Workshop this week to kick start a much-needed network of support, aimed at getting parishes to help those suffering form mental illness
By Anthony Barich
TOODYAY Parish is on the verge of establishing a historic mental health support network after years of appeals from the area that currently has few support structures in place.
A 5 August workshop at St John the Baptist Catholic parish hall on Stirling Terrace, Toodyay was planned to establish a steering committee to find a parish-based way to support people with mental health issues, their families and carers in the community.
Barbara Harris, director of the Emmanuel Centre – the Archdiocesan self-help agency run by and for people with disabilities, their families, carers and those with whom they work – will facilitate the 5 August workshop, titled “Introduction to taking control of your life”.
The workshop is the Emmanuel Centre’s response to over a decade of calls from the Northam-Toodyay area asking for practical help with mental health issues to which, until now, the Centre has only been able to provide over-the-phone help.
“Calls have been coming in from people in outer regions, particularly in the Northam-Toodyay area, and all we’ve been able to offer is a listening ear,” said Ms Harris, who has spent countless hours on the phone advising people in the Toodyay-Northam area who are up to 90 minutes drive away.
This changed once the Toodyay Parish Council, through its member Gina Gulbransen, made a commitment to help Emmanuel, together with the support of the Toodyay-based Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate.
“So we’re biting the bullet and having this meeting,” Ms Harris told The Record. People from a 50km radius are invited to the workshop which Emmanuel has successfully run in the metropolitan area in a number of parishes.
Steering committees set up from such workshops in the past have assessed training needs for those at the workshop who want to be on a steering committee, how often they like to meet (usually monthly), the purpose of the group, and where the meetings will be held.
“The most crying out need we find is there’s this isolation … that you not only have an issue to deal with but you feel so alone in it – that’s whether you’re a carer or a person with a mental health issue. The general rule is that people with mental health issues are shunned by those in the community who don’t know how to deal with them, they keep away,” Ms Harris said.
“If you’re caring for somebody, there’s a whole lot of embarrassment and coping mechanisms that keep you from integrating or even mixing with other people, which may also stem from the way people don’t understand people with mental health issues.”
This is the case in the metropolitan and rural regions, she added.
The outcome of the workshop would take the form of a network, with a particular focus on a common understanding and Catholic belief system, though it is open to supporting non-Catholics.
It will focus on two “unique” facts: that there are people in the community who have mental health issues and those who care for them, and that the support network stems from the Christian faith.
It is hoped that this venture will become a permanent opportunity to provide much needed support particularly to Catholic people with mental health issues as well as their families, friends and supporters. Seven similar mental health support and well being groups already exist in the Archdiocese of Perth in Clarkson, Whitford, Morley, Bateman, Northbridge, Kelmscott and Lesmurdie, though each are different in how they address local needs.