Category Archives: Mental health

Domestic Violence

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36.8 % of homelessness in Australia (as documented by Homelessness Australia with data from the AIHW Specialist homelessness services data collection 2012-13) is caused by domestic and family violence.  This is the most common cause.

Since February this year in just Melbourne alone, there have been 3 high profile cases of domestic violence leading to murder (Luke Batty, a women stabbed to death in Sunshine and 2 sisters murdered).  These tragic events serve as an alarm siren for us in Australia to bring about change.   

The Age, are calling it the Family Violence epidemic, and  Fiona McCormack, the head of Domestic Violence Victoria, said more needed to be done for at-risk women and children.

“If women and children were being abused and murdered by strangers at the rate at which they’re being abused and murdered by men in their family, there’d be taskforce, there’d be funding, there’d be political will”

The Lookout is a great place to go, for more info, help and support with this issue.  

Lets talk about this issue and bring some light into this dark hidden place in Australian family life.  

Salvation Army Homelessness Report

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The Salvation Army just released a report on their recent research into homeless in Australia. The study found the following:

  •   155 Salvation Army homelessness services operate across Australia.
  •  More than 310,000 accommodation days were provided between 1 July 2012 and 31 December 2012
  •  53% of women accessing Salvation Army SHS women’s services identified domestic and family violence as their main presenting issue.
  • 44% of clients accessing Salvation Army SHS services identified housing affordability or housing crisis as their main presenting issue.
  • One in five (20%) of clients accessing Salvation Army SHS services who provided information on their mental health have been diagnosed with a mental health issue.
  • One out of every eight clients who accesses all Specialist Homelessness Services (SHS) in Australia accesses a Salvation Army service.
  • 17% of Salvation Army clients identified financial difficulty as their main presenting issue.
  • 25% of clients accessing Salvation Army homelessness services have been homeless for more than six months.
  • Over 80% of Salvation Army SHS clients identified government support payments as their main source of income.

No one will help me.

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A man walked into my office last week.  Dirty, smelly and looking sad.  He asked if someone could help him find somewhere to stay.  
I made a phone call to our main office to see if I could find someone who was available to chat with this man.

(Why didn’t I help him?  To be honest I didn’t really know where to start, and I knew that someone else at Urban Seed would know what to do.  As my main task is education about homelessness to school kids, I don’t know much about on the ground work).

It was going to be awhile till someone could chat to him.  He started to cry and said, that “no one wants to help you when you’re homeless.  Look at me, I’m dirty.  I can’t even get clean clothes.  I’ve tried to kill myself…” he said, showing me his wrist.  He continued, “I’ve been in hospital and they don’t wont to help me, they just kick you out. No one will help me.”

I’m not sure I dealt with this man the best I could.  I was a bit taken a back.  It was confronting and I felt helpless.  I also felt a little unsure of the situation, as it was just me and him alone in my office.

I asked if he knew where Credo was? If he went over there someone would be able to help him, and he could get some food.  He said he couldn’t walk and could hardly breathe.  I asked if he wanted to sit down on our couches and have a rest and he said “no, no I can’t.  I can’t breathe.”

I made another call back to our main office to see if someone could come over and chat with him.  He was clearly distressed and not able to go over there.  Stu – one of our residents, would be over soon.

I told him, “Someone will be here soon, with some food and they will be able to help you.”

He continued to get worked up and say no one wanted to help. “I’ve been sleeping in a stair well and in a building site.  Look me!…” Eventually he said “I’m going for a walk I’ll come back.”  And then he just disappeared out into the cold wet Melbourne spring day.

He left as I was meeting some students who wanted to interview me about the work Urban Seed does.  A few mins later Stu showed up, with some food ready to help.  But the man was gone. Stu left the food.  And we agreed I’d call Stu if he came back.

Half way through the interview I was doing with the students we saw him walk past.  I ran out to see if I could get him to stop, but by the time I got to the door he was half way up the street and holing a 4 pack of Jack Daniels and coke.  Could you blame him?  It was raining.  He was covered in mud.  He was in pain.  Distressed, upset and just wanted someone to help him.  Jack seemed to be the only one willing to.

At this point I’d written off ever seeing him again.  And was wondering if I and what I could have done to help.

Half an hour later he appeared.  I promptly gave him the food – spaghetti carbonara.  And took him to our couches and said “you have a rest here, and I’ll call Stu to come and have a chat with you.”

He ate a few mouthfuls of the spaghetti carbonara.  And then said he can’t eat, “I can’t breathe properly.  I’ve been coughing up blood.  I’ve got lung cancer.  Do you think I’ve got lung cancer?” He then asked if I could turn the lights out so he could sleep, and then asked me to wake him at 3pm.  So I left him in the dark, and went back to work.

Stu showed up.  He chatted with the man, made some calls, and generally made the guy feel at ease.  I was impressed by his ability to chat with this man face to face and treat him just like a friend.

Stu was unable to find him anywhere to stay that night.  He found one place but the man was not willing to stay there.  He said it was full of drug users it made him feel unsafe.  It’s saying something when a man appears in your office in tears wanting help for somewhere to stay the night, but then turns down the only place available.  The rain and building site were a safer bedroom for him than the so called refuge.  

I went home that night (it was cold and wet) to my home, to my bed, TV, couch and nice things.  And I was thinking of this man and where he would go and what he would do.  The last thing he said to me was, “you are lucky you have a home.  You don’t know how lucky you are.”

Do you ever feel scared or uncomfortable in Credo?

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Credo Cafe is one of Urban Seed’s most special places. It’s where we share lunch with people from all walks of life and a place where we are all the same. Students often ask us questions about whether we feel safe in credo. Here is a response from Stephen Said.. but before that, here’s a little about Stephen (info from www.urbanseed.org)

Stephen Said, Residential & Community Engagement Co-ordinator

Stephen is a husband, a dad, and a foundation member of the Melbourne Heart Football Club. He works in the area of activism and social change as an educator, activist, speaker, writer and community development worker.  Stephen is particularly interested in radical spirituality, incarnational community and the dynamics of personal and social transformation and you can read more about this on his blog. He has helped many think about the nexus between the issues of justice, poverty, consumerism and discipleship in the context of popular global culture.

Question: Do you ever feel scared or uncomfortable in Credo?

Stephen: I often feel uncomfortable and scared. Often when I am close to someone who might be suffering some kind of mental illness, I feel both. It’s hard because I think about all those reports on the news about people with mental illnesses hurting or harming members of the public.

However, the longer I spend in Credo, I realise that not only have I never been threatened, but I have never seen someone threatened by a person with a mental illness in Credo.

If I keep thinking about it, I realise that a lot of my fears are based upon media reports that really are not very accurate at all. So these days, when I find myself feeling uncomfortable or afraid, I try to ask myself “Is the source of my fear/discomfort real, or something the media/broader pop culture taught me?”

It’s a hard discipline to practice, but when I do, it really helps me to actually be more open to the people who are around me, rather than being frightened by culturally constructed stereotypes.

Thanks for sharing Stephen!!

World Mental Health Day

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10 October 2012

World Mental Health Day raises public awareness about mental health issues. The day promotes open discussion of mental disorders, and investments in prevention, promotion and treatment services. This year the theme for the day is “Depression: A Global Crisis”.

Depression affects more than 350 million people of all ages, in all communities, and is a significant contributor to the global burden of disease. Although there are known effective treatments for depression, access to treatment is a problem in most countries and in some countries fewer than 10% of those who need it receive such treatment.

(source: The World Health Organisation)

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Fact: Not all homeless people are mentally ill

·       Mental illness – such as schizophrenia – tends to first occur when people are young, at a stage when people are completing education or starting a career.Mental illness can seriously disrupt this process and lead to unstable job and housing careers.

·       The majority of mentally ill people live in their own homes in the community and usually receive support from families and community health services.

·       A recent study has shown that only 30% of homeless respondents had mental health problems prior to becoming homeless.

·       There is evidence to suggest that being homeless impacts badly on people’s mental health – with 53% of homeless people in a recent study reporting that they developed mental health problems after becoming homeless.

 (Source: The Mercy Foundation ‘Myths about homelessness’ fact sheet)