Archives for December 2016

Personal story – Stephanie

December 12, 2016

Stephanie’s beautiful eyes and easy smile speak of a carefree young woman making strong strides in the world. But, it wasn’t always this way.

What those same eyes mask is a past challenged by mental illness: she was diagnosed with bulimia at 18, had her first suicide attempt just shy of her 23rd birthday and was later diagnosed with borderline personality disorder (BPD).

“While the symptoms of borderline personality disorder can be quite diverse, for me it was an irrational and impulsive response to different situations. I was very black and white.

“One minute I could be totally fine then something would trigger me into a complete suicidal episode and a 24-hour downward spiral. BPD generally also is a co-morbid self-harm type illness. In my case it was an eating disorder – a sort of combination of anorexia and bulimia.”

She shares her experience with mental illness with others as an ambassador for SANE Australia’s Thriving Communities campaign, which aims to raise awareness of the benefits online support and social connection can have on Australians whose lives are affected by complex mental illness. Stephanie’s story of personal strength, grit and love is one of eight inspiring stories of Australians affected by mental illness, such as bipolar, schizophrenia, anorexia, major depression and suicide.

The term ‘borderline personality disorder’ was not something Stephanie had come across before her diagnosis but when it came, it provided a structure for from where to focus her treatment as opposed to the aimlessness she had felt beforehand. From here, she moved from Canberra to Brisbane and found a good psychiatrist who recommended she join a Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT) group at her local hospital as an outpatient. The experience would prove to be one of the first forward- moving steps on her journey.

Together with her treatment, Stephanie acknowledges the significant role her family and friends have had on her management of the mental illness. She says her patient parents, her close friends and her partner, who “knows me better than I know myself”, have all meant the difference in her journey.

“My parents will both always say that I am, and always have been, a very determined person, and I will always get the most out of everything I put my heart into. So this mentality followed through into my recovery. If I was going to do it, I had to do it right and wholeheartedly if it was going to work for me.”

It is this spirit and commitment to herself, which has helped Stephanie navigate the choppy waters she has experienced, especially around the stigma of mental illness in her work and personal spheres.

While her current workplace is supportive, previous companies she has worked for have not been as caring. “I understand that having unproductive staff isn’t great for business… but I can also value an environment in which management support staff through their illnesses and hardships.

“There was more than one occasion where I would be teetering on the edge of suicide the evening before work, having an almighty episode, and I would have to wake up and perform at work the next day all the while dissociating so much that I couldn’t even engage in the simplest activity. How the hell do you explain that to your employer?”

There are many workplaces showing increasing support and assistance for employees who are diagnosed with mental illness, however, there are many others that continue to feed on the stigma surrounding mental illness in Australia. It wasn’t just in workplaces where Stephanie has felt and experienced negativity towards those with lived experiences of mental illness. It was also difficult for her peers to accept and, in her early twenties, this resulted in social exclusion.

“Reflecting back on this time, and still seeing it to an extent now, I feel this is a result of lack of education about mental health.

“Movies and mass media tend to either idealise or catastrophise the illnesses that fall into this category, and this is the main knowledge source that is educating young adults.

“According to the news, people who suffer severe mental illness are the ones gunning down groups of people or, on the other end of the spectrum, it’s someone who suffers minor depression and anxiety who overcame their demons with yoga and healthy eating; there’s rarely that in-between, talking about complex mental illness, that so many of us experience.”

It is because of this lack of education and awareness around complex mental illness that has inspired Stephanie, in large part, to share her story. “I see so much misunderstanding around mental health. If I can encourage more people to talk about their experiences with mental illness, then I hope it becomes less of a taboo. I don’t want people to feel ashamed of an illness they carry.

“People always say, ‘You’re so brave for opening up like this,’ but I don’t want it to be a brave act. I want it to be as normal to talk about mental illness as having any other illness.

“Only then, will people begin to understand and comprehend the enormity of mental illness surrounding them. People should never have to feel ashamed for having a mental illness.”

Written by Danielle Hanrahan

Meet Jo – Carer, Sister, Aunt, Mother

December 12, 2016

Jo is a resilient woman.

As a carer to her sister and nephew, both of whom lived with schizophrenia, and then to her son, who developed clinical depression and bipolar disorder, she has experienced a road full of personal heartache and despair, and while there have been moments on her journey where her resolve has wavered, it has never diminished.

As an ambassador of SANE Australia’s Thriving Communities campaign, which aims to raise awareness of the benefits online support and social connection can have on Australians whose lives are affected by complex mental illness, Jo’s voice is one that demands to be heard. She represents a group of individuals whose efforts to support family and other individuals living with mental illness is severely underestimated.

“Burnout goes hand-in-hand with the job of caring because unlike other means of employment, there are no holidays, no weekends off and the carers’ pension is not great.

“The build-up of sleep deprivation and physical and mental exhaustion spawns feelings of defeat, failure and a loss of self-esteem, self-confidence and self-worth, creating a gradual loss of identity.”

For Jo, the pressure to care for her loved ones, together with the lack of support at the time for services to assist carers, led her to relieve the stress and anxiety of her role by turning to alcohol and later, Valium. The effects of each would only be temporary and the weight on her shoulders would return come the rise of the sun in the morning.

Eventually, she would develop healthier methods of dealing with stress, such as journaling, which she would utilise in the aftermath of her nephew’s suicide at the age of 19 and her sister’s death eight weeks later.

“Writing my feelings and thoughts down on paper – my guilt, grief, depression and anger – definitely helped me to cope.”

One example of an entry in her journal highlights the loneliness and pain Jo experienced during this turbulent time. The following is an excerpt of an entry she wrote on the night of her nephew’s funeral.

“Dear Joel,

Maybe in time I would have been able to communicate with you successfully. Maybe someone would have come up with a cure for schizophrenia. As a child, you slept in my bed with me and I felt so much love for you I thought my heart would burst. You were such an angry little boy at times. No Dad and a Mum who was always sick. It wasn’t fair, was it Joel?

I remember your gentleness with every living creature – rescuing grasshoppers from cats and carefully affixing cobwebs to one side of the garden path each morning so that the spider could retrieve its nightly catch of mosquitoes.

Although I couldn’t cope with your adult rebellion, my heart ached for the frightened little boy hiding in the corners of your living nightmare.

I’ve been given your wallet as a memento, Joel. It contains 15 cents and your health benefits card. These were your worldly possessions.

I don’t know what to do with your wallet. I can’t bear to look at it, yet I can’t dispose of it either. I’ll keep it in the glove box of my car for the time being. Does that seem a strange place to keep it Joel? It is as strange as the place where I keep my feelings hidden. But I don’t know what to do with them either.”

She was put to the test again when her son developed clinical depression and bipolar disorder, and she would became his full-time carer.

While there were no support groups and online forums during Jo’s lowest moments in the 1970s and 1980s, these days she acknowledges there are a number of services and charities carers can access to help them cope with the stress and exhaustion of their roles.

“Carers need to be able to be in contact with professionals who are understanding and compassionate, who can advise and help. But they also need to be in contact with other carers so they can realise they are not alone.

“Its extremely important carers seek support from professionals, carers’ support groups and, if it’s impossible to leave the house, join the wonderful online forums that now exist. SANE Australia has a carers’ forum where you can talk to fellow carers from all over Australia at any time of the day and night, and it is anonymous.”

Passionate about advocating for the support services carers need, Jo also runs workshops across Australia. During these one-day or weekend workshops, she facilitates a safe and supportive space where carers can connect with others who share the same feelings, thoughts and experiences as them. Together with fostering connection, Jo teaches meditation and relaxation exercises, creative writing and journaling – the activities she cultivated to help in her darkest hours.

For Jo, it’s all about balance and making sure that as a carer you look after yourself too.

“It is important to take care of yourself so strive to get enough sleep, if possible, and certainly eat healthily. You need to remind yourself that if you got sick, who would look after your loved one?”

Written by Danielle Hanrahan

Circus Skills Opens Way for Social Connectedness

December 12, 2016

Juggling scarves or smashing plates may not sound like your typical therapy session but for Honora Jenkins, it offers the ideal way for kids, and adults, to feel engaged and connected in a fun, energetic and safe space.

The Wollongong-based circus facilitator has been working with Flourish Australia, formerly Richmond RPA, for the past 12 months at its New Outlook mental health social recovery centre, a drop-in facility that looks at meaningful activity and social connectedness as important contributions to a person’s recovery.

Honora utilises her circus skills to facilitate activities for the facility’s clients, who, at times, simply want to watch and observe the playful antics she gets up to. “I’II get out the hoops and start rolling them around, or jumping over them, or running balls around, and that energy is contagious,” she says.

“One day, we had heaps of people sitting around a table and I could tell they were happy to sit there, so I started engaging with one new client, who was interested in trying a few things. I saw one girl, who I knew had done some things before, and I asked her to come over and show the new person a few of the activities she had previously done. So she did and I got some of the people, who were at the table and now starting to watch what was happening, to come over and spot for her. To make her feel safe and supported.

“I suppose, for me, circus therapy is about inclusion. It’s all about real, honest-to- goodness inclusion.”

It’s this approach to inclusion and connection which underlies much of what Honora does with the people she works with. For her, it’s not about being perfect in hanging from a trapeze or juggling a handful of scarves at once, and looking like a professional performer, it’s about having fun and giving something new, a go. It’s a lesson she learned from her teacher when she joined Circus WOW, an organisation that offers a variety of circus training and workshops for adult women.

“I would turn up every week and I could barely hold myself up on the scarves or the silks and I’d need help to get my legs over, but once I was up on the trapeze, I found I could do stuff. “If I had not been allowed to clamber up, ungracefully, onto the trapeze because I may not have been ready or flexible enough, I never would have gone back. My teacher was incredibly supportive and would encourage me by saying, ‘You’ve got great form!’

“She was not looking at what I was terrible at, but what I was doing well. And, I got stronger. I wasn’t getting stronger in order to do it, I was getting stronger by doing it, and by doing it badly, but I was getting stronger and better.”

After learning the basics, she undertook a workshop on Holistic Circus Therapy (HCT), a concept created by Jill Malgio that combines occupational therapy with circus arts to address the unique health and wellbeing needs of individuals. While Honora does not specialise in the occupational therapy side of HCT, she has adapted the philosophy behind the concept and combined this with her practical knowledge in circus skills to think creatively about how she can help a person with a mental health challenge.

A fact that’s evident in the work she does at New Outlook, where she’s helping to empower people by building their self-esteem and confidence through the circus activities. And, if someone wants to talk while their throwing scarves or balls, she’ll be there for them.

“A lot of people slip through the cracks and I suppose I just want to be there, wherever I can find a place, to do this kind of work, to create opportunities for people and to have a play.

“We’re never too old to play. We should never not do something because we think we can’t do it or because we won’t be the best at it, that’s not the purpose here, the purpose is to have a bit of fun. And to have conversation.”

She recalls one young man who dismissed the scarves as something “too girly”. But, once he had given them a go, he found he enjoyed throwing them around. It was during one of these moments of tossing the scarves around that he started talking to Honora about other things on his mind. It was informal and non-threatening, a way of being there for someone that she prefers, as opposed to asking questions, such as, ‘What’s your problem?’ and ‘How can I fix it?’ It’s not what she does.

“We all have challenges and if we have the opportunity to find something to step beyond those challenges, and find our strengths within those challenging areas, then fantastic. We can find the strength in anyone and circus is really good for that.”

For more information on Honora Jenkins, visit: www.honorajenkins.com.

LGBTI and anxiety

December 12, 2016

Attending a support group for the first time is always going to be difficult, but for someone with an anxiety disorder, even just the logistics of getting there can be a challenge in itself.

“We had one woman who’s very anxious about public transport testing her nerves to actually get to the group, and she was overcoming that anxiety each month,” said Tom Skelton, who is a facilitator at one of WayAhead’s Anxiety Disorder Support Groups in Marrickville, as well as an LGBTI – focused support group in Surry Hills.“I think it’s a real challenge because you’re asking people to do two things – you’re asking them to go to a venue they’ve never been to before with people they’ve never met, to talk about things they might not have talked about before,” he said.

“You’re also asking people to disclose something they may find shameful, it’s a very ‘only me’, kind of isolating experience. I always say to them at the start of the group ‘I’m very glad that you came because it would have taken a lot of effort’. Some people are so anxious they can’t even leave their house, so to have people come to a group that requires them to go to that effort, I think it’s really cool.”Tom says he’s had a “pretty rocky” history with his own mental health, having struggled with anxiety, depression and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) since he was a child, and this was a factor in his decision to become a facilitator.

“I wanted to join in the cause and give a little bit back as well,” he said. “It was actually through my partner who works in the HIV field… he had said that there’s a good group doing some great work in mental health.”

Tom knows from his own experience that finding a treatment that works can be a difficult process with a lot of trial and error, and he encourages his group members to think about what they want out of the meetings and tries to make sure that they have the experience that they want.

“I’ve been through the public health system, through the private system, I’ve been to hospitals and done CBT [cognitive behaviour therapy] programs, different types of counselling, psychiatrists, medication and all of those sorts of things. I’ve been on more medications than I can count so I can actually relate to people’s concerns about side effects and coming off them and that sort of thing…my history is extensive but I think it’s useful.”

LGBTI people in particular are three times more likely to experience depression or anxiety heterosexual people, and this is largely due to the level of discrimination they still face. This does mean there is a need for support groups that address LGBTI-specific concerns. Tom says that although the group in Surry Hills is still in “its fledgling stage”, he is pleased with the progress its members are making and says the feedback from them so far has been positive.

“We’ve got a few people coming but we could do with some more,” he said.

“Just the fact that they will go out for a coffee with other group members is also a great sign. I’ve heard of other groups that do really good work and they are more focused on mindfulness and manifestation and all that. I don’t personally find that helpful for myself, that’s not the path that I go down…it’s more a relating, person-centred path, and then give the kind of meeting back to the clients, saying ‘OK, what would you like to get out of this?’ and from what I’ve found they just want to talk, they don’t necessarily want too much focus on tools and meditation.”

Tom admits there are parts of the job that he has found challenging.

“I’m a people-pleaser and I don’t like silence, so my challenge was actually to just let the group run without much disclosure from me or too much interaction. I get anxious that people will just sit there in silence, and then what will we talk about? But sometimes with the group you just need to give people space without talking over them.

Despite the challenges, Tom finds even the smallest signs of progress rewarding and encourages anyone with anxiety to think about attending a meeting- even if they don’t want to talk straight away.

“There have been many people that have said that they are just a little bit lighter or a little bit less burdened than when they arrived. I’m grateful for any sort of relief that people can get, “ he said.

“If I could say anything to them before they arrive, it would be that it you can be reserved to begin with, there’s no mandatory requirement to participate as such because just getting there is a good start.”

You can find out more about WayAhead’s Anxiety Support groups on our website, by calling our Anxiety Disorders Information line on 1300 794 992, or by emailing supportgroups@wayahead.org.au

by Anita Senaratna

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Recovery in Art 2017

December 12, 2016

Being’s Annual Recovery in Art Exhibition traditionally a part of October’s Mental Health Month is shifting to a month long time slot some time in 2017.

The Recovery in Art Exhibition is all about celebrating the creativity of people who have experienced mental illness, as well as their journeys towards recovery. It has been around a few years, but the next one is going to be particularly special because it will be held in the foyer of NSW Parliament House and opened by the Minister for Mental Health The Hon. Pru Goward.

Rachel Laidler (Photograph by Jennifer Blau)

We had a chat to Rachel Laidler, the Events and Projects Officer at Being to find out more.

Could you tell us a bit about the exhibition?

The Recovery in Art Exhibition’s been running for six years and it’s an exhibition where all of the artists involved have a lived experience of mental illness and the idea is to break down a bit of the stigma surrounding mental illness and talk about recovery instead.

How many entries would you normally get in a year and how many get displayed?

At this point we display everyone who enters, we’ve had up to, I think 80 in the past. When it started six years ago we were only getting maybe 30 entries and it was held down at the Wayside Chapel in one of the rooms there. We had about 30 or 40 entries at that point but then it just kind of blew up into this big thing.

Have you been involved with it from the beginning?

No, I’ve been involved with it for about two years. It’s always been a huge team effort with the policy team and the communications team. I think this is the first year there’s actually been an events role, so that’s kind of nice.

It sounds like it’s gotten pretty big over time…

It has, it’s at the point now where we’re looking at getting corporate sponsorship and that sort of stuff because it’s just becoming…not more than we can handle, but it’s becoming more than our little organisation is able to provide.

What would you say the aim of the exhibition is?

I think a big part of it, and a big part of Mental Health Month is about celebrating mental health as opposed to mental illness. It’s about recovery and taking care of yourself, and art is something that a lot of people identify with and use as a way to take care of themselves. It’s a bit of a celebration of health and wellness as opposed to illness, and beyond that it’s also a celebration of the creative skills that mental health consumers have because people with a lived experience of mental illness will surprise you with the amount of passion and skill and creativity that they bring, so that’s something we like to try and showcase wherever we can which has been hugely beneficial in breaking down some of the stigma surrounding people with mental illness.

What type of artworks do you usually get? Are they mostly paintings?

A lot of what we present is paintings on canvases and that sort of stuff, we’ve gotten a few sculptures in the past, a mosaic at one point, we get video installations and we do wherever we can try to include performance art, so, you know, musicians with a lived experience of mental illness. It’s a bit hard to coordinate but it’s so wonderful to have them there, to have people expressing what they’ve experienced.

What do you think it is about art that people find therapeutic?

Well, the people who enter come from all walks of life, so they could be people who created art as part of their therapy in a hospital or something like that, it could also be people who created art for the love of art, maybe it’s not a therapy, it’s a way of expressing themselves. It’s a way of safely talking about things they’ve experienced. It’s hard to write down what you’ve experienced and sometimes it’s a better way of explaining it when you don’t have the words for what’s going on.

Is there anything else you’d like people to know about the exhibition?

It’s held every year in Mental Health Month – this year we’re really excited, it’s not going to be in October, it’s going to be held sometime next year in Parliament House for about a month next year. We’re really excited for that because it’s just giving the exhibition a level of prestige. To be kind of recognised in Parliament House as something that’s beneficial for the community, it’s a huge achievement for us.

Support Groups

December 12, 2016

Australians from CALD (culturally and linguistically diverse) backgrounds are less likely to seek help for mental health issues due to a range of factors, such as language barriers, not being familiar with Australia’s health system, or simply just not knowing what warning signs to look out for.

Nikhil*, who attends an anxiety support group in Sydney, struggled with panic attacks and social phobia for months before being diagnosed with anything, hiding the problem from his family and friends until he reached breaking point.

Nikhil had his first panic attack in 2011. The year had started off a happy one- he and his wife had a young daughter as well as another baby on the way. But when he started feeling dizzy at work, he began to worry- especially when it got so bad he had to leave early one day.

“I started driving back home but my mind was so fragile. I was thinking, ‘What if I faint while driving?’ I stopped at a red light but couldn’t pull over. My heart was pounding and all I could see was the red light. The only things I could do to try and cope were breathing and drinking water – I thought I was having a heart attack. I forced myself to drive further as the light went green until I found a place to pull over. I thought about calling an ambulance but decided not to. I just kept breathing, drinking water and praying to every god I knew. Somehow I managed to get home-it was my longest and hardest drive ever.”

He didn’t say too much to his wife- she was 8 months pregnant and he didn’t want her to worry.

But then the same thing happened again at work the next day. Nikhil went to his GP, who gave him some pills to reduce his heart rate and didn’t think it was anything too serious. But nothing seemed to make any difference.

“I became scared of collapsing anywhere I went, thinking I was going to have a heart attack. I started thinking about my daughter and pregnant wife. What would they do if something happened to me? What killed me was that instead of me taking care of my wife who was due in just a few weeks, she was the one taking care of me. None of the doctors found anything wrong with me,but I knew something wasn’t right. I was constantly asking myself “Why is this happening to me now, when my family needs me more than ever?” I became very weak mentally, but I tried my best to hide it from my wife.”

Finally, Nikhil went to see his GP again and described what had been happening the past few months. This time, his GP gave him a DVD about mental illness and when he watched it, he realised he was suffering from a combination of social phobia and panic disorder. It didn’t make him feel any better though – all he could think about was what would happen to his family, his newborn son in particular. He finally told his wife what had been going on, and she encouraged him to see a psychologist who diagnosed him with depression.

“My wife inspired me, as always, to recover from the hell I was going through. I looked at her, then at my daughter and crawling son. I wept on the inside thinking about their future, and decided that I would fight hard no matter what to come out from that hell. Days and months passed by and gradually I started getting back to normal. I went to social gatherings and on holidays, exercised whenever I could and meditated on and off. Eventually I felt the sunshine coming back to my life.”

Nikhil thought that was the end of it, until one night when he was watching a particularly violent war documentary- his favourite kind.

“ Out of the blue, I felt an uneasiness in my chest. I ignored it at first and kept watching, but it kept getting worse. My heartbeat got faster and heavier, until I finally switched off what I was watching and changed to my meditation music. I told myself I could control it- deep breathing, drinking water and walking around my lounge room. It was an awful night, I hardly slept. Then I went into work the next day thinking I was going to die.”

But then he heard about WayAhead’s Anxiety Disorder Support Groups through a couple he was introduced to by a relative who also suffered from anxiety. He found the Sydney group online and decided to go to the next meeting.

“ I was very anxious and shaky, even though everyone was really friendly. Soon everyone started sharing their stories, one after another. I started feeling a lot better knowing I wasn’t the only one suffering the way I was, but my heart was still pounding heavily as my turn came to talk. I was resisting the urge to run out of the room. Finally, Toby asked me to introduce myself and share my story. It was my first time expressing my suffering in front of so many people. I spoke to people who were on medication and weren’t, everyone had different views. I found out many of them had been to doctors and psychologists on and off like me. I felt so happy when I left the room and couldn’t wait for next month.”

Nikhil made the decision to go on medication, but he also kept going to the group meetings. He ends his story on a positive note:

“Now it’s been more than a year that I’ve been part of this group. Things are looking better. I can feel sunshine in my life again and even though I still feel anxious sometimes, I can handle it. I know these feelings will always be part of my life, but I have to be strong. I want to say thank you to this organisation and everybody whom I’ve mentioned in my story. Special thanks to Rachel and Toby for committing their valuable time to this organisation and bringing together people like us.

Live in your present not with your past or future…

Om Mani Padme Hum……(Buddhist mantra)

*Name changed for privacy reasons

If you or anyone you know is living with anxiety, you can find out more about WayAhead’s Anxiety Support groups on our website, by calling our Anxiety Disorders Information line on 1300 794 992, or by emailing supportgroups@wayahead.org.au

by Anita Senaratna

Pilates and Mental Health

December 12, 2016

The effects of Pilates on mental wellbeing have been well-documented, but a program run by Canterbury Community Mental Health Service is achieving some interesting results by actually making it a part of their client’s treatment.

Dennis Magro is a senior social worker at Canterbury Community Mental Health Service. He works with clients who have “serious and persistent” mental illnesses, including some who had experienced psychotic episodes. Dennis says that he started the program to address the effects of metabolic syndrome that were affecting some of his clients. Metabolic syndrome is a term for a group of conditions, such as high blood pressure and cholesterol, insulin resistance and obesity, that can increase a person’s risk of heart disease, diabetes and stroke.

According to a NSW Health bulletin from 2012, “mental health consumers, particularly those with diagnoses of schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and major depressive disorders, have up to four times greater risk of developing metabolic syndrome than the general population.” While this is partly due to lifestyle factors such as excessive smoking or drinking, there is also a link between metabolic syndrome and certain antipsychotic medications.

Although there have been several studies done on the link between metabolic syndrome and mental illness, the idea of incorporating physical activity into mental health treatment programs is still relatively new.
“The question remains, once it’s identified, what do we do about it?” said Dennis.

He decided to approach C-Life Health Club, a local gym in Belmore, and started a partnership with them where he brought his clients in to use their facilities a couple of times a week.

Dennis and Vanessa at the gym where they run the Pilates program.

The severity of some of the clients’ conditions made it challenging to find people who were suited for the program, which operated via GP referrals. Dennis says that all potential clients are screened before being admitted to the program.

“Just about everyone comes in with a serious degree [of mental illness] when they start with us,” said Dennis.

“We were very sensitive to where the baseline was for each individual.”

Initially the program consisted of just the bi-weekly gym visits, but after about six months Dennis became interested in incorporating Pilates into the program and approached Vanessa Bartlett, a fitness instructor with about 14 years in the industry, whose focus is Pilates and holistic fitness.

“I’ve kind of come into this not knowing what to expect,” said Vanessa, who had no previous experience with mental health clients prior to being approached by Dennis.

“[Dennis] could see the benefit in doing Pilates because of that mind- body connection that you get. I thought ‘well, I don’t know what I’m dealing with here, but I think that’s been an advantage for me and for them because I haven’t judged people when they’ve come into the class. I don’t know what they’re going through so therefore I have no preconceived ideas.”

The program has been running for 5 years twice a week and both Dennis and Vanessa say they can see a difference in the clients. Dennis says that the clients are reporting sleeping better and needing to visit their GPs less, and he has noticed that they seem to get along better with their case managers and other social workers. Vanessa has noticed similar effects, especially in clients who have been attending classes for over 12 months.

“I’ve noticed within their own personalities just seeing them come in….at the beginning they’re quite timid but after a few months of doing it consistently [you notice] an improvement in their self esteem, their demeanour,” she said.

“I got to asking some of the clients over the years, ‘Why do you keep coming? I’m interested to know…’ One of the girls said to me that the difference between doing gym exercise and Pilates is that anyone can walk on a treadmill but your mind is still wandering and you’re still thinking about your problems, basically. But in a Pilates sense where you have to focus on the movements and the breathing, you don’t have time to think about your problems so it creates this presence and mindfulness.”

So far the program has had quite a high retention rate, and many of the clients have gone on to make changes in other areas of their life, such as returning to work or study.

“[The program] gives them a bit of confidence, I think,” said Vanessa.

“When you can say, build on your physical strength and actually accomplish something in the class, it’s like a snowball effect. For instance if I get them to do, say, three push-ups, then in a few weeks time they can do ten push-ups, in their mind they know they’ve improved so therefore their brain starts to adapt to other external things in their lives to go ‘well, if I can do this in my exercises, maybe I can do study or something else’. I believe in psychology it’s called self-efficacy.”

Although Vanessa started her career as a more traditional fitness instructor, she was diagnosed with adrenal fatigue in her twenties and had to start looking at alternative ways to keep fit.

” I basically hit burnout point in my mid-to-late twenties by overdoing it – too many pump classes, too many boxing classes, too much of the heart stuff,” she said.

“I had to then look at other ways of staying fit and healthy without doing the gym classes I’d done for 15 years so that was quite a challenge! I was thinking, ‘I’m a personal trainer working at gyms helping clients lose weight and get energy and I’m not feeling any of this myself’, and I started to get quite down about it so it affected me mentally for a little while…I felt really inauthentic at the time as well, just because it wasn’t working for me anymore.”

She tried a few different types of exercise, but what really seemed to suit her was Pilates.

“With the Pilates, something happened in the first few classes,” she said.
“I felt a buzz of energy. When you’ve got adrenal fatigue you’re very, very tired, it’s beyond exhaustion, you feel like you’ve been hit by a truck even if you’ve slept for ten hours. So when I felt this kind of surge of energy in the Pilates class I thought ‘ oh, this is something I haven’t had in a really long time, what’s going on here?’ So I started to do more classes and I thought “This is good, this is sustainable for me to teach.”

“I guess I’ve gone from a hardcore typical fitness trainer to, these days, more of a holistic approach, especially working with mental health clients and seeing how this mindfulness can help them. So that’s my whole philosophy and what I love to help people with, it’s about finding that balance, to live a healthy lifestyle, get to your correct weight without crazy diets, get to your best health mentally and physically through something that’s a bit more sustainable so you don’t get injured, you still work your muscles but it’s not so ‘go hard or go home.’”

According to Vanessa, the Schizophrenia Fellowship has shown a lot of interest in the program, even giving Canterbury Mental Health an award for ‘Innovation in Healthcare’ in 2013. Although the program seems to be one of the first of its kind, the results so far have been promising and
both Vanessa and Dennis say they would like to see it expanded to more areas.

Self Help Groups

December 12, 2016

Ever since she was a teenager in Japan, Mittori has had an intense fear of driving, and has experienced panic attacks while driving on freeways or zones with high speed limits. Although she passed her driving test with no issues, she experienced a panic attack while driving with a friend a few weeks later.

“My hands were sweating, I felt like I was just about to go crazy or die or something like that,” she said.

She’s not sure where it came from exactly, but she remembers feeling scared during car trips with her parents, and visiting an uncle who’d been in a car accident that had left him severely disabled and feeling scared as a young child who had never seen a disabled person before. In her twenties, she tried therapy and hypnosis to get over her phobia but nothing seemed to work. But one day during a visit to Manly, a poster for WayAhead’s anxiety support group in Dee Why caught her eye.

“It’s actually really funny! I went to a public toilet in Manly and on the back of the door I saw this poster with a phone number for an anxiety support group in Dee Why, and I just thought I’d give it a try,” said Mittori.

When she went to her first meeting, she was surprised by how many people were there.

“I just felt, like…wow, I didn’t know people were suffering like me! That was my first feeling. I guess everyone must think ‘it’s only me’ because you don’t really talk about it to other people. I just felt instantly supported.”

Mittori has started driving again since attending the support groups, although it did take some time. She says she would definitely recommend the group to other people suffering from anxiety, but that they shouldn’t get discouraged if it doesn’t work for them.

“If it doesn’t work it’s okay because you took a step!” she said.

Sista Speak and Bro Speak in Moree

December 9, 2016

Moree has come a long way since Charles Perkins and the Freedom Riders from Sydney University paid the town a visit in 1965, making history when they took a group of indigenous children to swim at the local pool- which they were banned from doing at the time.

51 years on, the town is still faced with its share of social issues – a well-documented ice epidemic, one of the highest crime rates in the state, and children and teenagers at a high risk of getting caught up in a cycle of welfare dependency and substance abuse.

But despite the odds, there are still members of the community who are trying to break that cycle. Moree Secondary College are the recipients of this year’s Mental Health Matters Award for their SistaSpeak and BroSpeak Cultural and Mentoring Programs, in the category of Aboriginal Social and Emotional Wellbeing.

SistaSpeak and BroSpeak are 10-week programs for indigenous students (SistaSpeak for girls, BroSpeak for boys) run during the school term. The programs consist of guest presenters coming in and talking about various social issues impacting their lives, as well as teaching them about their culture. At the end of the program, they hold a formal graduation ceremony for the students who have completed it.
Peter Sheargold, who is the principal at Moree Secondary College, says he is “really chuffed” about the award and that the programs themselves are “fantastic.”

“A lot of the things are social issues, but a lot of it is cultural and trying to give kids health and resilience and all those things that come with knowing who they are and what their mob is and how the people who’d gone before them lived, to be very proud young Kamilaroi people.”

The SistaSpeak and BroSpeak programs are run in several schools across NSW, but what makes Moree Secondary College’s programs unique is the way it is tailored to the local community, with a focus on real-life issues that relate to the students’ everyday lives.

“The original program is based on career development, self-esteem, that type of stuff, but I’ve changed it to look at social issues,” says Janine French, the school’s Senior Leader for Community Engagement who is in charge of both programs.

“There’s a high drug and alcohol abuse rate in Moree, there’s a high domestic violence rate, so I picked those social issues and covered a different topic every week. We wanted to engage the community as much as we could so what we did was get service providers around a whole range of different topics for example mental health, drugs and alcohol, domestic violence, body image, healthier choices in nutrition, grief and loss.”

“The other component was an Aboriginal cultural activity – art,dance, or something like that. We totally changed it from what the standard program was, so hearing that we won the award was certainly a big surprise and a great achievement for all of our staff and students involved.”

In the most recent program, which completed in Term 2, there were 16 boys enrolled in BroSpeak and 14 girls in SistaSpeak. The programs both had attendance rates of over 80%, a figure that is higher than overall attendance across the school which is currently about 77%.

“We didn’t just target it at the good kids, we strategically selected about five kids from every year group…some might have been good at sport or academic, some were really low attenders, some were having behaviour problems,” says Janine.

“It was using the good kids to be like role models for the ones who weren’t coming as much and using the program as an incentive to make kids want to attend school more. For example we got them all a jacket each, they designed the logos and the jackets but to be able to qualify to even get a jacket they had to come for at least five lessons. If they didn’t come for the lessons, they wouldn’t get a jacket. Some of them had really poor attendance and then their attendance just went right up, others were getting suspended, constantly in trouble, their behaviour improved and they actually wanted to come to school more. ”

Even though the programs only run for ten weeks, Janine says that she started seeing changes in the students’ attitudes as early as five weeks in.

“In the first couple of weeks I’d get them to take turns introducing themselves, saying something positive, giving another girl a compliment, or even just thanking the guest speaker, they were all too shy to do that in the first few weeks. By halfway through the program they all wanted to do it, like stand up and talk and say the thank yous and give each other compliments, that was all in a matter of weeks.”

More importantly, Janine says that over time the students started feeling comfortable enough around herself and the other facilitators to start confiding in them about personal issues they were facing.

“If they had a problem they would then come up to myself or one of the other facilitators outside of the sessions and say, ‘I’m not feeling so well, can I talk to you about some issues?’” she said.

“One girl came up and said ‘I haven’t really handled the fact that my mum died when I was young, can you please help me get into some counselling now?’ They were getting the confidence to come and approach us whenever they needed help or assistance in anything.”

While the SistaSpeak program has been running for a few years, the BroSpeak program just started this year. The programs have received “universally positive” feedback from everyone involved, from the students themselves to parents, teachers and the presenters and will continue on into Term 3 this year.

Arabic Mindfulness

December 9, 2016

According to bicultural psychologist Hend Saab, the two biggest barriers to people from Arabic backgrounds seeking help for mental illness are cultural stigma and a lack of trust in mental health providers. They tend to seek help from more traditional avenues such as religious healers and traditional medicine first before turning to qualified mental health providers as a last resort- by which time their condition has deteriorated to the point where it makes helping them very difficult.

screen-shot-2016-12-09-at-12-08-52-pm As well, evidence indicates that mental health issues are highly prevalent in culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) communities in general, with the World Health Organisation estimating that almost 50% of migrants globally suffer from mental health related trauma (Kljajic, 2009).

Hend, who is a psychologist at at St George Community Mental Health Service, has developed an Arabic Mindfulness CD in an attempt to counteract some of this stigma, and provide people from Arabic backgrounds with a way of managing mental illness that fits in with accepted cultural practices.

“They hang onto things they know, they’re hanging onto things they believe in, it’s almost like it’s part of their identity,” she said.
“Having any continued challenge to that identity or feeling uncomfortable about the change… it’s more like resisting the change, as well as the stigma.”

She says that although she was confident that the CD worked based on her own observations using it herself as well as with patients, she wanted to test it out and make sure it was clinically effective as well. Together with research officer Fatima Hamdan, Dr Ilse Blignault from UNSW and fellow psychologist Lisa Woodland, she conducted a study in which 70 participants from Arabic backgrounds, all of whom identified as being Muslim or Christian, were asked to listen to a couple of tracks every week and provide feedback about how they felt afterwards. On average, the results showed “statistically significant improvements” in the participants’ mental health levels after listening to the CD, and 94% of them continued to practice mindfulness after the study ended.

“This was a superb project on so many levels,” said Clinical Psychologist and awards judge Frank Flannery, “It was conducted utilising benchmark experimental design and validated translated mental health measurement tools, it involved the successful engagement and participation of representatives of the Arabic community and it’s utility value is of the highest order for both mainstream and private mental health services that in the past have been challenged in providing an optimal service to non-English speaking consumers from the Arabic community. “

Hend Saab and the team from St George Community Mental Health Service receiving the Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Communities Award at the 2016 Mental Health Matters Awards

According to Hend, the goal of the study was primarily to establish if mindfulness was clinically effective as well as culturally acceptable. She admits the overwhelmingly positive results same as a surprise to her, however.

“We did not expect to have such an amazing result,” she said.

“We were very lucky. The thing is it’s very hard to get the community to participate in something like that. We were very fortunate in having the research officer [Fatima Hamdan], she’s well-respected and very diligent in her work, constantly calling the participants to make sure they were adhering to the instructions.”

Rather than telling people not to engage with their culture, Hend’s research is more focused on giving Arabic people avenues for help that are culturally familiar and non-threatening.

As religious leaders are often the first point of contact for people in the Arabic community seeking help for mental illness, Hend says that it is important to work with these leaders rather than against them to make sure that they’re well-equipped to handle the issue sensitively and refer people to qualified health providers wherever necessary.

“We don’t want to push them any further by attacking them,” she said.

“I think we need to work together… something like mindfulness, it helps your spirituality. These days with YouTube, you hear a lot of religious leaders, particularly from overseas, they’re open-minded, they’re incorporating things like that in their lectures which is good.”

Hend and her research team are continuing their studies into mindfulness as a culturally acceptable treatment. They are currently testing it out in group sessions with refugees and asylum seekers in the Illawarra region, and so far the feedback has been positive.

“The feedback we’re getting, you’ll hear someone saying “This has changed my life”, or something like that,” she said.

“ It’s helping them make sense of what they know.”

Kljajic, Kelly. Depression and Anxiety in the CALD Community [online]. Health Voices, No. 5, Oct 2009: 17-18

Archives for December 2016

Stephanie’s beautiful eyes and easy smile speak of a carefree young woman making strong strides in the world. But, it wasn’t always this way.

Jo is a resilient woman.

Juggling scarves or smashing plates may not sound like your typical therapy session but for Honora Jenkins, it offers the ideal way for kids, and adults, to feel engaged and connected in a fun, energetic and safe space.

Being’s Annual Recovery in Art Exhibition traditionally a part of October’s Mental Health Month is shifting to a month long time slot some time in 2017.

Could you tell us a bit about the exhibition?

How many entries would you normally get in a year and how many get displayed?

Have you been involved with it from the beginning?

It sounds like it’s gotten pretty big over time…

What would you say the aim of the exhibition is?

What type of artworks do you usually get? Are they mostly paintings?

What do you think it is about art that people find therapeutic?

Is there anything else you’d like people to know about the exhibition?

Australians from CALD (culturally and linguistically diverse) backgrounds are less likely to seek help for mental health issues due to a range of factors, such as language barriers, not being familiar with Australia’s health system, or simply just not knowing what warning signs to look out for.

The effects of Pilates on mental wellbeing have been well-documented, but a program run by Canterbury Community Mental Health Service is achieving some interesting results by actually making it a part of their client’s treatment.

Moree has come a long way since Charles Perkins and the Freedom Riders from Sydney University paid the town a visit in 1965, making history when they took a group of indigenous children to swim at the local pool- which they were banned from doing at the time.

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