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Stepping up together
Russell Cotterell takes a break from climbing the stairs at Cardinia Lakes.
Picture: SHELBY BROOKS
Eight Pakenham CFA members have begun climbing the steps at Cardinia Lakes in an effort to raise money for mental health awareness. For the second year in a row, the stair climb event will be undertaken virtually instead of being held at the Crown Metropol, challenging registered participants to rack up as many steps as they can over a month-long period. The event kicked off on 10 September and will run for a month, finishing on World Mental Health Day on 10 October. Russell Cotterell, who has been a volunteer at Pakenham for three years, said the cause was close to his heart. “Three million Australians are living with depression and anxiety with 1 in 4 Australians will suffer from a mental illness in their lifetime,“ he said. “10 per cent of our emergency service members suffer from PTSI. It doesn’t discriminate, it is very close to home for me.” Continued page 2
We’re all hurting dle of writing a letter to our local MP’s about the dire state of mental health in the area right now because it’s so concerning,” Mr Tomek said. “We first noticed it in January last year when we had more than double the usual enquiries and that was before the first lockdown.” “What we are now finding is that that number has gone up by more than 500 per cent the demand has just blown us away, it’s way 12497982-JW24-21
For almost two years now, the Covid-19 pandemic has wreaked havoc across the globe and although we’ve tried to shake it off and roll with the punches, Melbourne’s lingering lockdowns are having a detrimental effect on our mental health. Having spent over 200 days in lockdown now, psychologists and mental health profes-
sionals are growing more and more concerned about the “dire” state of Melburnians’ mental health, labelling it as an invisible “crisis” that needs to be addressed urgently. Michael Tomek, a clinical psychologist and the director of Lakeside Psychology in Pakenham, said that it was incredibly alarming to see the amount of local people struggling to cope mentally at the moment. “It’s really alarming, I’m actually in the mid-
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beyond what we can handle as a clinic,” he said. Sadly, Mr Tomek said that this isn’t unusual at the moment. Having reached out to “every identifiable clinic between here and Warragul”, Mr Tomek said that Lakeside Psychology had discovered that they aren’t the only ones being pushed to the brink. Continued page 2
JASON WOOD MP FEDERAL MEMBER FOR LA TROBE 03 9768 9164 JasonWood.Updates Authorised by J.Wood, Liberal Party of Australia, 3/16 Langmore Ln, Berwick VIC 3806.
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By Gabriella Payne