Walking for Indigenous Mental Health (60km)

Do you want to make a difference? We raising money to benefit The Westerman Jilya Institute for Mental Health Indigenous Corporation.

On 28/10/22, a team of walkers will be walking the 60km coastal track from Kirribilli Point to La Parouse (Sydney); this will be a challenging track and the walkers involved have never walked such a distance. However, this is worth the challenge to help raise funds and awareness.

Walkers will reach La Parouse (the picnic area facing Yarra Bay sailing club at 4pm; you are invited to watch the team cross the finish line and discuss how we can all support Indigenous Mental Health.

If you would like to join this walk and also help raise funds, then please sign up via Go Fund Me

https://www.gofundme.com/sign-up?alertKey=team_invitation&acceptTeamInviteFundUrl=walking-for-indigenous-mental-health&teamInvite=cuyryMsNUswTlEdefahYjhiQb1LMTLT8SdkJxT48Xl1kyJQJhRqf7h0S1wngxgLt&utm_medium=magic_link&utm_source=customer&utm_campaign=p_lico%2Bteam-invite

So why The Westerman Jilya Institute for Indigenous Mental Health Aboriginal Corporation?

The Westerman Jilya Institute for Indigenous Mental Health Aboriginal Corporation is an Aboriginal Community Controlled not for profit organisation, registered under the Corporations (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander) Act 2006, and incorporated as a charity with the Australian Charity and not-for-profits Commission (ACNC).

Jilya was created in response to the 13 deaths of Aboriginal children in the Kimberley, the subject of the 2019 Fogliani Coronial Inquiry. These deaths, and the continuing deaths of Aboriginal people by suicide, compelled Dr Westerman to act and do something to support improved access to mental health services that were both clinically and culturally appropriate and which could provide measurable outcomes for high-risk communities.

The Dr Tracy Westerman Indigenous Psychology Scholarship Program was launched first as a direct result of hearing the voices of decades of bereaved Indigenous parents and communities who were crying out for help but not being able to access it.

The Scholarship Program has continued to grow, naming 15 national recipients at their launch in September 2020 and a further 11 just twelve months later! Jilya is supporting TWENTY SIX future Indigenous psychologists in just over 12 months!

Tragically, Aboriginal Australians continue to be over-represented across every indicator of social disadvantage and inequity measures, including:

Indigenous Suicide: The likelihood that Aboriginal people will die by suicide is six times greater compared to non-Aboriginal people. Aboriginal children are tragically the highest risk group:

Indigenous Mental Health: The absence of robust Indigenous mental health prevalence data is an unacceptable gap and impacts directly on our capacity to undertake early intervention; to track program success and impacts and to present a workforce case.

Child protection: Aboriginal children are vastly over-represented in the child protection system, comprising just 5% of the population but representing 56% of those in out of home care in Western Australia.

Educational outcomes: There is a national gap of around 15% in the attainment of Year 12 qualifications between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal students. The completion of Year 12 increasing employment opportunities by 40% and the established link between increased employment and lower rates of mental ill health.

Incarceration rates: Indigenous Australians represent 27% of those incarcerated in Australian prisons. This has doubled since the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody (RCIADIC) in 1990 in which the rates of Aboriginal people in prisons was at 14% nationally.

Please donate and support this fund as the outcomes that Dr Tracy Westerman has already achieved and continues to achieve will change the lives of First Nations people expereincing mental health.

You can find further information here https://www.thejilyainstitute.com.au/