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Legislative Council - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)
2021-10-27 Daily Xml
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Lifeboat South-East

The Hon. C.M. SCRIVEN (15:45): I want to talk today about an excellent organisation in the South-East, an organisation doing its part to support mental wellbeing and to help prevent suicide. It is actually a key initiative of a former school mate of mine, Matthew Brooks. I would like to tell you about Lifeboat, a lot of it in their own words:

We are a life experienced team of mates to help you through a tough time. Lifeboat is a group that provides a great place to discuss and help yourself through a tough period in your life. We are local mates that have experienced high levels of stress, anxiety and depression, as well as family members that have worked through these tough periods with loved ones who have also experienced those tough times.

Lifeboat South-East provides information and resources to help increase health-seeking behaviour within the community. Their website goes on to say:

We aim to provide a chance to talk with a group of mates or a mate that have experienced high levels of stress, anxiety and depression, but to talk in a relaxed and safe environment. We hope you can gain insights into how others in our rural community have managed stressful situations, with shared tools, help and support from family and services in the local community.

I was talking with Matthew about the establishment of Lifeboat and he said, 'Look, it really just came from blokes getting together to help each other.' They talked with people within the mental health system, with mental health leaders, about what caused mental health issues, what are the symptoms, what are the resources available and what tools you can use to help yourself.

They thought: if we could become proactive in managing mental health, we could cut down suicides, with there being six per month in the region—six suicides per month in the South-East. That is a terrible statistic, and I commend Matthew and all the team for helping address that issue. They quoted basically a motto: with understanding comes respect and support. With understanding comes respect and support, is that not absolutely true?

Lifeboat South-East has done talks at footy clubs, at church groups, at Rotary, to year 12s at school, to Women in Business and other business groups, all without charge. They do podcasts, which include local people talking about their lived experiences of depression or anxiety, and they have invited me to talk about my experiences with postnatal depression, which I am looking forward to doing in the near future.

They meet on a regular basis to share learnings, to share tools and support within the local community. They catch up and chat on progress. They talk about how those shared tools are working and what they can do to improve them. They discuss with family how they are managing and talk through the availability of local support. They catch up once a month, on the first Tuesday night of each month between 6.30 and 7.30, meeting in the foyer of Mount Gambier City Hall, the glassed area behind the Main Corner Complex near the Cave Gardens. They provide information and resources and I encourage people to go to lifeboatse.com.

With understanding comes respect and support, and that is the mission of Lifeboat SE. This is about the community looking after one another. I commend Matthew Brooks and all involved, and I commend Lifeboat SE.

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