S2 E5: Indigenous Mental Health

[Music] I'm lucky that you know I've had some fantastic memories with sport and traveling around the world and the work that I do now and the kids obviously, but I've never done understand that the most vivid and daunting family that I have, I've never been that I lived through every single day is the day that I attempted my life. That was by far the worst, most terrific, the most emotionally painful day that I've ever been to in my entire life. So I really lived that every day to things that I again, I'll put into my life that helped me a blue pastor. [Music] Welcome to Let's Talk, a podcast about mental health in rural and regional Australia. My name is Kaya Handling, I'm a journalist and I've had my own lived experience with mental health. In this episode we're focusing on the mental health of Indigenous Australians. The statistics around the mental health of Indigenous Australians are alarming. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, Indigenous Suicide Rates are twice the national average and there are higher rates of depression and anxiety. At the start of this episode you heard some of Joe Williams's mental health story. He's a waradry man, a national rugby league player, boxer and now an advocate for Indigenous mental health. But at the peak of his football career, well it looks like he had it all behind the scenes Joe was struggling. Call it a poker face call wherever you want. I hid my behaviours a hell of a lot for a lot of years and the thing is with me, I struggled with an internal dialogue. So pretty much a conversation in my head that told me to take my life every day since I was about 13. Every single day I've battled with this rights around my life and people don't know that. They just look at the mental illness tag or the label and then they look at yeah well he's successful so I must have affected him but my behaviours was other people obviously telling differently where I just sort of was an old-fashioned life. I was extremely erratic, I was up and down and what happened with that is that I used substance for a hell of a long time to try and quiet down what it was going on in my head. But also trying to try and to band-aid those behaviours that will happen. Now I've put certain practices into my life that have helped enable me to live and function just like anyone else. I struggled behind the cause because there was a lot and then still to this day. It feels cliché to say Joe Williams diagnosis and recovery was a journey but it's been a slow and hard process to get him to where he is today as an Indigenous mental health advocate and it started with understanding his inner monologue was not healthy and could be changed. Mom was an extremely negative one that second guest and questioned every decision and every conversation that I have with people. I struggled with a huge paranoia that everyone is against me and talking about me and think negatively about me and that's the dialogue I've had ever since I was a kid. I had to go through a hell of a lot of unfortunate stuff. My addictions and everything that came with it, I'm going to realise that one I struggled with addiction but that too once I took the addictive process away I was struggling with something even even deeper. You know when I was diagnosed with a mental illness in 2009 I was diagnosed with bipolar disorder. This is something Phil Nadens sees every day in his work as the CEO of the Billamulji Aboriginal Health Service in Indigenous people reaching out for help with their mental health because of a whole range of reasons. Some of the issues within a lot of our regional Aboriginal medical services differ and historically dealing with a lot of the historical and intergenerational trauma. There's issues around a lot of that internal and suffering from colonisation but people do still experience some of the experiences of intergenerational trauma which is history passed down through generations. But then more so you have some of the more clinical issues that some of our Aboriginal medical services deal with around psychosis and severe mental illnesses. I think what we should be conscious of the fact is that mental illness in whatever aspect it is whether it's mild, meaty, more severe, is always classified as mental illness and we should treat every case by case different but more so recognising that there are the underlying issues of what we're talking about and to try and address those issues. Phil says while there are some mental health concerns like technology, addiction and isolation that can put strain on anyone's mental health these can be compounded for Indigenous Australians because of intergenerational trauma. If you look at from an Indigenous perspective there there are some people that are still confronted with racism, isolation, depression in different locations around different areas and I think that impacts a lot more of them those individuals in different areas and always everyone's going to a difficult story so in some areas that might be not as prevalent however that does impact individuals in different ways. So what role does culture need to play in mental health services for Indigenous Australians? Dusty Budden says culture is identity and without it you cannot be mentally healthy. Well there's your identity you don't know what your culture is and I see a lot of young males who don't know who their identity or you know what their tribal nation is where they come from because of their might be social issues within their family and also you think about the older generations their mental wellbeing you get the stolen generations which is impacted on their identity and people know that their Aboriginal descent and they don't know their identity they don't know how to express themselves and learn about their culture. But culture is complex because as Phil Nadin explains it's a loss of culture that has led to higher rates of mental health for Indigenous Australians. To meet culture is family which is kinship your traditional language, your language and also your identity and through early colonisation those four things will take away from Aboriginal people so I think it's how you want to perceive what culture is but if it's that definition of culture that is impacted on what you've done and particularly through intergenerational trauma it's been taken away from you that they're in fact you long term through trying to deal with your identity and it if you are. For Joe Williams learning about his warradry heritage connecting with his culture was one of the things that saved him. It's been my biggest deal without that and it was about a re-connexion no I've always wanted I've been from it. I've been connected with it a lot because let's not forget that a lot of the practice of being an Aboriginal person, a lot of the talk of being Aboriginal persons was all taken away from us. We were allowed to do it talk about it. You know that flow on effect has happened still with our people today. So now we're at a point in our lives where culture is alive, culture is prominent in communities it's spoken about people wear it proudly. Yeah there's still an hell of a lot of racial discrimination but you know for me connecting to those old values of what those old people used to live with is the thing that keeps me alive and well. So how can we include culture in mental health services? Beyond training Indigenous medical practitioners to talk about and help treat mental illness, Dossie Button has a few ideas. Linking people to cultural events part of their recovery process and getting to know other people in the community are working in a program up here the no-durry for this Māori program and part of the quick line service have got Indigenous Councillors you know and that makes people feel a bit more comfortable when they're accessing that service so they know that the people on the end of the poem is going to understand any of their culture and you know some of the issues, social issues that's been associated in their lives. And we are seeing improvements. Phil Nadin says stigma is being broken down and Indigenous Australians are seeking help for themselves and for others. Not having that stigma attached to telling people that there's something actually wrong with you. They might be suffering from an illness whether it be depression or suicidal ideation or you know through to psychosis so I think it's been consciously aware that everyone does experience some mental health capacity in some area of their life and there's always an option there to talk to people about it and we encourage people to talk people about we encourage people to access you in our general practice or even an Aboriginal medical service where we work in that space and really encourage them to seek the support that they need to. But more can be done and people are working hard to drop the suicide and mental health rate for Indigenous Australians. Duffy Button says improvement starts with social inclusion and the involvement of elders. Go back to more cultural stuff and get more elders in our community and people who do cultural stuff in the community to involve that in part of some of the programs and also some of the client services that are in our community to help with recovery. Phil Nadin wants everyone Indigenous or not to understand that help is available. I think it's about recognising and acknowledging that everyone's different but more so that everyone needs help and that everyone out there shouldn't tell isolated him what they're trying to help themselves with or help a friend with or a family member and get him onto a right correct referral pathway whereas they can access services out in the bush or in regional communities or urban and make sure that they get in the right support that they need at the right time. These days, Jo Williams dedicates his life to sharing his story and supporting other. Indigenous Australians, especially young men, understand their mental health and get help early. His message is simple. Look out for yourself, look out for others, and live by these five key values for a healthy and happy life. It's about living a way of life with a value of mine. I live with five key, simple values in my life. That's love, care, respect, humility and compassion. And you know, that's exactly what I'll put this link with. We lived with love and respect for each other. There was no hierarchy. We all sat around in the circle and we worked out problems. Why are all people who never have pubg in the suicides because we're always together? We lived in the community, we weren't isolated with things like social media and pulling away from our families. We always worked together and helped out each other. You've been listening to Let's Talk, a podcast about mental health in rural and regional Australia. If you or someone you know needs help, there are so many places where you can help. If you need someone to talk to, you can call the new South Wales Mental Health Line on 1-800-0-1-5-1. All lifeline on 13-11-14. You can also access a heap of information on the Centre for Rural and Remote Mental Health's website at www.crmh.com.au.