While the day is often associated with bright colours and community celebrations, this year’s local event took on a more serious tone.
Established in 2007, Voices for Harmony hosts annual events featuring notable speakers to promote inclusiveness within the Shepparton community.
This year’s event, held at Quality Hotel Parklake Shepparton, was put together by convenor Cameron Albanoi, who assembled an eclectic line-up with Accelerated Community Change leader Lisa McKenzie as master of ceremonies.
Among the guests was state Member for Shepparton Kim O’Keeffe, who was recently appointed shadow assistant minister for regional multicultural affairs. She spoke on behalf of “one of the largest multicultural communities outside of Melbourne”.
In her moving address, Ms O’Keeffe shared her family’s struggles with mental health and the many challenges she faced, from moving out of home at the young age of 14 to becoming a politician.
Australians for Mental Health chief executive Chris Gambian was the guest speaker, delivering a sobering address on the state of mental health in Australia and the urgent need for national reform.
Australians for Mental Health is a non-partisan advocacy group pushing for long-term, systemic change to ensure everyone can access quality mental health care.
The organisation works alongside people with lived experience and aims to build grassroots support for reform by raising awareness, amplifying community voices and engaging with all levels of government.
“Crisis amongst young people (is) right now in mental health, but it’s not just young people,” Australians for Mental Health chief executive Chris Gambian said.
“Across every age cohort, we have a massive oversupply of people who need help and a massive undersupply of help that is available.
“It is by far the silent killer of Australians — the untold and unnecessary misery that people have to go through.
“The cascading effect that it has on relationships, on families, on communities.
“This is a national emergency.
“It’s been a national emergency for far, far too long.”
Drawing comparisons to past public health campaigns such as ‘Slip Slop Slap’ and smoking bans, Mr Gambian argued that society needed to take equally proactive measures to address mental health issues by changing the environments and the very systems that cause harm in the first place.
“(Mental health) is not just about having a nice conversation with somebody else and making sure that your mates are okay,” Mr Gambian said.
“As important as that is, there are some fundamental choices that we need to make as a community.”
He pointed to housing, food insecurity, toxic workplaces and childhood trauma as key factors contributing to poor mental health, stressing that change must come from both government and the wider community.
“In my view, and the view of Australians for Mental Health, is that government needs to rethink how it addresses mental health as an issue overall,” he said.
“We believe that mental health needs to be viewed as an absolute national priority, that every single department, every single agency, every single minister has a role (to play).
Mr Gambian also challenged the audience to take ownership of change.
“In a democracy, our voices are incredibly powerful, but we so rarely decide to use them,” he said.
“Our voices become that much more powerful again when we decide to do it together.”
His moving address was followed by a Q&A with attendees, where the conversation continued around local mental health challenges and the changes people want to see in their own communities.
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