By Shaun Inguanzo
GREATER Dandenong residents caring for mentally ill relatives are sacrificing their life’s dreams and aspirations because they can not find enough respite care in Melbourne’s south east.
To combat the problem Star News Group and Dandenong’s Eastern Regions Mental Health Association (ERMHA) are this week kicking-off their Stop the Stigma campaign.
Stop the Stigma is designed to shatter the myths and negative community attitudes that experts say are stopping the Federal and State Governments from pumping more funds into mental health.
The Mental Health Foundation of Australia’s Victorian chairman Professor Graham Burrows said families and carers of the mentally ill had “massive burdens” placed on their lives.
Dandenong man Jim Demetriou cares for his wife Irene. who suffers bipolar disorder, and his five-month-old son Arthur, who was diagnosed with cerebral palsy, while struggling to maintain his music teaching business.
Mr Demetriou said out of the 168 hours in each week the family was lucky to receive 10 hours of care from a variety of local services.
“If we had more respite hours each week then Irene could study and I could do more work and be less dependent on the Government for an income,” he said.
ERMHA chief executive Peter Waters told Star in July that the association’s health workers could only see up to 500 of the south east’s 12,000 severely mentally ill people each year because of a lack of funding.
Professor Burrows said mental health funding was at the highest it had ever been, but because governments were playing catch-up, the level of funding was relatively lower than other streams of health.
“We believe there is a need for far more commitment for mental health, particularly for carers and consumers,” he said.
“It poses massive burdens on families at times in that they are often taking over the care of patients who 20 to 30 years ago had been in hospitals.
“I’m not in favour of returning to hospitals, but I am concerned about the lack of resources that have really gone into the community and to families for the support they require.”
Professor Burrows said the first step to encouraging politicians to pump more resources in to mental health was to change community attitudes towards illnesses.
“People have stigmatised those with disorders and their families, and the stigma is involved in such things as getting an insurance policy,” he said.
“In many cases if you fill out a form saying you have had a mental disorder, you won’t get an insurance policy.”
On Wednesday, 11 October, during Mental Health Week, ERMHA and Mental Illness Doesn’t Discriminate What About You (MIDDWAY) will hold their annual community walk and festival in Dandenong to raise mental health awareness.
Comedian Peter Rowsthorn will lead a list of guest speakers who are joining in the festivities and the whole community is invited to attend.
Turn to page 13 for more about the Demetrious’ plight.
