By LACHLAN MOORHEAD
AFTER a mental breakdown which saw him lose his house and his job, Bruce Austin is putting his life back together.
Two and a half years after the catatonic episode, Bruce is excited to again be helping the YMCA Casey Arc management team co-ordinate a free mental health and wellness evening this month, following last year’s successful seminar.
The Berwick father-of-four said his volunteering with Casey Arc continues to improve his health.
“It’s all helped me a lot… it gets my eyes off myself. You get to talk to people and just help them,” he said.
“I want to get rid of the stigma attached to mental health. It still has this stigma when it comes to talking about it openly and we need to dismantle that.”
The 53-year-old is familiar with this stigma. It was April 2010 when Bruce suffered his breakdown after working himself into the ground while running his own business.
“I was working too much and basically ran myself dry. At first the doctors thought it was a heart attack but it turned out to be a catatonic episode,” Bruce said.
“It was like the main switch in my head turned off. I ignored the warning signs. I was feeling tired all the time and eventually it catches up with you.”
After being taken to Monash Hospital and then daily monitoring from the Casey Crisis Analysis Team (CAT), Bruce now sees a psychologist and psychiatrist once a month while volunteering part time at Casey Arc.
“I was told to do 40 minutes of exercise a day, so I went to Casey Arc because my wife already went there,” Bruce said.
“Then the next step was to get involved with some volunteering work and I started doing it at Casey Arc. I helped lead an all-abilities walking group every Thursday and then last year helped run the Mental Health Evening.”
Following a discussion with Casey Arc Manager Chris Hargreaves during which Bruce told his story, it was decided that others needed to hear it too.
And this year Bruce is excited to have Beyond Blue on board, with one of their representatives speaking at the event.
“Chris said it would be really good to get the message out there because then we could help more people,” Bruce said.
Bruce said mental health services in Casey are being overwhelmed and saw an opportunity to have an impact on others who are heading for a breakdown, going through recovery, or wanting to prevent mental illness, but may not know where to turn.
Keynote speakers at the free event, which will cater for up to 70 people, include Dr Monica O’Kelly – Director of CBT Australia and a Senior Lecturer of Psychology at Monash University, a Beyond Blue representative, Casey ARC staff and Bruce himself.
“We’re just scratching the tip of the iceberg here but you do what you can do,” Bruce said.
“If we can help one person, then that’s worthwhile.”
The mental health and wellness evening will be held from 7pm on Thursday 21 November at Casey Arc in Narre Warren and registration is essential for the free event.
Anyone interested can register online at http://www.caseyarc.ymca.org.au.
