HOPE is a new strategy

[hopeisastrategy]

G'day, Chris here,

I just joined the forum yesterday. I'm a 30 year old bloke who fishes, shoots, drinks and swears and have a pretty solid understanding of how life can crumble around us, often due to something well outside of our control. Difficult situations can lead us down dark roads and cloud our thoughts like a swarm of wasps stinging us from the inside out, then that cloud can seem to hang there like a never-ending storm inside us.

I grew up in country Victoria, the heart of the Goulburn Valley. I love the country life and although I have travelled and worked all over the place from Cairns to Darwin, Groote Eylandt to Marysville and loads of places in-between... I still rate our Goulburn Valley as the best place I've ever lived in.

I now work at in a HOPE department (Hospital Outreach Post-suicide Engagement). I'm a lived experience employee with extensive experience in construction, agriculture, retail and ran my own business that went broke due to COVID-19. So I'm no psychologist, I'm definitely not a doctor (but I'll have a look at it for ya) and I really don't have the clinical expertise that a nurse has. What I DO HAVE is a very unique set of people skills. I can pull ticks, re-wire your house and strip/fit and patch a 30.5/32 Wagon tyre in under half an hour and have good yarn about the local fishing holes while I'm doing it.

There's been incredible bumps in my journey, both marvellous and miserable. In Feb 2012 My grandfather had an accident where he damaged his spinal cord. Weeks after his surgery when he had woken and stabilised we had to have the toughest chat of my life. He couldn't breathe without the help of the machines, and he could only move one arm a little bit. So before the Doctor filled him with Morphine and Propofol, we had to look him in the eye and say goodbye. Time is still healing that wound but the old bloke wouldn't have had it any other way. I've been a heavy drug user, I've lived in flash high rise apartments, farm houses, pubs and meth-dens.

Now I am just here to help. I look forward to this journey and I want to do it together. Cheers fellas.

[Aaronsis]

WOW..what a post and thank you, thank you for sharing that with us here and for being here as part of this amazing and wonderful community.

You sure sound like you have developed some resilience in your many hurdles in life and that you have been able to grow and to have your eyes also opened by lived experience..me too...and this is true also for many of us here.

Thank you for sharing, for being apart of the forum and I look forward to seeing you around on as many threads as you feel you would like to chat on. It is so awesome when others reach out to extend support and care to a complete stranger, it is what makes my heart sing.

Thank you hopeisastrategy

See you around

Sarah xx

[hopeisastrategy]

Thanks for the reply. I hope to be of some help or maybe someone can offer me some advice here too. I'm learning lots, I hope you have a happy easter break and check-in with family and friends.

[Aaronsis]

Hey hopisastrategy

Thank you for your kind words and we are absolutely here for everyone. Some times you feel like you can chat to others and offer a helping hand and sometimes you need to reach out and have others sit with you and provide you with some comfort and support, that is the gold in this place.

Happy to chat to you some more if there is something you would like to share here, something that you would like to get off your chest and maybe throw around some ideas about, I am here to listen and sit with you also.

I hope that you have a great weekend and that something wonderful puts a smile on your face.

Hugs to you

Sarah

[Guest_4643]

Hi hopeisastrategy, welcome.

Just a reminder to be careful about sharing your location and workplace. I'm from Goulburn Valley myself and I know it's a large area and you didn't mention your suburb, just reminding you in a friendly way. I don't like it here much, the "healthcare" is a joke. Where can I find info on the HOPE thing though please? I haven't heard of that.

I'm sorry to hear about your Grandpa also.

[hopeisastrategy]

Hi mb20lover,

Mate I can completely understand your frustration with the system. It's a daily struggle in too many of our healthcare services. Not just in the GV. We need to see a culture shift, and I believe that it will begin to happen this year with the catalyst being the findings from the RC into mental health.

I will take on what you have said, you make a few good points, particularly about not EVERYBODY being a fan of it here.

I think in regard to sharing employment details, it's important to think before you speak. In this instance I'm just telling you my job role. I'm so glad you've asked, because that's what we as a community need to do. Otherwise we risk remainkng in crysis mode rather than prevention mode and that culture shift will take longer and longer to seep in.

Im out of the office for a fortnight so Do a bit of googling on the HOPE program mate. If you don't have much luck I'll get some more info to you when im at my PC

[Guest_4643]

Hi Chris.

I didn't mean it in a bad way, I was just letting you know since you're new here, sorry.

Yeah I've never been so depressed before in my life than I have here. Can't do anything - jobs, studying, training, meeting people, nothing. Went to Headspace and had my mental illnesses made fun of by the manager, Psychologist and group members.

I've also been told to k**l myself and methods on how to do so and that I'm faking it when I scored a 50 on a K-10 test, the highest score possible, when I was being completely honest.

The only good thing is my GP, everything else is awful. My Mum has had very bad experiences with her physical health and has scars to prove it from surgeries. I also had not the best experience with my first surgery which was major in 2018.

This place is a joke, nobody cares, no one wants to do anything to help. I'm still waiting on the Continence people to contact me regarding my bladder when my GP told me and made a referral to them 3 weeks ago.

Triage won't help and I've heard nothing but horrible stories about that place. Had nothing but bad experiences.

[quirkywords]

hope is a strategy,

i like the encouraging tone and willingness to share your lived experience with others.

welcome to the forum and I look forward to having a chat if you like.

[Guest_1643]

welcome hope is a strateegy

are u a peer worker?

such important work, i am so grateful it is becoming more commonplace to employ peer workers accross hospital settings.
i considered doing that work but i can't just yet - still too early in my recovery. i wish u success in ur amazing work. i agreee the Mh system leaves a lot to be desired but hoping to see real change.

[hopeisastrategy]

Thanks for the kind (quirky)words. I'm enjoying reading the forum posts and meeting a few people here. Likewise!