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Dr David Gaskell CHE writes a letter in response to Vanessa

Dear Tania and MMA team

Thank you for your email.

Vanessa’s is a heart-wrenching story of personal suffering and profound loss. Such a brave, articulate letter to her MP, the Prime Minister.

Please pass on my sincerest condolences to this grieving family regarding the death of Franco. My wife and I hold them all in our prayers.

Please thank Vanessa for this act of courage. Give her some solace that I and thousands of other healthcare professionals stand with her in this cause. On moral, pharmacological and clinical grounds (amongst others), TGA Executive must stop its blockade to using medicinal Psilocybin in treating patients like Franco. That in NSW euthanasia is legal whilst Psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy is not is immoral, cruel and strangely ironic.

I have been a doctor for 33 years. I work in remote rural communities across NSW and WA, delivering family and emergency medical care. Many of my patients are poor and carry a heavy burden of health needs, some of which go unmet. My experience is that psychiatrist-led mental health services are patchy and limited in their outreach and effectiveness. Soul and social needs go unaddressed so poor mental health remains. Community mental teams everywhere are over-stretched. Gaps in service are widening – I’m sure someone has the stats; drug treatments – horror: look at Franco’s list! – are often crude leading to discordance with therapy; and so all this ‘mental health need’ leads to epidemic proportions of hopelessness and despair.

No-one in our nation has made a bolder or more personal case than Vanessa, that the status quo regarding mental suffering is morally reprehensible. The burden is immense yet it mostly is borne in silence until there is a suicide. Timely access to psychiatrist-led care is very limited, worse for country populations. Current therapies are of slow onset; adverse side-effects are commonplace; and they are frequently of limited (if any) therapeutic benefit. So, Australia’s case for a therapeutics paradigm shift is strong whilst its case to change the legal status of prescribing psychedelic medicines in the treatment of refractory mental illness is moral and urgent.

In this context, any government agent blocking the legalisation of access to professionally-led, psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy for patients suffering from refractory mental illness must be held accountable to people like Vanessa. I hope PM Anthony Albanese listens to her story and takes action now.

Dr David Gaskell CHE

MBChB (Edin) MA DRCOG MRCGP FRACGP FCHSM AFRACMA

What legacy would you like to leave? Speech by Mark Turner MLA to the NT Parliament on Weds 18 May 2022

Today, I would like to ask the people in this room a simple question:

What legacy would you like to leave when your time in parliament ends?

I ask this question because, as parliamentarians, one of our key priorities is the health and well-being of the people in our electorate.

And the prevalence of mental illness in our society shows that for many, we are failing to provide the support they need.

Pre-COVID, we saw 1 in 5 Australian adults with a chronic mental illness. 1 in 8 on anti-depressants, and in the elderly population, it rose to 1 in 4.

For more vulnerable cohorts in our community, these statistics are even worse.

We know that veterans are more than twice as likely to suffer from mental illness and trauma, almost 3 times as likely to suffer from PTSD, depression and alcohol disorder and 10 times as likely to experience suicidal ideation.

And these statistics have become worse through the impact of necessary population wide forced pandemic infection controls which isolated many people and saw them struggle through the interventions.

Trauma and mental health burden continue to cause great suffering for millions of Australians and takes a toll on our country as well.

In 2020 The Australian Productivity Commission estimated the total cost of mental illness, trauma and suicide to the Australian economy to be $220 billion per year.

We are now exploring new treatment options which show remarkable remission rates in clinical trials that could lead to many Australians getting their mental health back on track and moving out of a patchy and at times unsupportive or even non-existent mental health system.

These therapies are collectively known as psychedelic-assisted therapies.

In trials, psychedelic-assisted therapy has shown upwards of 60% remission rates, and over 80% of participants experienced a clinically significant reduction in symptoms.

In a study investigating Psilocybin-assisted therapy compared to a commonly prescribed anti-depressant a SSRI, psilocybin demonstrated remission rates twice as high as the anti-depressant group.

The FDA has granted these therapies breakthrough status in the United States.

If they were new drugs, treatment-resistant patients would, in all probability, be able to access them through the TGA’s special access scheme.

But so far, no Australians have been able to access them outside of clinical trials because their legal status as medicines is being compromised by a confusion and fascination with recreational drug policy, which listed psilocybin as a prohibited drug. This is a common trap for headline seekers and populists that rail about drugs, any drugs it seems – but in reality this is exploring the proven clinical use of a drug that may be a game changer with trauma and severe mental illness.

We must work to overturn these ludicrous and outdated restrictions in the same way the community worked to overturn decades of hysteria around cannabis to ensure medical marijuana and its derivatives became open to research and available when proven as a therapy.

We deny those suffering from trauma and severe mental illness another way forward when they’ve tried everything available.

This alternative is backed by international research that brings sound evidence to support it.

In my perspective, this is unfair and, dare I say, cruel.

Not only is it unfair and cruel, in practice it violates one of the seven core international human rights treaties that Australia is a party to, which states:

“The right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health”

This statement is straightforward. By burying our head in the sand and submitting to rules and regulations written and driven by paranoia and founded in a belief that there are good drug and bad drugs no matter what they are used for.

We gave up on this blanket approach for opioids, their derivatives and synthetic counterparts, amphetamines and anaesthetic drugs.

We know that they are great solutions when their use and production is evidence driven, backed by proven results and used in the right setting.

Just giving up on potentially life altering treatments is a reckless abandonment of a commitment to community health.

As members of parliament, we owe it to the people of our country to ensure that this commitment to our health is upheld. It is, in fact, a core part of our job.

Mr Speaker, if this saves one person, it is worth it. When I make this point I think not only of my friends and previous colleagues in the police and emergency services and the trauma they suffer; traumatic events and situations affect all those who endure them.

This goes to the heart of the suffering of all victims of cumulative trauma across our community.

Judging by the success of other jurisdictions in the use of psychedelic assisted therapy, we could give people years back of their lives, millions of dollars in the economy and give our health professionals another treatment to help treat people suffering each and every day. GPs, psychiatrists, psychologists and the full suite of mental health professionals and supports can have another low cost, low risk treatment to help people to get their lives back on track.

I know the burden of trauma intimately as I have discussed in previous speeches; I have been treated for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and depression and for me the treatment means I am currently parked on medication; I wish for a more effective treatment option, so do others.

I relive trauma in everyday settings, taking the children to the circus and watching the acrobats at the circus swinging from their necks, seeing reports of violent crime. This takes me back to the trauma that came with the job and subsequent experiences of an two decade serving police officer.

The mix of the smell of bbq sausages and exhaust fumes gives me a cold paralysing sweat because of the people I tried to assist who had attempted to take their lives by using exhaust fumes in their own vehicle. Just talking about it here gives me the same reaction. There are victims of sexual assault who will smell aftershave and panic, or a particular tone of voice, male body odour, or a mix of alcohol and diesel; the triggers can be limitless.

I usually would avoid this sort of discussion in this place, but this is what trauma and mental distress is, and I am watching people die as a result of trauma and severe mental illness, be it veterans from defence, serving police officers, retired police officers, other emergency services staff and front line responders. There are so many others, however we can, and we must, do something about it.

We have gone through a COVID-19 pandemic where we have listened to the science. Thank God we did; in Australia, it has saved countless lives. Here we have a therapy that promises to help some of the most vulnerable people in our society. One that has evidence to support it and that the research of health professionals worldwide is supporting. And we have a system in place that allows treatment-resistant patients to try new therapies when everything available has failed them. We must ensure that this system is allowed to function fully with all treatments and those patients can have a chance to find happiness.

I am conflicted, I will admit; I will be the first person putting my hand up and asking my psychiatrist if I am eligible. I have spoken to numerous constituents, both police and military, who will be doing the same. There are no shortage of other trauma survivors watching this space as well.

And so I return to my opening question, addressed to every person sitting in this room:

What legacy would you like to leave when your time in parliament ends?

Would you like to be remembered as a politician that allowed vulnerable people in our society to continue to suffer?

Or would you like to be one of the brave politicians remembered for taking action when it was sorely needed and allowing those suffering access to treatments that can help them when nothing else could?

If you haven’t studied the research supporting psychedelic-assisted therapy, please do so quickly. It doesn’t take long to see the sense of this matter. And once you understand that innovation in the treatment of mental illness is possible, please join me in supporting a change in the regulations around these substances so people who are suffering can get well.

We have an opportunity to help many people who desperately need it. The time to act is now.

I ask you to do this for every man, woman, and child battling trauma and severe mental illness –  reminding you that this is not a bill; I ask not for your vote; I just ask you to read, to inform yourself, to go out and talk to people, talk to psychiatrists, see what groundbreaking research and results are being achieved in other jurisdictions such as the US. If you need an Australian example to look to just look to former police officer Nick Watchorn – Nick was a Tasmania Police officer who responded  to the Port Arthur massacre. Nick left and moved to the US and dealt with his trauma through a mixture of alcohol, adrenaline and avoidance. Familiar to many of us from the same background and sadly familiar to our families.

Nick was accepted into the US psychedelic-assisted therapies program. We owe it to all Australians to give them the same chance Nick had. We owe it to doctors to let them treat their patients to their best ability. We know the personal toll of trauma and severe mental illness and we know the cost to our community

Let’s not bear witness and stand idly by as our community and its people suffer this toll. Let’s make change. The time has come for psychedelic therapy to help people here.

Regards,

Mark Turner MLA
Member for Blain

My Awakening… by Simone Dowding

Here I was a successful entrepreneur living a millionaire lifestyle. I had made it! Or so I thought. But something was missing. I didn’t feel the happiness that I’d been promised by society. I felt lied too, that I’d been somehow tricked.  The success, I had valued and strived my whole life for, had left me empty and in a marriage that had died in the process. I don’t think anyone can describe the loss of a marriage. The loss of the family you had always wished for, the loss of everything you essentially knew, the look of despair in your children’s eyes, the dreams you had created together. Your combined friends, family and memories.  They all disappear. In the midst of all the trauma, change and never-ending tears something else dawns on you too.

I am now…alone.

In my aloneness, I grew afraid. The world had lost all meaning and I felt completely disconnected from everyone and everything. Nothing bought me joy and I was trapped in extreme suicidal ideations that left me unable to work and be social. My family was unable to understand me, and I was gradually losing all my friendships. Leaving me more disconnected and isolated. For 3 years I struggled through, tortured by my thoughts and grief. I went to every western Doctor and tried various medications that made my symptoms worse. Then I tried yogis, naturopaths, psychics, body somatic work, acupuncture, counselling, hypnosis and meditation. I even went vegan and moved to the beaches of Byron Bay. You name it, I did it. I was desperate!

Synchronistically, in a yoga class, I met a girl that had just come back from the Amazon and said she had been healed of her depression.  She told me that what I was experiencing, in shamanic terms, was what can only be described as a ‘dark night of the soul’ and that the mystics before me spoke of an experience that is likened to a deep spiritual depression or existential crisis that was necessary to live an authentic life.  They saw it as an initiation. A rebirth. A transformation from the old self into a profoundly liberated state and new way of being in the world. Could this explain my intense and prolonged suffering? The reason why I’d divorced, why I’d lost everything?  At last, I felt understood, I felt hope, I felt called into something greater.

Within 3 months, I was sitting in the Peruvian jungle at the feet of a renowned and very powerful shaman.

The Amazon is not an easy place to be. But It’s hauntingly beautiful with the most ancient lush green trees. The tallest I’ve ever seen. With beautiful hummingbirds and colourful butterflies that land on your arms. You are also dangerously aware that there’s anacondas, tarantulas and piranha around too. But I had nothing to lose, because I already felt dead. So what was there to be afraid of?

I was wrong.

I was living with an indigenous tribe in very poor conditions. The shaman spoke no English but was so welcoming and kind. He told me in Spanish that my spirit was very sick and my energies needed to be realigned. I had ceremonies in which he sung icaros (their magical songs) and gave me various plant medicines including Ayahuasca (the vine of the soul). The first night was one of the most frightening nights of my life. I was confronted with all my grief and trauma and challenged to find my power within it. I felt the shaman and medicine, training me to be strong, resilient and face all my fears. I’d had an initiation that was sacred and profound.  I felt new, clean, strong. Most importantly, I had been given the ability to dream again. I could actually see a future. I had direction, I had hope. I was ready to dream my new life into being.

But the greatest gift of all was that I wanted to live.

Words can’t describe the sense of freedom and possibilities that I now felt. I realised the key to my mental and spiritual health was the complete letting go of my old life, past, ancestral history, culture, trauma and subconscious programming.  It was more than a psychological healing though. I had awakened into something new. It was like choosing the red pill in the matrix.

“You take the blue pill—the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill—you stay in Wonderland, and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes. Remember: all I’m offering is the truth. Nothing more”. Morpheus

I’d chosen a different path to others. I wanted the TRUTH. It was a far cry from Western medicine and taking a pill to fix things quickly.  I don’t believe in a happiness pill. There is no such thing. I’d worked hard for my mental health. I’d fought hard for my life. And it was all without a doubt for my 2 boys. I had to get well for them. The greatest loves of my life.

My way is not for everybody. I’d searched for my own truth, and worked out what was true for me. In the process, I was profoundly connected with something greater than myself. The realisation had dawned on me that I was never ……alone. It really was a divine journey that had been orchestrated by a divine force to lead me back to my authentic self, to bring me home.

How lucky am I, how blessed to have taken this path that others would traditionally interpret as a descent into mental illness. It was far from that!! I’d reconnected with life, humanity, my divine purpose. I guess it’s in times of crisis that we finally yield and discover who we really are.  I have a peaceful acceptance of my past now, as painful as it was, and I realise that nothing happened by accident. I see clearly now why I had to go through that suffering. I felt like a warrior returning from war into a bright, new world filled with possibilities.

On my return from the Amazon I worked for World Vision Australia as Head of Social Enterprise, which enabled me to economically empower women globally.  I was then voted in the top 50 Business People of the Year in Australia by Inside Business magazine for my contribution to humanity. I am currently CEO of a national organisation and a guest lecturer for Monash University. Most importantly I am a loving and present mum to my two gorgeous boys.

Big love Sim

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