Shining light for mentally ill

TV and radio personality, Julie McCrossin is a champion for the needs of the mentally ill.

Her heartfelt passion to help mentally ill people connect with the community brought her to launch the Compeer Community Challenge last Friday, along with local members of the Compeer organisation. The launch took the form of a charity luncheon called A Time to Shine.

Julie is a woman with a mission to challenge the community at large to take part in a free workshop to train 500 people in 500 days in a program to raise awareness and acquire skills for interaction with a person who may be living with a mental illness.

Julie, who has met head-on the health issues affecting Australians today through her ABC radio show Life Matters, has responded to the appeal of the Compeer Illawarra Mental Health Friendship Program with gusto. The program aims to help demystify and de stigmatise mental health through fostering friendships between the community and those suffering from mental illness.

Theres one message Id really like to convey, she said.

That people with mental illness can live good, happy lives.

There is a great need for positive stories in the media, so that people dont always associate mental illness with suicide and suffering. The Compeer program is a wonderful concept that focuses on friendship. The fear of isolation and loneliness is in all of us and the existence of this for the mentally ill is a major focus. It doesnt have to be endured when there are avenues for friendship.

Compeer Illawarra is a program run locally and the organisation are seeking volunteers to befriend lonely people living with psychiatric disabilities in either a one on one friendship for coffee, walks, movies or other outings, or to join a group that enjoys a social day once a week. For many people that Compeer help, contact through the program is often the only social interaction they have during a week, according to Compeer volunteer Kellie Marsh. Compeer Illawarra is a special work of the St Vincent de Paul Society in the Wollongong Diocese. Compeer is improving peoples lives, Julie said. Governments are also starting to listen on the mental health issue. This is a time of opportunity for the mentally ill and their families.

Families can experience the joy of seeing mentally ill family members gain friendship.

This is a good news story, said the former panel leader of TVs Good News Week.