BEVYN Dempsey didn’t want to talk — he was a dairy farmer and farmers don’t talk.
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He was busy, working the land to support his wife and two kids.
He was tough, protecting his livelihood as best he could against the drought.
And farmers don’t talk, especially about feelings — because what good could that do?
So for the longest time, the 45-year-old dealt with his bi-polar disorder alone.
The stress of living through the drought on the family farm in Shepparton sparked more episodes — he watched as fellow farmers struggled through, being forced to shoot their calves, before some turned the gun on themselves.
His family made the decision to leave the farm and move to Wodonga, where Mr Dempsey focused on his recovery and picked himself back up.
And despite some reluctance at first, he found the peer support he received so valuable, it inspired him to become a consumer consultant with Albury Wodonga Health, in the hope he could help others through their own recovery.
“I was a bit of a sceptic at first,” he admits, stroking his beard thoughtfully.
“Then I saw what happened when people told their stories, and how they validated each other’s experiences.
“I’ve seen people grow, and I decided that’s the way to move forward.”
Peer-focused recovery — that is, encouraging people to share their stories, or training others with personal experience of mental illness to support others — is a worldwide trend, but is not widely incorporated into clinical mental health services in Australia.
The role is unique, Mr Dempsey says, in that it can encourage people who don’t want to talk to their doctors to open up to a peer — because they’ve been through the same situation, or heard the same voices, or been in the same hospital.
They can also provide some inspiration just be being there, living proof there is light at the end of it all.
Mr Dempsey, for example, had been hospitalised several times at the height of his illness; but today, he’s taking a third of his medication and, up until recently, ended up working alongside the very case worker who helped him in the first place.
“The literature exists that the role works — there should be four of us out at Watson Street,” he said.
Mr Dempsey resigned in May, sick of bureaucracy hindering, not helping.
He is disappointed for the people he regularly worked with but, “I knew a time would come when I would have to be with my peers and not be apologetic for a system that’s letting them down”.
