Carers need our
help too
October is Anxiety and Depression Awareness (ADA) month – a time when we ask people to put ADA on their radar and to raise awareness of these illnesses and reduce stigma.
National Carers Week runs from October 18 to 23, and for seven days the focus is on the valuable role of carers in our community.
But for the carers supporting a family member or friend with depression or an anxiety disorder, it’s an ongoing, sometimes exhausting, around-the-clock commitment.
And for beyondblue, caring for carers is an all-year-round commitment as well.
To help these hidden heroes of the health system, we have produced a free booklet and DVD to help people navigate their way through some of the challenging issues they’re likely to face in their caring role.
The beyondblue Guide for Carers - and the DVD, Carers’ Stories of Hope and Recovery, can be ordered free via www.beyondblue.org.au or by calling the 1300 22 4636.
Leonie Young,
CEO beyondblue, the national depression initiative
Reasons for demise
of agriculture missed
GRAEME O’Neill’s article (“Mildura is too fixated on its farming traditions”, Sunraysia Daily, 10/10/2009) made interesting reading.
His subject, Larry O’Connor, brought up many valid points regarding what Mildura could capitalise on moving into the future.
Mr O’Connor’s comments on downstream and value adding certainly works for other places, so would work well for Mildura.
His comments on managed investment schemes (MIS), that they were essentially a scam at the expense of the Australian taxpayer, is a point that should be aired forever to save the possibility of such an event re-occurring in the future.
His comments on irrigated agriculture though, seemed to have that all too common ring that “people want to cling to the past”.
As he, like many of us, are sons of blockies, he would have to be getting around with his eyes closed if he failed to notice the level of innovation, initiative and change that has taken place locally. The blockies have been at the forefront of crop change, irrigation improvements and farming technology.
What was not mentioned in the article, were the reasons as to why irrigated agriculture is in demise.
The over allocation of water, the privatising of water, the amassing of huge quantities of water by MIS, the latter now being sold off in part at least, to foreign interests, to the detriment of established agriculture and urban users, is a situation that must be addressed.
If people are to eat, agriculture must survive.
As an accountant, I am sure Mr O’Connor is aware those investigating new business enterprises consider “the element of probability”.
To not do so can result in failure and given that the SMEDB recently proposed sending our local value-adding industries overseas to China, the Mildura Rural City Council refused to even look at a proposed solar desalination project and Lower Murray Water, hell bent on pushing more water toward corporate agriculture, that “element of probability” starts looking decidedly poor.
Phil Douglass,
Riverton, WA
Tin shake organiser
says thanks
I WRITE to express my thanks and appreciation to the people of Sunraysia who made donations to the tin shake appeal on the corner of 8th Street and Deakin Avenue, last Saturday.
Thank you so much to all who donated and to the enthusiastic volunteers who did the collecting.
Maria Hughes,
Adventist Development and Relief Agency tin shake co-ordinator
For more of this story, purchase your copy of Saturday’s Sunraysia Daily 17/10/2009.
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