Page 4124 - Week 11 - Tuesday, 23 October 2018
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positive attitude towards mental health expressed by the students of Hawker College and I personally want to thank them for their contribution to this Mental Health Month here in the ACT.
As I said, there have been some key events in the ACT. We had the lived experience showcase coordinated by Julia Bocking, a consumer and academic at the University of Canberra. It was held here at the Assembly on Wednesday, 3 October, and it included a screening of the film cleverly titled Madness Sans Frontieres, which talked about the lived experience and really sought to bring that important perspective to the discussion around mental health.
The mental health awards, which were also hosted here at the Assembly, were coordinated by Simon Viereck and the Mental Health Community Coalition team. These awards recognise individuals and organisations in our community who make an enormous contribution to the mental health sector in the ACT and by doing so enrich our community through their work by sharing their stories. There are a number of categories, and I would like to mention each of the winners.
There was the consumer of the year, Matthew Martin. Matthew has a great story, and he has been very courageous in sharing it widely in the community, of how mental health suddenly caught up with him. That would be the best way to describe it. Matthew spoke at the opening of the Dhulwa mental health facility a couple of years ago now and has continued to be an excellent advocate for the mental health issue and cause.
The carer of the year award went to Natalie Malcomson. Natalie is particularly focused on the issue of helping carers of people with bipolar disorder. She runs a monthly support group and facilitates a 12-week family connections program. Natalie is very passionate about the issue of BPD.
The promotion, prevention and early intervention program of the year was won by Menslink. I do not think I need to add much about Menslink in this place; it is a well-known organisation that runs terrific programs for young men.
The commendation award for mental health promotion, prevention and early intervention went to Tony Baker, who is the go-to guy for health and wellbeing in the building and construction industry and I think is well known across Canberra for that.
The reciprocity award went to Katrina McLean for her work with the Richmond Fellowship over the past nine years.
We also had the mental health volunteer of the year award, which was jointly awarded to Eunice Jolliffe, Ros Williams and Ann Finlay, three mothers who have had the terrible experience of having to go through the coronial process and have used that experience to advocate for improvements.
The David Perrin award was given to Rose Beard. This was one of the really inspiring awards on the day. Rose is well known in the community. Rose lives with and negotiates complex mental illness, disability and chronic illness related to an ongoing
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