As appalling as it may seem, it does indeed look as though mental health, one of the foremost human and social issues of our time may have enjoyed it's all too brief hour in the sun, its own spectacular trajectory across the conscience of the Australian people has crashed head-on into the culture of political populism that passes for leadership in this nation.

For goodness sake we all know that climate change has become if not a seminal issue, certainly one of significant importance and yes industrial relations is so very important itself to human and social welfare. But am I to believe that these two issues have eclipsed mental health as the foremost issues of our time and are the only matters of importance in this upcoming federal election.

Even when one considers that workplace issues do have a significant personal and societal dimension, mental health is far broader than that. Mental health encompasses all facets of our personal lives and dictates very vigorously what quality of life we enjoy and how productive we are as individuals. Even if one wishes to be somewhat crass and discuss the economic impacts on the community of mental illness, it is unequivocal that not only is there a significant cost to the whole community in mitigating the impacts of mental illnesses, but the nations productivity also suffers enormously due to absenteeism and long term incapacitation. So for the boffins out there, the bean counters as it were, there is every reason to keep mental health in the national spotlight. Even if only to look at the economic dimension, heaven forbid.

Australia has rates of mental illness in the community disproportionate to our social circumstances, that are by any measure fortunate indeed. So there are very cogent questions to be asked indeed about the whys and wherefores of the mental health epidemic Australia currently experiences. How can we possibly have this discussion that is so urgently needed if we keep putting the matter to the back of the queue, if our leaders engage in rank populism and embrace only the issues that are popular in the community at this time. Although this strategy of course is a sure way to capture the votes of the populace at election time, if nothing else.

Sure no one wants to talk about mental illness; it can be a very confronting subject, it can also be uncomfortably close to home for most of us I suspect as a great many of us continue to cringe and cower before the onslaughts of the stigmas and misunderstandings associated with mental health issues.

And yes I guess if we were too ready to admit to the epidemic in our midst it in one sense would then necessarily lead us to question who we are as a society and who and what we are as a nation of peoples. Just what is our value base both as individuals and at a community level, just what is it that we all do on a daily basis that is collectively causing such extraordinary angst among us, that in the end a great many of us just plain succumb and spiral down into the mire of serious emotional illness. What for goodness sake is wrong.

Just what sort of society have we built, one that has access to free and democratic processes, where the right to speak is granted unheeded, where education and health are provided at quality levels, where crime is low and law and order structures are in the main efficient and effective and yet at the same time we have such lamentable mental health statics in Australia. Why is our suicide rate so very high, why is family breakdown so common, why is domestic violence so rampant, why is alcohol abuse and general consumption so elevated; all this in a land of plenty.

Could it be quite simply that many of us have done little else but milk the system for all it is worth, that we have turned our backs on any notion of decency, that we no longer care for the other, that we see all as being well as long as we are progressing, generally these days in a financial sense it seems. Maybe this is the reason we are so reluctant to discuss the why and wherefores of our national mental health profile, perhaps it will not only expose a decaying social system and fraudulent collective values, but may haps it just might expose to scrutiny our own sullied role in the undeniable breakdown of Australian society. There is nothing quite as difficult in life as to embark on a searching self analysis and then subsequently be brave and courageous enough to offer an honest critique.

No matter what we think, it is a national tragedy if not a disgrace that this national analysis has never occurred. That these questions remain unanswered after so long.

So, to summarise. If as a nation we do not engage in this discussion there is no way we can move forward, there is no way we can begin to repair the deficiencies among us and repatriate the pride one should feel in ones country. We need to have a frank and honest debate so we can by this process unearth and expose what I think most of us deep down inside know and that is that there are some serious wrongs in the current shape of Australian society and that each of us must first and foremost accept our role in this bleak affair and then work to get it back on track.

The next task is to ask serious questions of those that would put themselves before us as leaders and ask us to elect them to positions of influence and power, to high office as it were. I think we need to ask very determined questions as to their capacity to lead if they will not face and address a fundamental truth that I think we all know is real. We have some very salient structural social issues among us .Our national community is traumatised in so many ways, we are plain hurting.

If our so-called leaders will not address the matter of mental health, of moral and ethical decline, if they continue to engage in rank populism and subsequently deny and bury our emotional and spiritual health as a matter of national importance then in fact I believe it is the case that not only are these people in no way leading us they are in fact dragging us down. They are in fact keeping us in a permanent state of twilight, when I think desperately and increasingly so many of us are wishing to discover a new dawn, a new dawn that will be modelled to encourage all to reach their potential, a new dawn that sheds light and not darkness. That creates fairness and respect among us all. If our leaders will not lead, if they in fact lack the courage to lead, then it is the case we need to look for leadership elsewhere.

And my experiences show me the best place to look for that mythical quality is deep down inside us. (Forget about romantic notions of someone else appearing before us to do the work on our behalf we can assist the natural leaders among us to succeed by recognising our own need to act.) The only caveat is of course finding the key to the door that will allow us to unlock the good in us all, free us to be the superior people we are, free us to once again be truly proud of our community. Well the key exists, it is within reach of each and every one of us, it is called quite simply; Honesty.

Regards,

Howard S. Emanuel

www.HowardEmanuel.com