President's Report: August 2005

Hornsby Ku-ring-Gai Assoc. Inc.

ACTION FOR MENTAL HEALTH

We have experienced a good year to date since re-election last November, 2004.

In this first half year, we have seen HKA membership increase by 20%. This is in no small measure to the work, devotion and commitment of a handful of dedicated volunteers, are not often enough celebrated but nevertheless greatly appreciated committee, who work tirelessly in spite of their own difficulties, to spread the word of mental illness and what services HKA Inc. can provide, not only to those in our locality, but further abroad, as far North as the Hawkesbury; as far South as Sydney's Lower North Shore and as far West as Penrith / Quaker's Hill.

This only goes to show what a crying demand there is for both Carer and Consumer support. As you are already aware, HKA Inc. provides a 24 hour telephone information and support line, which receives countless calls from distraught Carers, not knowing where to turn for help.

Many of them have struggled on for years, unaware of how help can be obtained, often struggling with consumers suffering from psychosis, sometimes episodic, sometimes drug induced. The scientists have not yet decided which comes first - the 'chicken or the egg?" Are the consumers self-medicating because when doing so drugs relieve their escalating and frequently undiagnosed symptoms, or do the drugs themselves precipitate mental illness? As we know, the jury is out but all indications to date are that it can often be a bit of both.

In her address to HKA Inc. on Tuesday 10 May this year, the newly appointed and very vital Gladys Berejiklian indicated that our present funding does not adequately deal with this very question; that there is indeed a bias towards mental health issues over and above funding allocated to address drug-related psychosis. This is a real tragedy, and on that same night, we heard of one such tragedy from a grieving mother who had herself lost her beloved daughter because she had fallen between these two separate categories.

That the Shadow Minister for Mental Health is now aware of this very real tragedy occurring weekly if not daily in our present society is not in small measure due to the efforts and advocacy of our present local Member, Judy Hopwood, MP and the tireless effort Judy has made on behalf of mental health issues with her regular representations to Parliament.

Judy Hopwood herself, in fact, was jointly responsible for setting up the Parliamentary Friends of the Mentally Ill, along with David Barr, MP, Dr. Arthur Chesterfield Evans and other parliamentarians.

We are deeply grateful to Judy Hopwood for her ongoing commitment and support.

As observed by Gladys Berejiklian on 10.5.05, NGO's in NSW such as the HKA do not receive nearly enough funding, in fact they receive less than other States. which is a travesty and an injustice.

Were it not for local financial support from such agencies as our local Borough Councils and other Grants which we periodically receive, we would not be able to continue to provide the current level of services to local Carers and Consumers.

HKA Inc. currently represents over 150 families and distributes its Newsletter to over 210 locations, including politicians, Health Services, Hospitals, Health Workers, Doctors and others with whom we work in collaboration to improve the outcome for our Consumers and to assist their Carers as co-facilitating such programs as the 8 week Well Ways course, running currently so successfully at WRS, Wahroonga, by Schizophrenia Fellowship NSW and in conjunction with HKA Inc.

This is an intensive, information filled eight week three hour a week course, aimed to equip Carers to better assist their Consumers. The charge to Carers is subsidised at a cost of no more than $9 per session; the actual cost of materials would be much higher, but research indicates that the better informed the Carer, the better the prognosis for the Consumer.

We are extremely grateful for those who do support the work of HKA Inc., both through their membership fees (up until last month, $2 a year for disability pensioners, $10 for single members and $15 per year for families) and for the Grants and Awards we continue to receive annually from both Hornsby and Ku-ring-Gai Councils in recognition of the valuable work performed by our Association.

Over the last five years Nick Baines our Vice President, Brian Brooker our Treasurer and myself have been working towards the provision of additional housing in conjunction with Schizophrenia Fellowship, New South Wales  (SF NSW) and the Office of Community Housing and we are pleased to be able to announce that these units are now to be built, what we hope will be the prototype of Iow-support accommodation for our Consumers, in 2007.

Together, the HKA Committee continues to work with the MHCC (Mental Health Co-ordinating Council), ARAFMI (Association for Relatives and Friends of the Mentally Ill), SF NSW, Vivienne Munro from the Carer Network, Ryde Mental Health, our local councils of Ku-ring-Gai (and Mayor Adrienne Ryan) and Hornsby (Mayor Nick Berman), our local politicians, Judy Hopwood, Andrew Tink, Brendon Nelson and Phillip Ruddock and our local rehabilitation services at WRS (Wahroonga Rehabilitation Services at the Cottage in the Park, Wahroonga, Jenny Kemp, Co-ordinator) to work for better outcomes in mental health.

We continue to provide regular financial support to the Cottage in the Park rehabilitative services and continue to liaise through regular meetings with our local hospital, the Director of Mental Health there, Declan O'Riordan and Deputy Director, Maureen Fechter together with our Consumer Co-ordinator, Liz Stewart and Consumer Advocate, Peter Bennett to work towards improving mental health services in our local area, in addition to providing financial support in fund-raising at the hospital Spring Fair and this year in contributing towards air-conditioning at WRS.

Dawn and Brian Brooker regularly put in hours of work with our most important news letter and we are extremely grateful to them; also to Joan Baty who religiously takes them all to the post office to be mailed. Thank you so much. Also thanks to Joan and Jim Johnson who have for so long provided meals for our consumers at the Cottage in the Park. A very big Thank You! This service is now to be continued by our consumers themselves.

We do attend global, national and local conferences and symposiums to keep up to speed with latest developments in the mental health arena, as well as ploughing through mountains of Area Mental Health literature and recent books regarding mental health, and stock the best of these in our HKA library for consumer and carer borrowing and use. Liz Clarke, our HKA Librarian has done a magnificent job of sorting and cataloging our library kept at WRS.

HKA is an extremely vital local support and advocacy service. Its autonomy gives it an ability to freely voice any concerns it has in the area of mental health and this has been a huge strength of our organization.

Please continue to support us through attendances at our monthly meetings and through your valued membership and input, which keeps our service vital and relevant.

Thank you all, both members and Committee members for your continued and valuable support, and to our Grant providers and local Councils, without whose support we could achieve so much less, and to our dedicated hospital and WRS staff.

Blessings to all for the coming year.

Jane Woodall BA (Syd)

President