In a statement, Victoria police said it was “extremely saddened to confirm that one of our members from the southern metropolitan region died last night following an apparent suicide”.

“He was off-duty at the time,” the statement said.

“Our thoughts and deepest sympathies are with his family, friends and colleagues at this very difficult time.”

Three Victoria police members have killed themselves so far this year.

“The death by suicide of a police member is always cause for enormous concern,” Victoria police said.

“Looking after our people is one of our highest priorities. We know that anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress can all be triggered by the stressful situations our people can find themselves in.”

In October, the Victoria police chief commissioner, Graham Ashton, launched a review into the mental health and wellbeing of Victoria police employees. His announcement came two weeks after a senior constable took her own life while on duty at a Melbourne centre for victims of sexual assault.

The review will examine how Victoria police can support police officers during and after their career and make recommendations on how this support can be strengthened.

On Wednesday, Ashton told ABC radio that police stress and suicides were a “worsening situation” in Victoria.

“I’m seeing a lot more police suicides than I ever used to,” he told the ABC.

“This affects everyone differently and people absorb issues, absorb trauma and absorb things that they’re exposed to in different ways, and we have to understand that.”

The deaths follow the announcement on Monday by the Victorian police minister, Wade Noonan, that he would take three months’ leave from parliament due the toll of “constant exposure to details of unspeakable crimes and traumatic events”.

“It has been difficult to cope with the constant exposure to details of unspeakable crimes and traumatic events that are an everyday part of my role and accumulation of these experiences has taken an unexpected toll,” he said.

In December the National Coronial Information System released data on intentional self-harm rates among emergency services personnel, revealing 62 police service members took their own life across Australia between 2000 and 2012.

This article first appeared on ‘The Guardian’ on 11 February 2016.

Over 35 per cent had experienced some form of mental health issue and more than 80 per cent knew a close friend or relative with similar experiences. Nearly three in ten said they had been discriminated against or knew someone who had, for mental health problems. And while most said they would be happy to talk about their mental health problems at church, seven in ten said their churches offered no resources to deal with it.

Previous research by ComRes showed that mental health issues account for nearly 25 per cent of the disease quota in Britain yet attracts just 11 per cent of NHS spending.

A recent BBC story stated that universities are facing a 10 per cent rise in demand for counselling services from students, with recorded mental health cases having risen from 8,000 to 18,000 between 2008 and 2012.

The online research was conducted via Christian Research’s panel of around 17,000 practising Christians across the UK, with 1,275 responding between 5 and 7 October.

“This is a clear sign that churches need to provide a more supportive space for their congregations to explore these issues,” said Maddy Fry, the researcher behind the study.

Earlier this year the UK’s largest Christian disability charity, Livability, joined forces with Premier Mind and Soul to create new resource to help churches better understand people with mental health needs in their congregations.

Christian Today reported that Katharine Welby-Roberts, an associate at Livability and the Archbishop of Canterbury’s daughter, who has spoken publicly regarding her struggles with depression, said: “As anti-stigma campaigns, such as Time to Change, begin to see societal attitudes towards mental health change, the Church has begun to recognise the need to better support people with mental health needs in their congregations.” She said that churches wanted to support people with mental health problems, but did not know how. “This can often lead to isolation or people leaving the Church because they feel misunderstood or not catered for. I believe the Church is a key untapped local resource which can support people with mental health needs.”

This article first appeared on ‘Christian Today’ on 15 October 2015.

The suicide of another police officer on Monday, who is also understood to have suffered from mental illness yet was armed with a service revolver, is expected to intensify pressure on Chief Commissioner Graham Ashton to act.

Force command has been accused of being slow to react to the increasingly erratic behaviour of several officers, who were deemed fit to work and permitted to carry firearms.

A Victoria Police spokeswoman said the force had strict policies to the ability of members to carry personal firearms which take into account, health, wellbeing and welfare issues.

“Members are monitored very closely in relation to carrying a firearm. We are not complacent and continually review these policies to ensure they remain robust, and we look for opportunities to improve,” the spokeswoman said.

Senior Constable Tim Baker, 44, is understood to have suffered serious mental health issues for almost a decade before he killed Vlado Micetic during a routine intercept in Windsor in 2013. He was charged with one count of murder last week, after shooting Mr Micetic three times in the chest and claiming he acted in self-defence.

Mr Baker took extended leave on several occasions because of his illness, and was only allowed to resume work after approval from a Victoria Police psychiatrist.

But less than a year before the shooting, it is believed Mr Baker was involved in a serious altercation with another officer during Operational Safety Tactics and Training that should have set off alarms, according to colleagues of the accused man.

During firearms training, an instructor placed a hand on Mr Baker to assist with his stance. According to a source, Mr Baker responded: “take your hands off me or I’ll f…ing kill you”.

Two former colleagues have expressed serious concern that Mr Baker was subsequently issued with a gun and permitted to work alone.

“He should not have been operational and he definitely should not have been working by himself. It’s a failure of the department and Tim’s supervisors, they’re the ones who should also be held accountable for this tragedy,” said a former colleague.

Another officer, who worked briefly with Mr Baker, said his mental health issues were widely known and he had received professional help.

Police Association secretary Ron Iddles refused to discuss Mr Baker’s case, but said more than 200 officers had gone on sick leave over the past year because of depression and post-traumatic stress.

As Victoria Police force grapples with the issue of mental health and an entrenched history of “suffering in silence”, Mr Iddles urged more members to seek help when they were unable to cope with the demands of the job.

The state coroner is presently investigating at least four police suicides, including the death of an information technology specialist at the Victoria Police Centre in June, who did not carry a weapon as part of his daily duties, but was issued with a gun by the transit safety division.

The man shot himself at a Rosanna primary school, where his estranged partner is believed to have worked.

A senior police officer said the man should never have been given the weapon .

“The force hasn’t always been great at dealing with (the) mental health or stability of its people. Obviously the job’s stressful and people handle it different ways, and there’s definitely some coppers who shouldn’t have guns.”

A Victoria Police spokeswoman said the force had appointed Deakin University to assist with a workplace analysis, while also undertaking an internal review of the welfare work and support it provides to officers.

“The Chief Commissioner has commissioned an external review to look at what more Victoria Police can do to best manage the issues surrounding mental health to ensure that going forward we deal with these issues in the best way possible,” the spokeswoman said.

This article first appeared on ‘The Age’ on 13 October 2015.

“My baby boy was crying all the time and we weren’t getting much sleep – that’s when things started to go a bit downhill,” Ms Palmbas said.

“I couldn’t sleep even though I was so tired, and I was worrying all the time about every little detail about him; I was stressing over everything.

“It got to the point where I couldn’t cope and I remember ringing up my husband one day at work and said, ‘You have to come home from work’.

“I couldn’t do it anymore. I was crying all the time, I was beside myself and I didn’t want to be alone with the baby. It was horrible.”

Ms Palmbas became incapacitated, unable to live her everyday life and complete simple tasks. Her mind was swarming with negative and terrifying thoughts.

“I was having these horrible thoughts that I was going to hurt my child and that scared the life out of me – I thought I had turned into a monster who wanted to hurt this child she’s longed for,” she said.

“I didn’t know who I was and I didn’t know what was going on. I had these strange thoughts and thought they must be real. I honestly thought I was going crazy.

“I felt terrified all the time and I was in a constant state of panic. It was intense and debilitating.”

When Ms Palmbas attended a mothers’ group, everyone seemed to be coping and having it all together, which made her feel isolated in her experience.

“When it’s not spoken about, you just think that it’s just you,” she said.

“It makes it even harder when you think you’re really alone and no one understands you or is going through anything similar.”

Running away crossed Ms Palmbas’ mind many times.

“I thought I’d just pack my baby up and take him to one of my family members and just drive off, and everyone would live all the better for not having me around,” she said.

“I was just a wreck and absorbed in my thoughts in this deep dark hole. I couldn’t see any way out.”

This article first appeared on ‘ABC’ on 8 October 2015.

“What does it take to make society appreciate that mental illness can be as debilitating as physical illness?” Sydney student Xavier Eales asked the panel.

Former AFL star and founder of the Sunrise Foundation, Wayne Schwass, who has battled with depression, said that men were “just as complex” as women.

“Yet as a country and as a community, (men) aren’t supported, we aren’t encouraged to talk honestly and open about complex issues and we need to be, because the reality is a conversation can be the beginning of somebody getting help, getting appropriate treatment and that’s an important conversation to have,” Mr Schwass said.

It took 12 years after his depression diagnosis, he said, to work up the courage to sit down with his family and tell them he was unwell before going public with the information.

“It was the first time I could be authentic and that was the beginning of a slow process of recovery,” he said.

“I have people who support me in my life and if people want to make a judgment or have a different negative decision on me then that is OK, that’s their opinion.”

Teacher Melissa Sorial asked the panel for advice for parents and educators after one of her Year 8 students took her own life earlier this year.

Co-director of health and policy at the University of Sydney’s Brain and Mind Centre, Ian Hickie said one in 10 Australian teenagers had self-harmed while one in six to seven young women thought about suicide during teenage years.

“The response to the adult world is still to be rather dismissive of that, hoping he or she will grow out of it, just hoping, which is distinct from any other health problem,” he said, noting that parents don’t “hope” their children recover from chronic illnesses like asthma or diabetes.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull had shown his support in tackling mental illness but the government could follow through by implementing policy, Professor Hickie said.

“Every sector in Australia needs a national suicide prevention program, they need to start in rural and regional Australia,” he said.

Psychologist and research fellow at the University of Western Australia’s School of Indigenous Studies, Pat Dudgeon said indigenous youth suicide rates across the top half of the nation were the highest in the world.

“This is the consequences of the brutal takeover of lands, the denigration of Indigenous people, and then policies that were draconian and took away all their human rights,” Professor Dudgeon said. “So we’re probably, as a society, in a process of recovery.”

Professor Hickie said Australia had a “terrible tradition of white-guy solutions being imposed on indigenous communities” which ultimately failed.

“Pat has run several programs to demonstrate the power is within Indigenous communities but it needs to be supported in everything we do, in government policy, social policy, employment and education,” Professor Hickie said.

Chief executive of Richmond Psychiatric Rehabilitation Australia and long term mental illness sufferer, Fay Jackson, described her painful experience with schizophrenia.

“I went through a stage where I felt so alien to everybody else and I actually held onto my tongue when I was speaking so that I knew that it was me speaking,” Ms Jackson said.

She acknowledged that the choice to take medication was a “vexed” issue but said she became too unwell when she is not medicated.

This article first appeared on ‘The Australian’ on 6 October 2015.

Just days before TV personality Charlotte Dawson took her own life early last year, she was on the phone to Creasey.

The Australia’s Next Top Model judge had become his friend and “role model” after they met backstage at one of his shows.

He was just 19 and, during the show, had done a fun bit mocking Dawson’s hit reality-TV show.

After that, she became an important sounding board for him.

“I was upset about something and I called her to chat,” the 25-year-old says.

“I was always a fan of her work growing up and thought she was brilliant and tough. I loved getting her advice.

“We spoke about me for 20 minutes (but) I never asked how she was. (I was being) selfish and not thinking about others.

“When I heard what happened … it was pretty shocking and upsetting. I never thought it would happen.”

Asking if the person you’re with is OK will be one of the themes Creasey wants to raise when he hosts the Stand Up! For Comedy night on Friday to open Mental Health Week in WA.

The young comic agreed to do the show to reduce the stigma surrounding issues such as depression and anxiety.

Creasey says the country’s “macho” culture often means there are Australians suffering from mental illness in silence.

“The perception is that it’s a weakness — but it’s absolutely not. I think the strongest people in the world are probably dealing with mental health issues,” he says.

“I have been dealing with (perceptions of) weakness all my life. I always get called camp and people relate that to weakness, which really annoys me.

“I’m absolutely camp, but I’m also super tough.

“I go on stage every night and talk to people armed with just a microphone.”

“(Charlotte) was very out and proud about what she was going through,” he says.

“I think producers started seeing her as a risk. But, I know from people that worked with her that she was such a talent and great to work with and would get the job done.”

Creasey has spent the past three months overseas after his profile at home was given a big boost thanks to hit reality-TV show I’m a Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here!

His overseas tour has included an appearance on A League of Their Own in the UK and solo shows in New York and Los Angeles.

Creasey says he “jumped at the chance” to come home to Perth for an important cause such as Mental Health Week.

“I know so many comedians dealing with mental health issues,” he says. “It has a big impact on the industry I work in so it’s something very close to my heart.”

Creasey says it’s disappointing some people still “turn their noses up” at those battling mental health issues. Another problem is people playing down these illnesses as just a “phase”.

Creasey’s advice for anyone struggling to cope is simple: “Talk to someone.

“I had never seen a therapist, but on I’m a Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here! we had a therapist we could speak to in the jungle.

“At first people were going just to get some breathing space and get o camera for 20 minutes. But I really enjoyed it and we’ve stayed in touch. Sometimes I will just send her an email if I’m dealing with something.”

Creasey will be joined on stage by several comics, including The Sunday Times TV Guide columnist Janelle Koenig, who is Creasey’s writing partner and director.

“Janelle is brilliant,” he says. “I was a big fan of hers growing up and then when she moved to Perth and started having kids I was like, ‘Great now is my time to strike’. I knew she had a bit of free time, so I got her working for me.”

Part proceeds from Stand Up! for Comedy will go to WA Association for Mental Health to reinvest back into community.

This article first appeared on ‘The Daily Telegraph’ on 29 September 2015.

Mental Health Recovery Institute chief executive Pedro Diaz said businesses were still trying to catch up with workplace mental health training.

“In reality, mental health [education] in the workplace is about 20 years behind,” Mr Diaz said.

This is despite research showing economic benefits for organisations which ensure they have a healthy workforce.

“On average, for every $1 invested in mental health, the workplace is looking at [a] $2.30 return. That’s [a return of] 130 per cent,” Mr Diaz said.

“Research shows people who have had a mental illness and recover their health with the help of their workplace are actually more loyal and they produce more once they come back to work.”

It’s estimated up to 45 per cent of Australians will experience mental health problems at some stage.

Kylie Bennet, e-hub development manager at the National Institute for Mental Health Research, said it was developing a mental health education program.

Ms Bennet hoped the program, Mental Health Guru, would be made mandatory.

“I would equate it to . . . online sexual harassment training. When you first join an organisation, you have to do that training. Our hope is that organisations make this brief training mandatory for everyone who joins and even as a refresher each year for everyone else,” Ms Bennet said.

“What we’re doing is educating the whole workforce on what to do if you have developed a mental health problem, how to decrease stigma.”

Ms Bennet agreed there were huge incentives for organisations to educate staff.

“It’s really likely that if we as an individual don’t develop a mental health problem, that someone very close to us will,” Ms Bennet said.

“So by understanding more about what to do if you do develop a mental health condition or how to help someone else appropriately it means that as an organisation we can reduce the impact of mental health problems.

“For organisations, there are huge productivity losses associated with mental health problems, so there’s actually a very significant economic argument for businesses to instigate workplace training.”

This article first appeared on ‘Sydney Morning Herald’ on 28 September 2015.

The Medicare safety net provides additional Medicare benefits to help people pay for out-of-hospital doctor visits and tests, including psychiatry and radiotherapy services, ultrasounds and X-rays after they reach certain thresholds of appointments.

The Turnbull government hopes to save $270 million by reducing the Medicare rebate for some services under plans contained in this year’s budget, which are planned to take effect next January.

Dr Paul Foulkes, spokesman of the Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy Association of Australasia, said the changes will raise the out-of-pocket cost from about $30 to $107 a session.

“This is not affordable for most people, let alone people on welfare or low-income holders,” Dr Foulkes said.

This would contradict the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse’s recommendations last week that survivors should receive unlimited psychological treatment throughout their lives.

Child abuse survivors suffered severe psychological problems including chronic depression, post-traumatic stress disorder and anxiety, Dr Foulkes said.

They had difficulties maintaining family and work relationships and often required twice-weekly psychiatric treatment for a number of years: “Without it, either their progress will be stalled or, more likely, they will go backward and have a return of symptoms such as … suicidality and self-harm.”

Louise Roufeil, the Australian Psychology Society’s professional practice manager, said psychologists were concerned patients would have to wait longer to reach the safety net “and when they get there it will provide reduced benefits”.

Patients with chronic conditions, who were more resistant to treatment, were most likely to be affected by the changes, which would move treatment into a “user-pays system”.

People can currently attend up to 10 counselling sessions if they are referred by a GP, but this was often not long enough to treat to such severe conditions, she said.

“[Psychologists will] often spread them out across the year which isn’t ideal … some will reduce their fees, some provide pro bono services or the client pays.”

The royal commission recommended in its report this week a $4.01 billion redress scheme for about 60,000 survivors. The government should remove any restrictions on the number of counselling sessions for survivors under the scheme and expand the range of Medicare-funded psychological services, it said.

Adults abused as children had a higher risk of mental health problems compared with the community as a whole, it said in a report. “Some survivors require intensive psychiatric care, sometimes throughout their lives, including in inpatient mental health facilities.”

Health Minister Sussan Ley said the budget measure aimed to make the current system “easier to access and understand” for patients.

“The current system is overly complex and this measures aims to ensure more people can access the protections of the safety net sooner if they get sick,” she said.

She would not be drawn on when legislation on the changes would be introduced, saying consultations with patients and health professionals were continuing.

This article first appeared on ‘Sydney Morning Herald’ on 20 September 2015.