Community campaigners move mountains to help Border's suicide prevention efforts

When someone is lost in the wilderness of mental illness, often there is nothing so steep and treacherous as the path to treatment and wellness.

Too many do not survive the journey.

Across the Border and North East, brave foot soldiers are making advances in the fight to find a smoother, safer track through this country's embattled mental health system.

Many have watched helplessly, wringing their hands in fear and frustration, as a friend or loved one fell down the slippery slope of an inadequate system ... over and over again.

Others have wept silently, weighed down by stigma and shame, with their stories hidden in darkness and despair.

Still others have ranted and raged with fury at the injustice of lives taken too soon.

Now they are quite literally pounding the pavement - and the doors of politicians and policy makers - demanding change.

They are the community campaigners on a mission to stamp out the stigma of suicide and mental illness, and to raise the standard of care in our health system.

Take Beechworth's Lisa Cartledge; she is walking and talking out her grief after losing husband Sean to suicide in 2014.

Last year she set off on a 700-kilometre walk from Beechworth to Sydney Harbour Bridge (where Sean proposed to her) to engage with communities and start those hard conversations about the elephant in the room.

The aim of the inaugural B2B event, as it has now been dubbed, was to "set that bastard free" - so that her three children did not have to hide their grief behind shame.

This year, she rallied communities closer to home with a three-day walk from Beechworth to Bright from March 28 to 30.

And, even in the pouring rain they came, ponchos at the ready and hearts warm with hope and healing.

"It blew me away," Lisa says, reflecting on the event's success and the number of people who turned out to walk with her.

"What amazed me is that so many people have a story (of suicide) but they keep it locked away ...

"People wanted to share their stories - I think we created a safe space to walk and talk.

"I am convinced we are chipping away at the stigma - it's baby steps but it's progress."

Take Albury's Annette and Stuart Baker; fearless and ferocious in their determination to shine a light in the darkness after their beloved daughter Mary took her life at 15 years of age.

They founded the annual Winter Solstice for Survivors of Suicide to provide solace to those in the community who have been affected by suicide or mental illness.

The event, now in its seventh year, offers enlightenment, empathy and entertainment at Albury's civic square as the longest night of the year draws to a close.

In 2019, the line-up of guest speakers includes domestic violence prevention advocate Rosie Batty and R U OK Day ambassador Commando Steve.

The popular Albury-Wodonga Big Splash, a flow-on grassroots gathering with waves of appeal, has become the critical fundraiser for the solstice event on June 21.

From the pool to parliament, the Bakers have taken their campaign to the national stage and now sit on the board of advocacy body Australians For Mental Health with renowned youth mental health expert Professor Patrick McGorry.

AFMH describes its role as "a people's movement fighting to fix the broken system". 

"We are the four million Australians with mental ill-health, their family, and friends.

"Every day eight Australians take their life."

AFMH is demanding a new national mental health culture and architecture that delivers timely, quality care.

Tireless community campaigning helped deliver a headspace centre to the Border and recently saw the announcement of $15 million in urgently needed funding for specialist mental health services in Albury-Wodonga.

The march is gathering momentum.

Suicide Prevention Australia says that at last suicide prevention received the attention it deserves in this Federal Budget.

It welcomed a $461 million investment in youth mental health and suicide prevention strategy.

CEO Nieves Murray says the appointment of a Suicide Prevention Special Adviser within the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet is "a major step forward".

"A whole-of-government approach to suicide prevention is aligned with our national policy platform," she says.

"Global evidence shows a fragmented and mental illness-specific approach doesn't work.

"An integrated approach to suicide prevention encompassing mental health, social, economic and community is the best evidence-based solution."

The annual number of deaths by suicide has increased in two decades.

This week the royal commission into the way Victoria helps people with mental illness began community consultation sessions.

It will inevitably expose the gaps in a system that lets people spiral into crisis - then can't cope with the results.

Victoria has the dubious honour of spending the least per person on mental health in the country.

"And a shortage of community mental health services means more people in crisis are resorting to showing up at hospital emergency departments," Fairfax has reported.

"The consequences can be devastating."

Professor McGorry says community mental health has been completely overwhelmed "so there is virtually nothing between a GP and emergency".

And people have to become really sick to get treated in the public sector.

"If someone has a breast lump or a similar early warning sign, for example, they are fast-tracked into more specialist proactive care," Professor McGorry says.

"But in mental health you have to prove you are in a life-threatening condition."

For Lisa, Annette and Stuart the proof came too late.

They are unwavering in their determination to change the outcomes for other stricken families.

One step at a time they are moving the mountain and they won't rest until a path in the darkness is cleared.

Too many lives depend on it.