SPRING UPDATE 2019
Australian Rotary Health Districts of Australia
Research
Scholarships
Education
Awareness
Chairman’s Report Lift the Lid on Mental Illness Resonates It has been another year of positive responses to Lift the Lid; certainly at the many conferences, clubs and functions I have attended. Many Companion recognitions have been made to generous individuals by members of the Board. And from Bunnings, Caz Kerford, Community Gregory Ross Involvement Coordinator, wrote, ‘Bunnings will be happy to continue to support the great work Rotary does with Lift the Lid in 2019.’ Good luck to all Clubs in October, Mental Health Month. As one club member recently told me, ‘Lift the Lid gives us a focus and is easy to sell ... when they see the logo, people want to donate.’ Bravo Victor Harbor A perfect example of this was evident in the Rotary Club of Victor Harbor’s Ocean to Outback bike ride, from Victor Harbor to Broken Hill. The volunteers all wore white polo shirts on the ride with ‘Ocean to Outback’ on the back and the Lift the Lid logo on the front. Director Barbara Wheatcroft and I visited the Club and presented husband and wife team Mark and Leonie Cox with Companion Awards, in recognition of their leadership. They raised nearly $70,000 for mental health research, a brilliant effort. The evening was heightened even more by the members all wearing their Lift the Lid polo shirts.
The Ocean to Outback Ride raised almost $70,000 for mental health research
Governance challenges ... Board action taken In recent years the importance of good governance has been increasingly placed under the microscope, and we in the notfor-profit sector are in the forefront of that. I have been happy to espouse the quality of our administration, our grant selection procedure and our ability to give 100% of our research donations to research. Nevertheless, we as a Board need to continue keeping up-todate with the changes and to ensure we comply ‘in the best interests’ of ARH.
Associate Professor Allison Millner was killed walking to work in August
Tragedy It is almost impossible to adequately express the grief that we are feeling about Allison Milner’s death. To be killed by a falling century old elm tree as she walked to work in Melbourne’s Princes Park is ridiculously unlucky. To have a young family summarily deprived of their mother is tragic in the extreme. As an Ian Scott Scholar, Australian Rotary Health funded Allison’s initial PhD research on suicide prevention. Her study was the first to identify a relationship between globalisation and population-level rates of suicide. Allison was Associate Professor at the University of Melbourne’s School of Population and Global Health. Widely published across a range of research topics, including her book, ‘Suicide in Rural and Remote Areas of Australia,’ Allison became a leader and an extremely accomplished researcher in areas such as work-related stressors, disability and suicide. In disbelief we grieve. Purple House Four of our Directors, Kevin Shadbolt (Vice Chairman), Barbara Wheatcroft, Jane Cox and Brian Beesley, visited Alice Springs to attend the first Purple House Conference. They met up with Sarah Brown, Purple House CEO, and several District Governors. They also bussed out to a remote indigenous community to see first-hand what conditions were like and to determine how Australian Rotary Health may be able to promote better mental health in the outback, using our current indigenous health scholars. The concept has exciting possibilities and will be discussed further at our next Board meeting. Continued page 2
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