Rotary Club of Gawler Zoom Meeting #10

Meeting opened by Chair President Elect Mark Smeaton

 

Sargeant Barry brought to order and read the acknowledgement to Country

Mark proposed the toast to Australia, her people & The Queen. 

 

Mark opened Zoom meeting 9 and welcomed Tracey from support after suicide and Guest Speaker Anthony Hart as well as for YEP student Adrien LeBlanc live from France

 

Apologies were received from Alan & Trish, Julie Tekell, Colin Bazeley

Brian Burt informed the meeting the changeover occurs at midnight on 30^th June.  The celebration will be at Nixon’s on 13^th July.  Currently we will be allowed 75 people present.  First come first served.  This number could increase before the event.  It will be the first in person club meeting since COVID19 restrictions were introduced.  Invitations will be sent out this week. $45 per head 3 course meal, drinks extra.  Payment details will be on the flyer. 

 

Mark let everyone know there are two more Zoom meetings – 28^th June and 6^th July.  But Zoom will continue to be an option for people to dial into the meetings if they can’t attend in person.  20^th July will be the first dinner meeting back in the new clubroom at Nixon’s. 

Mark asked for volunteers to assist installing club equipment at Nixon’s.  Please contact Mark if you can help.  It will be on Sat/Sun.

 

Stan was sporting a very neat goatee this week and was complimented by the members, although some thought be bore a resemblance to Hannibal Lectur.

Mark handed the meeting over to Sargent Barry.  Barry did the Bunyip roundup. “Rotary seeks world peace” was featured in the Bunyip this week with Jacqui and Sandy Morey in the photo.  It is sad that Jacqui has resigned from Rotary.  Happy Birthday for Bob Ahola for 28^th June.  Anniversary of inductions for Bob Ahrens 23 June 1969 (wow over 50 years of Rotary service!) and Trish Williams 24 June 2013. 

 

About three years ago Chris Edmunds told Barry he had a Hiace motor to suit Barry’s van.  He wanted $7000 for it.  Barry said his van was not worth that and would give him $4000 and Chris would fit it.  8 months ago Rotarian Ian Curtis said he had a motor for Barry…  Chris had put the $7000 motor in the ute for him.  Ian only wanted $500!  So Barry bought it.  Ian had to get rid of his ute because it was too old.  Barry thinks the ute is now worth $10000.  You can be lucky sometimes. 

Mark introduced guest speaker Anthony Hart.  Anthony has been sharing his lived experience of mental health issues since 2015.  Anthony spoke to the club about 3 years ago.  Anthony introduced Tracey from Standby Support After Suicide.  Tracey regularly provides support to Anthony when he gives talks.  If anyone has anything that is brought up during the talk, please speak with Tracey about it. 

 

Anthony has lived experience, but is not an expert responder.  Anthony runs a programme "Save our Mates" community Road Show.  This has been recently presented at Maitland, Pt Pirie, Pt Augusta, Cowell, Port Lincoln.  There is a BBQ before the talk.  There are two speakers – from Sydney and Melbourne.  They tell their story of significant mental health challenges.

 

 Anthony spoke about his journey with mental health challenges.  He worked importing European cars into UK.  He was 24 at the time and received an email from a friend who was having a BBQ with friends back in Aus.  This prompted Anthony to come back to Aust.  He thought he could come back and get a job and resume his previous life.  It was hard.  He had trouble getting a job that lived up to what he did in UK.  This lead to a decline in mental wellbeing.  Anthony’s mum intervened and sent him to see a doctor.  The doctor provided medication.  Mind health is the same a physical health, if you are very unwell you need expert help.  Shortly after this a new job came along which required 2 weeks in Sydney.  The medication was interfering with sleep and making the situation worse.  At this point he made a significant attempt on his life.  Anthony has shared his story with thousands of people and had heard stories of others.  He was not thinking clearly.  During his recovery which took 6 months he worked on 4 simple steps to recovery.  When his friends visited him they also shared their challenges, so Anthony realised there was a big need for assistance.  He developed Life Backtracker, 4 steps to better mind health. 

 

Anthony follows these 4 steps to get back to good health.  Anthony has developed a free App. The Lifeback Tracker.  The App tracks the 4 key points and has a number of questions to answer to check your mental health.  You can also input any things that happened to change your state of mind during the day.  The questions were developed by SAMHRI.  Anthony worked with Stan Roulston to develop the graphs.  This was the basis of developing the tracking.  You can predict how you feel looking at these items.

 

Anthony left his family business to develop his current business which is his passion.  He visited Bob Ahrens and presented his vision for the business.  Bob sent Anthony to speak with Stefan and Ahrens committed to assist Anthony for 3 years in developing his passion to help people to better mental health.

 

Bob Ahrens spoke of the first night he me Anthony and the impact his story had on him.  Anthony has come a long way since then and had won some well deserved awards.  They won a SA Men’s Health Award. 

 

Anthony spoke of how mind health is still so much unknown.  Unfortunately there are still too many people losing their life to suicide without seeking any help. 

 

Michael Jacob asked what were the biggest obstacles on the path to better mental health?

Anthony replied he had an acquired brain injury and this took a lot of time to adapt to.  The second thing was getting over the stigma and having people using it as an excuse to “go easy on him”.  He would go to great lengths to ensure no one knew he has a problem, especially when negotiating in business.  This is a common story from people who have mind health issues.

 

Steve Barilla asked whether anyone has come back to Anthony to share how they have been helped?  Anthony said this was happening so often that this was why he started his business.  When you share you story it is very confronting and you are very vulnerable.  But this allows people to share with you their issues and have a conversation about it.  Just speaking about it helps them.  There are a lot of people who have early signs of mental health issues and if they are addressed early they never escalate.  4/20 people are having issues with their mental health…That is 4 people on the Zoom meeting tonight!

 

Stan shared that when Anthony started this he had a very secure and successful job which he stepped away from to start this business.  He has been down the big tunnel and come out the other end and wants to help others to make this journey.

 

Mark thanked Anthony for his presentation tonight and relayed how he had been in one of Anthony’s sessions and they are confronting and inspiring.  Anthony’s passion is contagious.  Thanks for sharing your story and keep doing what you are doing.

 

Mark thanked everyone for joining the meeting tonight and handed the meeting to president Steve.

Steve thanked Mark and Sargent Barry for running the meeting tonight.   Steve thanked everyone for attending and ask people to recite the 4 way test.

 

Meeting closed at 8:39pm.