Category: Director’s Reports

Two articles in this edition of the White Wreath newsletter highlight the complexity of problems facing Australia’s mental health/ suicide programs. The first is a $400,000 research grant to find new ways the help protect people at the risk of suicide and find interventions to prevent suicide. The second is a Federal Budget grant to […]

Australia should have one of the world’s best mental health systems. From the daily dealings White Wreath has with mental health patients, the truth is far from that. This edition of the newsletter, highlights three government programs – $64 million for a NSW Government community support scheme over three years, and a $1.45 billion Federal […]

Undiagnosed mental health issues are causing the deaths of thousands of Australians each year from suicide and this includes murder-suicide and mass murders. In many cases they are committed by a close relative where innocent children/babies, their mothers, fathers, grandparents etc are constantly losing their lives by these tragic means. Each year about one in […]


Modern technology is supposed to lead to increased efficiency and the easing of our daily workload. This has not been the case with Texting Services. This service has placed an enormous workload on White Wreath – so much so that our resources are stretched to beyond capacity. We have asked governments previously for help on […]

White Wreath is profoundly disappointed at the failure by Health Minister Greg Hunt to introduce meaningful programs to address Australia’s major health problem – our rising suicide rate. Instead of allocating funds to urgently needed mental health hospital facilities, he has chosen to concentrate on education and training resources. In just two major announcements, he […]

Federal Health Minister, Greg Hunt, appointed to that role in January by Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, faces a challenging time – mental health has passed the point of being in crisis and urgent steps must be taken now. Mr Hunt, in his first media conference as health minister, announced that he would highlight mental health […]

This issue of our newsletter highlights mental health/suicide programs initiated by federal and state governments. As well intended as they are, the programs have a one thing in common. They are all disjointed and uncoordinated. No effort has been made to ascertain if similar programs have been attempted in other states and if the programs […]

Politicians, of all persuasions, are guilty of paying lip service when it comes to urgently needed changes to Australia’s shambolic mental health system. The recent Federal election campaign caused a hiatus in state governments’ introduction of any meaningful mental health strategies. Australia is in dire need of coordination of our mental health system, involving input […]

Reform of the nation’s mental health system has been proclaimed as a core policy of both our political parties. The Liberal Party has promised “significant structural reform of the mental health system”, while the Labor Party has sign-posted “making mental health a national priority” and set a target of program delivery in its first 100 […]

I am deeply disturbed on advice given to governments and the media laid down in Mindframe guidelines on how they report suicide/mental illness. The Mindframe guidelines are managed by the Hunter Institute of Mental Health and funded by the Australian Government under the National Suicide Prevention Program. (See link below). In recent years extensive coverage […]