental health.
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We heard how too few people immobilised by chronic mental health issues are capable of navigating the complex pathway to NDIS support.
We heard accounts of the toll mental illness takes, not just on the sufferers but on their family and friends as well.
This was a fine and noble thing and we thank everyone for helping to raise awareness. But what happens next week or the week after Mental Health Day? Chances are the issue slides back into the collective subconscious until the same time next year.
The reality is that, like so many afflictions, devoting a single day to raising awareness and focusing attention on mental health is simply not enough. The reality is, it needs to be a perpetual conversation. But we should also be careful not to talk so incessantly about it we become overwhelmed, decide it's all too hard and leave it to someone else to figure out.
The cost of mental ill-health extends way beyond what we can see.
It's estimated one in five Australians suffer some form of mental ill-health.
The Do You See What I See? World Mental Health Day Australia campaign aimed to encourage people to "see beyond the stigma" that so often surrounds mental health issues; to make mental health more visible, promote help seeking and foster connectivity within communities.
According to PricewaterhouseCoopers, untreated mental health conditions are costing Australian workplaces around $11 billion per year, mostly through absenteeism, presenteeism (reduced productivity at work) and compensation claims.
As a society we all stand to benefit from overcoming the stigma surrounding mental illness. We should remember some of the most brilliant minds in history have struggled with mental illness and mastered it to achieve great things.
Winston Churchill was plagued by the black dog of depression yet used his great oratorial skills to galvanise Great Britain during World War II.
On the world right now stage is Greta Thunberg, a 16-year-old who describes her Asperger's diagnosis as her superpower.
Both illustrate the potential of people we might ordinarily shun but would be the poorer for doing so.