We are being encouraged to talk more about mental health issues, and rightly so I must add.
Though talking about it, and asking if someone is “OK” doesn’t really go far enough.
And when you have a look at it from a big picture point of view, are probably only token efforts.
If we are serious about mental health challenges, there are many “small” things that we as a society can do.
Access to mental health professionals needs to be easy and affordable.
We need to remove the need for a medical certificate if someone takes time off from work. (A stat dec will satisfy the requirements for “evidence” in Modern Awards).
We need to remove the requirement to report it all the time.
We need to make it more comfortable for those who do wish to use the services of a mental health professional to actually do so.
And, I believe the most important thing we can do, is give everyone the skills, tools, resources, etc to be able to manage, respond to their own issues themselves.
