Annette and Stuart Baker never wanted the mantle of becoming the face and the voice of this community’s suicide prevention campaign.
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But together with their sons, Jack and Henri, the Bakers refused to be swallowed up by the silence and stigma that shrouds suicide and mental ill-health after their beloved daughter Mary took her life at just 15.
They carry their crippling grief openly and unashamedly. To do otherwise would be to dishonour Mary’s memory and perpetuate the silence … and shame that haunts suicide in this society.
From the public funeral for Mary in Albury’s QEII Square to helping lead The Border Mail’s Ending the Silence campaign, which culminated in a headspace centre for Albury-Wodonga, the Bakers have worked to raise awareness of youth mental health and break down the stigma of suicide.
For the past three years they have almost single-handedly orchestrated the Winter Solstice for Survivors of Suicide community event. And they have fought, my god how they have fought, to get answers about why the system failed their beautiful, bright and yet troubled daughter.
In doing so, they have become beacons of hope in this community and beyond – not for triumphing over the darkness, but for surviving it.
It’s for these reasons world youth mental health leader Professor Patrick McGorry invited the Bakers to be on the taskforce for a new movement called Australians For Mental Health (AFMH).
Launched this week, AFMH is a community-driven campaign to empower Australians to lobby political parties to make mental health a priority ahead of the next federal election.
Mr Baker said Professor McGorry wanted involvement from the Border region because he recognised it as “one of the leading communities in Australia with regards understanding and reducing the stigma around mental ill health”.
The Bakers have travelled to Melbourne for meetings since June and have been humbled by the “diverse and exceptional” people they have met on the taskforce.
“They have all been impacted by mental ill health – either personally, as a carer or through the loss of a loved one or connections with mental health organisations,” Mr Baker said.
“Driving back to Albury after the first meeting Annette and I both felt it was a privilege to be involved.”
The Bakers’ willingness to speak up and take action on changing the mental health system have not been without great personal sacrifice.
But while suicide rates climb and the uneasy silence persists, these parents cannot rest knowing lives are being needlessly lost – that there are people sitting right beside us grappling demons alone in the darkness and suffering in silence.
We feel it is a privilege to be involved.
- Stuart Baker
