Have You Checked In Yet?

From personal and professional experience, conducting a mental health check in for you, your family, your friends, and your staff/colleagues is critical. This is why you need to participate in Australia’s Biggest Mental Health Check In.

 As an Ambassador for Australia’s Biggest Mental Health Check In, I am urging everyone to use the next month to check in and make sure your mental health is supported. Launched during Mental Health Week, I am part of a broader contingent of prominent West Australian leaders who are getting behind the cause, recognising we all have our mental health and often a quick check in can help us make sure everything is in check.

Why am I so passionate about this cause? There are a number of reasons, both personal and professional.

From a professional perspective, at Vinnies, we see the impact of people experiencing a mental illness and the impact it has on their lives, people’s families, and our community. With having WA’s only three-tier recovery based mental health program we often see the impact of late diagnosis of a mental health condition but, more importantly, the important role that the community plays in the recovery process. We see the impact that the lack of early diagnosis and supports can have on people. With greater awareness and better early support processes, I believe that our mental services may need to be used less and am keen to participate in initiatives that support this approach.

As a CEO, I care about my people – our staff, volunteers and members. They do a brilliant job in the community under very trying circumstances. The vicarious trauma that they are impacted with is significant. We say that the mental wellness of our people is important. You can read all the cost implications on the Australian workforce and mine is no different but at a personal level I just want them to be ok. I want them to know it is ok to check in, to talk and to be supported by people who want them to be happy and succeed. Regular processes to check in are critical in what they do and there are others in the community, no matter what line of work they have, they also need to do the same.

And then there is me. When setting out to write this post I hadn’t envisaged I would include this part, but authenticity in leadership is critical and so I thought I can’t ask others to fully engage unless I fully disclose. I am about to share something that I often don’t. I have had a cousin commit suicide and see and hear the impact that has on his mum (my aunty) every time we talk. To make matters worse, my uncle (my mum’s brother and the brother of my aunty who lost her son) committed suicide about 3 years later. While I didn’t know my cousin well, I always knew my uncle as an easy-go-lucky guy with a great sense of humour. As a child I saw him as not having a care in the world. Obviously I was wrong. The impact this has had on my family that can never be changed and one that will always make our hearts ache. 

I am also a CEO of a wonderful organisation. With that comes a lot of stress, busyness and long hours. Now we facing the challenges of many others with funding becoming harder, donations in shorter supply and demand increasing – it is my job to make sure we can cope with that, all at a time we are building a new building to meet this increasing demand. This is exciting and daunting, with a capital campaign to help fund it difficult in the current climate. Outside of work I have a brother who has shut himself off from the family I am concerned about him, worried that he is struggling with depression, plus more with the pressures of raising children after divorce and more. All of this has an impact on me so I realise that checking in shouldn’t be just for other people - I also need to check in too.

How can you check in?  It is easy. From 10 October just visit www.mentalhealthcheckin.com and register, or talk to your boss and be part of your organisation’s involvement in the program. 

Of course, you can always just contact me and I will only too happy to help.