Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Australian of the Year to Deliver Petition Tomorrow



This must be my one week I allowing myself to be political on the blog but when the people who are employed to advise govt resign you have to ask : What the ????? is going on ?
If you want to show support sign the petition via the link below.



The Government's head advisor on mental health, Prof. John Mendoza, has just resigned, saying that the Government is ignoring the need for mental health reform. He says that only public pressure will move politicians, and is aiming to collect 60,000 public signatures on a petition to be delivered to Parliament this Thursday.





Get this Australian of the Year Proffessor Patrick McGory is delivering the petition - and
K Rudd will not accept the petition !!


Here is part of the letter John wrote :

Dear friends,

On Friday I resigned my position as the head advisor to the Rudd Government on mental health. And it's because of stories like Mary's and my frustration over the Government's failure to do more to prevent them.

So, today I'm taking the unusual step of writing to you through GetUp to ask you to sign this petition, because I've come to the regrettable conclusion that my advice was not getting through - only public pressure will spur politicians into action.

Every day 330 Australians with serious mental illnesses are turned away from Emergency Departments, and 1,200 Australians are refused admission to a public or private psychiatric unit.

Every day more than 7 people die as a result of suicide, and more than a third of those have been discharged too early or without care from hospitals. For each of those 7 Australians, there are 7 families who mourn them, 7 groups of friends who ask themselves, 'why?'

And every day our political leaders fail to take action, this crisis worsens. This petition will be presented at Parliament House on Thursday - please add your name now through the GetUp website below:


www.getup.org.au/campaign/MentalHealth

On Thursday, I and over 60 mental health organisations from across Australia intend to present a letter to Kevin Rudd with a plan of action for mental health. But so far, the Prime Minister has declined to receive it, and so too has the Health Minister, Nicola Roxon.


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