Brad McEwan doesn’t claim to have all the answers for the wave of mental health conditions that are confronting the modern-day man — and he is quite okay with that.
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In fact, the former Channel 10 sports journalist and television presenter had “not being okay’’ at the heart of his message last week during a Kyabram District Health Service men’s health evening at Kyabram last week.
“It’s okay not to be okay. That is the real message,” Mr McEwan said, explaining that his own mental health battles had been the catalyst for him to start talking about the subject that had been “taboo’’ for much of his upbringing.
Through the extreme challenges that have faced his “home-town’’ community his connection to family and friends — even strangers — has never been closer in the past 10 months as a result of making himself available to help people through the most harrowing time of their lives.
Mr McEwan, a Beyond Blue ambassador and renowned mental health advocate, said it was an interaction with the man considered one of the world’s most pre-eminent authorities on mental health that made him feel okay about not having all the information about mental health at his disposal.
He recently spoke on the same card as Professor Pat McGorry — director of the National Centre of Excellence in Youth Mental Health, co-founder of headspace and the 2010 McGorry Australian of the Year for his services to youth mental health.
“He told me he didn’t have all the answers and if he didn’t have the answers I didn’t need too either,” Mr McEwan said.
Mr McEwan led the discussion on men’s mental health with long-time Kyabram resident and celebrated public speaking figure Warren Davies — operating in his alias as The Unbreakable Farmer — and Seymour-based Dale Skinner, an ambassador with the Black Dog Institute.
All three openly spoke about their battles with mental health and the medication that now eases their anxiety and is an everyday part of life.
In doing so they pleaded with the filled room to ask questions of family and friends that didn’t just require a yes or no answer.
“We may need to have the same conversations over and over again to get the answer that we need to help them,” Mr McEwan said.
Lived experience, humour and a number of stories were part of the address by the three men, who, before the Kyabram event, had never met before.
Mr McEwan’s message was based on his opinion that the most effective way to lift someone’s mental health was with an act of kindness.
“Generally, people take the time to criticise, but rarely take the time to compliment,’’ he said.
“You can make someone’s whole day with a few simple words.
“If you leave tonight with one message, make it ‘be kind’,” the Lockington-raised and Rochester-educated public speaker said.
Mr McEwan said it was amazing how powerful a simple act of kindness could be.
“If you think a positive say it, life is about connection, not perfection,” he said.
Mr McEwan, although armed with a few pointed comments about his sporting interaction with the Kyabram community, said Rochester would always be indebted to Kyabram community members for the work they did during the floods.
“I consider home to be from Pyramid Hill to Shepparton and from Mathoura to Kyneton. Kyabram is part of that,” he said.
He shared his opinion that the way many people have thought about mental health, in his opinion, was wrong.
“If mental scars were represented by physical scars it wouldn’t be a pretty site.
“We just don’t see the scars, but that is not to say they are not there,” he said.
He said the personal satisfaction he received from working in the mental health space far outweighed his many years of “rubbing shoulders’’ with some of the world’s most elite sportsmen and women as a sports journalist.
“Being a sports journalist was fun, but for me working in this space is 100 times more enjoyable,’’ he said.
“Talking about sport was fun, but this is the work is what feeds my soul.’’
Mr McEwan used several analogies to hammer home the point that people were hanging onto “old attitudes’’ in regard to mental health.
“Even if you thought the earth was round 100 years ago you never said it, because people would have thought you were crazy,’’ he said.
“In my opinion, when it comes to mental health, we are hanging on to attitudes and beliefs from our parents and grandparents’ generation.’’
He further illustrated the point by explaining that, as recent as his own generation people smoked on aeroplanes and asbestos was a regular part of the building industry.
“Nobody believed it could kill you, but we now know smoking and asbestos do just that,’’ he said.
“People need to adapt that thinking mental health.
“It is a regular part of life, there is no health without mental health.’’
Mr McEwan said when it came to physical conditions people treated them far differently to mental conditions.
“Changing your way of thinking is not easy,’’ he said.
“I implore the men in this room to reach out for help when they need to, because your children and grandchildren will see this and know it is okay for them to do just that.’’
People are always watching and listening.
Mr McEwan’s family has experienced the most tragic outcome of mental health, losing a father and son (his brother) to suicide.
“What is most tragic is that a lot of people spend their lives struggling when they could easily access help,” he said.
Mr McEwan said the benefit of talking about mental health was that while you were learning more about it the people around were the benefactors.
“The takeaway from tonight is that every person in this room should be comfortable talking about mental health and that should be an attitude that flows on to the next generation,” he said.
Campaspe News