Knowledge development and exchange, in a Melbourne-minute
It was RUOK day yesterday. I had a call from my mother, funny memes sharing with my friends, and a completely unnecessary highfalutin examination of the role of public health messaging in the time of a global pandemic with my business partner. All were necessary, and all ensured that I felt checked-in with, followed up with, and cared for.
It’s hard to be ok at the moment, because it’s a truly unsettling time and there are many factors contributing to plenty of different kinds of stress and discomfort for all of us. But (and this is important) I am safe, healthy and feel very lucky.
At the same time, please don’t ask me if I’ve finished the cross-stitch I started at the beginning of this six month ordeal, or can connect four chords together on the guitar that I’ve been learning for what feels like years.
No, I can’t.
It’s incredible what ten weeks in lockdown and a curfew can do to you. Who knew how much ice cream I wanted after 8pm and how forgetful I could become when all days look the same? I can however, balance my laptop on my knees and write lying down on the floor. And I can order just about anything online in a Melbourne-minute (it’s a locals-thing).
Yesterday was also the launch of the Knowledge Development and Exchange Hub for Mental Health Promotion as well as the Mental Health Promotion Innovation Fund. It’s a project we are thrilled to be working with, full of smart, thoughtful, generous people thinking about what health promotion means for children and young people in Canada. It will, of course have ramifications for academics, practitioners and people all over the world.
We’ve enjoyed seismic shifts in our public consciousness about how to initiate and engage one another in productive and positive conversations about mental health over the past few decades. Twenty years ago, we certainly had no idea how to approach concepts of mental health promotion, nor how to support children and young people. I can attest personally and professionally, that the ramifications were pretty far reaching — you don’t have look far to see the effects. Here in my home state, the Royal Commission into Victoria’s Mental Health System is alarming, disarming and unfortunately, unsurprising. It reminds me that I’ve grown up in a country whose systems weren’t fit for children and young people. Worse, it reminds me those systems are still broken.
Royal Commissions bubble up recommendations. Innovation Funds produce new projects and ideas, and they challenge the things we know about mental health. In much of our work, we support in the design, implementation and evaluation of interventions, initiatives, projects — all on a quest to improve our understanding of what works.
In the multiplicity of fields that intersect around mental health promotion, Knowledge Development and Exchange is essential. We don’t know enough, yet. I think of past colleagues and friends funding and driving research and practice at Wellcome, working to transform how we understand the field of anxiety and depression for children and young people and think about interventions, prevention, treatment. I think of wonderful projects we’ve worked on in places I used to live like the Better Off With You (BOWY) project with SANE Australia, picking up awards this week in Suicide Prevention.
There’s much to be done and much to be shared.
Maybe next year, I’ll have finished the cross-stitch.
