Jeff Kennett, Depression, Schizophrenia discussed on Conversations
Automatic TRANSCRIPT
Right through to a very severe psychotic schizophrenia owners. So beyond blue was really the first time. I suppose there was the opportunity to give profile to a specific type of mental health problem and that was depression which was one of the most common but also the most debilitating when you looked at the impacts across the society. Why jeff kennett. Who of course was the former victorian premier wide. He wanted to establish a organization specifically around depression. What a tree that well From what i understand it was Hey was still in government. At the time as the premier victoria and become aware of the fact that there was a high rates of traffic accidents. All you you've having road accidents. And when that was actually probed further it was identified that it wasn't actually traffic accidents are often suicides and it was at that point. He i think was insta- guided. Say whether he won or lost the election he wanted to do something about the the right of suicide so the advice was really to focus on. Suicide is too late when you really need to focus on what comes before that and that is usually depression so that was the reason for really setting up the organization really having a dedicated focus and giving the profile to depression in its own rosh as as a condition and getting the community to understand more about it rather than just this generic mental illness. Abc listen this is conversations subscribe to the conversations podcast more just into abc dot net slash conversations You.