The Growing Realization

Howard's attitude towards the mentally ill: "We always thought of it as just weakness." is reflected throughout Australian society.
"Let them eat cake!" - Marie Antoinnette

Part of the garbled and rushed legislation takes effect this week, in fact, partially subsidized by state governments also startled into action.

Australians with mental health problems will be able to access help at a lower cost when new Medicare rebates come into effect on Wednesday.

Patients can claim up to 12 psychological consultations each year on referral from their GP, who must review them after the first six sessions.

The program covers a range of psychological conditions including anxiety, depression, eating disorders, attention deficit disorder and schizophrenia.

About 35,000 consultations each year are expected under the program.

The five-year, $538 million plan - unveiled earlier this month - is the first instalment of the federal government's $1.9 billion commitment announced in April as part of the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) mental health package.

The package also includes new training places for mental health nurses and clinical psychologists, 900 new personal helpers and mentors ...

A remarkable plan! A first for the Australian nation! New vision!
Ted Baillieu, Liberal candidate for Premier in Victoria, even mentioned mental illness as one of the areas the present Labor government had neglected. (Steve Bracks spent all his space in today's Herald Sun telling everyone how nice he is...)

Jason Bond suffered from a depressive illness. He was 20 years old when he killed himself after being discharged from a Melbourne hospital. Here, Graeme Bond recalls the events leading up to his son's death, a death which he blames partly on the poor state of mental health care in Victoria.

Now who is going to tell these men and women that you can't solve problems like this by just throwing money at them? It takes leadership by example, and understanding.
The sort of thing that is not reflected in the advertisements for feminists' White Ribbon Day.

A MACABRE television advertisement that depicts a father harming himself and committing suicide has been condemned as grossly disturbing.

The campaign, which also includes print and radio ads, was created by agency Saatchi and Saatchi for White Ribbon Day — the United Nations' International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women on November 25.

The television ad shows a man abandoning his young daughter to step in front of a bus, swim in shark-infested waters, crawl over broken glass and have his arm amputated.

One of the accompanying print ads has the headline "self-amputation seminar" and shows a bloody knife, saying in small print below that men prepared to give their right arm for their daughters should start by wearing a white ribbon.

Mental-health charity SANE Australia executive director Barbara Hocking described the campaign as "grossly disturbing". She was particularly alarmed by a link on the White Ribbon Day website that allows people to "show their support" for the cause by emailing a grisly image of an amputated arm, with their name attached, to friends and family. "It is sick, it's not helping the cause in any way," Ms Hocking said. "It is indefensible. The ambassadors haven't a clue what is going on in their name."

UNIFEM (United Nations Development Fund for Women) Australia executive officer Louisa Graham said she made no apologies for the attention-grabbing campaign. "(It's about capturing) the viewer at home that is completely inundated with media messages, to get them to actually pay attention to this issue," she said.

But Ms Hocking said those behind the national advertising campaign had "completely lost sight of the issue". She said the television ad's graphic depiction of a man walking in front of a bus, and voluntarily harming himself in other ways, placed vulnerable people at risk.

First the organizers of White Ribbon Day had Chopper Reid as their spokesperson on national TV, and now an aggrandizement of self mutilation in front of children? I think these folks are letting too much of their dirty laundry -- the ongoing hate campaign against males -- show.

And what shows ain't purty... about White Ribbon Day in particular, and what is un-Australian. Or is it?