Frontline responders are more than twice as likely to be suicidal than other adults
Frontline responders are more than twice as likely to be suicidal than other adults. Their exposure to traumatic scenes in their roles can be debilitating.
Mackay
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Frontline responders are more than twice as likely to be suicidal than other adults.
Their exposure to traumatic and graphic scenes in their roles as paramedics, police officers, firefighters, electrical workers, doctors, nurses and more can be debilitating.
A BeyondBlue survey of more than 21,000 first responders found more than one in four experienced probable post-traumatic stress disorder, a condition impacting their lives and that of their families.
Plans that would make Mackay a revolutionary health and wellness hub for veterans and first responders to treat post-traumatic stress are progressing through a partnership with PTSD Frontline and ReNew Mackay, a locally-led private consortium.
The project involves a retreat at Kinchant Dam that will be a home-away-from-home for those needing respite because of the stresses of their years of service.
The Daily Mercury is today launching the campaign Hub for our Heroes — asking the Mackay region to get behind two projects dedicated to helping our service men and women as well as our first responders.
One project is a social and welfare centre in town on the waterfront, the other a wellness hub at Kinchant Dam.
PTSD Frontline chairman and emergency doctor Peter Wirth said first responders including veterans suffered to serve their communities and were then often adrift when their jobs ended.
He wants to change this for Mackay’s estimated 10,000 first responders and 2-3000 veterans and those across Australia with a landmark wellness and treatment centre where they could access critical support.
“(The centre) is critical because there’s a gap in the market … in the way services are accessible to these groups,” Dr Wirth said.
“We want to help them recognise they still have a role … and help relaunch them.”
PTSD Frontline is a self-funded, registered company with an active application to become a charity.
The development would be an extension of the social support provided through the revival of a club or venue for returned service men and women after the RSL Club on Sydney St closed more than 15 years ago.
Mackay RSL Sub-branch president Ken Higgins is working with ReNew Mackay to meet the social needs of veterans through an administrative hub in the Mackay Waterfront Priority Development Area.
The former RSL club closed in 2006.
“A tremendous amount of the veterans were very, very upset and disappointed with what happened because (the RSL) was a very intricate part of our town,” Mr Higgins said.
“Most towns in the country, their RSL is a focal point of socialising and interacting with people and remembering our fallen and our serving members.”
Dr Wirth said a $5 million investment in transforming 65 hectares at Kinchant Waters at Eton, west of Mackay, would build a “centre of excellence” that he said could save state and federal governments between 15 to 20 per cent on workers’ compensation costs.
“(The centre) is critical because there’s a gap in the market in the way services are accessible to these groups,” Dr Wirth said.
“They have given and given and given to society and they have in many cases come out the other end with issues that include feeling that nobody cares anymore.”
The $5-$7 million hub, designed by Woollam Constructions, would offer single and family accommodation, a purpose-built commercial-size kitchen for skills training, financial and legal advice, employment help, and onsite access to physical and mental health professionals including GPs, psychologists and psychiatrists.
ReNew Mackay project director Craig Percival said the consortium — which includes Woollam Constructions, O’Neill Architecture, Kelly Legal, and Holistic Property Group — was proud to be involved.
“This can be a revolution for how we treat this issue,” said Mr Percival, who is the Mackay-based managing director of Woollam’s statewide operations.
“We respect and value the enormous sacrifice our veterans and frontline workers make in the line of duty.
More Hub for our Hereos stories:
- Hub for our heroes: Plans to find veterans a home in Mackay
- Why Mackay should be home to a revolutionary wellness hub
- ‘We didn’t even have PTSD. We used to call it being bomb-happy’
- Daily Mercury launches Hub for our Heroes campaign
A gym, swimming pool, basketball court and access to the Kinchant Dam’s 930 hectares of water would then complement the centre’s social, emotional and physical rehabilitation services.
Dr Wirth said the multipurpose centre was designed around meeting the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare’s seven identified pillars of wellbeing including housing, work, education and skills, health and vitality, personal safety, community engagement and environment.
“It’s imperative that we include the family to educate them on what to look for and how to support their partner,” Dr Wirth said.
He said the centre would employ Australia’s best mental health practitioners and include a Telehealth option for those who could not travel or preferred anonymity.
And every visit would be strictly confidential.
“For example, the police force would never know that one of their members came,” Dr Wirth said.
The centre would engage with academic institutes and Phoenix Australia during design and implementation stages as well as afterwards to measure investors’ returns.
Dr Wirth said the project could be operational in about 12 months if funding was approved from both the State Government which was responsible for first responders, and the Department of Veteran Affairs at a federal level.
Dr Wirth said he needed up to $100,000 to create a formal business case study and was in the process of drafting funding applications.
The Federal Government previously granted $30 million for six wellbeing centres for veterans and their families across Australia including in Townsville, Darwin, Perth, Adelaide, Wodonga and Nowra.
Originally published as Frontline responders are more than twice as likely to be suicidal than other adults
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