UNDERSTANDING the tools necessary to help a loved one battling depression will be just one of the focuses of the Tie Up the Black Dog forums hitting the North in April.
The Tie Up the Black Dog Committee will visit Greenvale on April 1 and Georgetown on April 2, delivering messages of mental health and wellbeing.
Noted mental health advocate and popular Rugby League broadcaster on ABC Grandstand, Craig Hamilton, will speak about his journey with bipolar disorder at the BBQ style forums, as well as his endeavours to keep “the black dog” in the kennel. Craig’s books Broken Open and A Better Life chronicle the path he has taken to achieve his recovery and return to good health and to work.
A prominent clinician will also explore and explain the signs/symptoms and treatment of anxiety, depression and other mental illnesses.
The evenings will commence at 5:30pm with a free community BBQ, followed by the forum commencing at 7pm. A bar will be available at both venues – the Three Rivers Hotel in Greenvale and the Georgetown Golf Club.
While it is true many people succumb to depression when things are ostensibly going well in their lives, it is also true that when drought brings tough times, when risks of financial catastrophe or emotional upheaval enter people’s lives, the chances are that depression and anxiety may well follow.
“It is not only the person with depression that suffers,” Tie Up the Black Dog Committee founder, Mary Woods, said. “Watching a loved one battle depression can leave you helpless, confused and struggling yourself.”
“It is seldom that speakers of this experience and quality venture outside capital cities. Craig has travelled to more than half a dozen rural venues with Tie Up the Black Dog Committee, and he is always a wonderfully popular and engaging speaker,” Mary said.
“We encourage people of the Greenvale and Georgetown districts to take the opportunity to attend. Travel if you have to, but please be there.”
“Everyone knows someone who has suffered from depression. It is one of the most common and yet most treatable conditions of our age. It is also the most deniable and most difficult to identify in others.”
The Tie Up the Black Dog Committee was formed in 2006 in Goodiwindi when Mary Woods and her two colleagues – Liz and Mary – set about to raise awareness of depression and to reduce the dreadful stigma that pervades communities’ attitudes.
In an effort to educate and help Queenslanders, the Tie Up the Black Dog Committee has held a dozen forums across the state and received several awards for their work. Last October, they partnered with The Queensland Country Life and QHealth to produce the liftout magazine, The Glovebox Guide to Mental Health (also available online
