Mackay GP throws support behind project to build veterans and first responders wellness centre at Kinchant Dam
HUB FOR OUR HEROES: ‘As a veteran myself … the suicide numbers of friends, colleagues, acquaintances are in double figures … I no longer count.’
Mackay
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More than half of the patients who visit Mackay GP Kerry Summerscales are veterans or first responders because she knows first-hand the trauma of being on the frontline.
Dr Summerscales served in the Australian Defence Force for 30 years including at Bougainville, Timor-Leste and the Solomon Islands.
She helped save countless lives abroad, and has turned that dedication to ensuring fellow Australian veterans survived civilian life.
Dr Summerscales has thrown her support behind the Daily Mercury's Hub for our Heroes campaign to develop a social club in Mackay and a first responders and veterans wellness and treatment centre at Kinchant Dam.
She said the Kinchant Dam initiative, headed by PTSD Frontline chairman Peter Wirth, would offer "imperative" mental and physical health services, among others.
"You leave people out to flounder and it's one of the things that bring about suicide," Dr Summerscales said.
"In my career as a veteran myself, the suicide numbers of friends, colleagues, acquaintances are in double figures; I no longer count."
Dr Summerscales said the Kinchant Dam hub proposal would help first responders become happy and whole citizens and also save the healthcare system money in the long term if it was successful.
"It's really quite bewildering when you leave the defence force," she said.
"I didn't have a Medicare card; I joined the army at 18.
"They don't understand the healthcare system and there's a loss of identity in a lot of ways.
"They served our nation and they deserve good health care and for people to understand their issues."
More Hub for our Heroes stories:
Daily Mercury launches Hub for our Heroes campaign
Hub for our heroes: Plans to find veterans a home in Mackay
Why Mackay should be home to a revolutionary wellness hub
Those issues, she said, included things such as musculoskeletal injuries as well as the full gamut of psychological impacts from hypervigilance to post-traumatic stress disorder.
"If we (treat) early, we decrease the hospitalisations and the exacerbations," she said.
"Purely, economically, we decrease the cost on the Department of Veteran Affairs and the healthcare system."
Dr Summerscales said moral trauma resulting from engaging in actions they found "morally repugnant or against your core values", such as shooting a child carrying a bomb, had scarred many of her patients.
"The last time we had the enemies wearing a different uniform to us and they're on the other side of the trench was Korea," Dr Summerscales explained.
Now, modern warfare used tactics like recognising the value Western societies placed on women and children.
"A lot of (Afghanis) have no qualms about blowing a kid up," Dr Summerscales said.
"Can you imagine the impact?
"I've had (patients) that have attempted suicide.
"There's anger, there's substance abuse or alcohol abuse, disengagement. The impact on families are massive."
She said Mackay needed a centre unafraid to delve into the "less savoury" side of first responders' and veterans' experiences.
"It's not to reinvent the wheel, it's more like a concierge," she said.
"We've got nearly 2000 veterans; surely that's enough."
More Hub for our Heroes stories:
'We didn't even have PTSD. We used to call it being bomb-happy'
PTSD: 'If we get them in early, they'll be all right'
The tragic cost of serving in the Australian Defence Force
NATIONAL 24/7 CRISIS SERVICES
Lifeline: 13 11 14
Suicide Call Back Service: 1300 659 467
Open Arms: 1800 011 046
MensLine Australia: 1300 789 978
beyondblue: 1300 224 636
Kids Helpline: 1800 551 800
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