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House of Assembly - Fifty-Third Parliament, First Session (53-1)
2014-09-17 Daily Xml
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Suicide Prevention

Mrs VLAHOS (Taylor) (15:13): In the lead-up to Mental Health Week, which is 5 October to Saturday 11 October, and the recent World Suicide Prevention Day on 10 September, I would like to speak about a group of people I had the good fortune to meet with on Monday with the Premier and the Minister for Health at Strathalbyn as part of the community cabinet.

I was fortunate enough to meet the Strathalbyn Community Suicide Prevention Network with the Premier and the minister, and we had a fantastic opportunity to talk with local GPs and network members about the Strathalbyn area and some of the challenges they have had most recently. Two people who were at that meeting were from the Beyond the Darkness Postie Run. These two gentlemen who represented the postie run that had recently finished were Nick Grosvenor and Brad Overall.

The postie run started out as an idea by two boys who decided they wanted to raise $10,000 for charity and take a group of men 4,200 kilometres up the centre of Australia on postie bikes. It became way bigger than they imagined and to date they have raised over $65,000. The charity money will go to beyondblue and some of that money will come back into the local area to assist the Strathalbyn community deal with a small group of suicides that have occurred there recently with their community members.

Certainly the suicide of a mate triggered the idea of the boys getting together and talking about depression and depression awareness, and that is the basis of the R U OK? Day campaign that recently occurred on 11 September. That is when community members are encouraged to reach out to their friends, loved ones and colleagues to check that they are travelling okay, to know that it is alright to talk about these things, and the context in which suicide prevention and depression can be dealt with in a normal way within society rather than hiding it, resulting in a terrible consequence not only for the person suffering it but also the community and their loved ones around them if they go down a dark path.

I would like to note this parliament's appreciation to Cliff Sweetman, the chairperson of the Strathalbyn Community Suicide Prevention Network; Dr Jim Wilhelm, a member of the core group and local GP who spent some time talking to me after the meeting; Brenton Lewis who is a volunteer at the network; Gwenda Knights, who is the treasurer of the network; and also I would like to particularly recognise the gentlemen who went off on the ride. They have done a fantastic thing for the local community, indeed, for South Australia—knowing who your wingman is and staying engaged with your mates throughout life and checking that they are okay and they are travelling okay, whether it is husbands, wives, partners, friends, sons or daughters. As a community we have an obligation to each other to care for each other in a healthy community.

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