Here at Affinity, we all hope you took some time throughout October to reflect on the importance of mental health and the role awareness plays in fostering understanding and break down stigma. To contribute to the conversation, we got in contact with David, one of the many fantastic mental health nurses that Affinity places around Australia.

Mental Health Nurse David

38 years nursing experience

2min read

1. How long have you been nursing for?

I started a basic nursing training course at Plenty Psychiatric & Mental Hospital in Bundoora, Victoria, in 1983. I qualified in 1987 and did a GD in Psychiatric Nursing and a few other postgrad degrees following that.

I have worked across almost all metropolitan Victorian AMHS’s, quite a few regional ones and Tasmania and Queensland as well. In NSW I did private consulting work to Aboriginal Controlled Community Health Organisations in Alcohol and Drug Service delivery.

2. What has been your most memorable moment during that time?

I wouldn’t put anything higher on the the memorable moments list other than patients, who heroically endure mental illness and its associated morbidities. It is a condition that takes away many good things from people that are otherwise enjoyed by many other people in the community.

In terms of work, the psychosocial recovery work following the 2019 Black Saturday fires in the North East of Victoria and Murrindindi Shire are firmly resident in my memory. The resilience and willingness of people to look beyond their own suffering and injury says a great deal about Australia, its spirit and brings the finest qualities to the surface, albeit disappointingly it takes tragedy of this magnitude to see it express itself.

3. Why did you become a Mental Health nurse?

In mid- to late 1983, I was working as a carpenter on a residential building site, when I had a fallout with my business partner. I walked off the job and walked into the Melbourne CBD and bumped into a person (Bridget) I knew as the girlfriend of my best friend from high school, Steve.

She spoke to me of her new job as a psychiatric nurse and sold me on the pay and conditions and so I thought I would have a go at applying. She gave me some tips to convince the Director of Nursing to give me work, so I called him on a Wednesday and gave him the script that Bridget had primed me with, and he said come into work the next day for an interview. So I duly fronted up, had a chat to him in his office and he asked me if I had ever taken part in a nuclear demonstration. I said no, he said start Sunday, so I went into work that Sunday at 0700hrs, went to breakfast at 0730hrs, had my car washed by a patient who ran a small cash-based side hustle (!) and thought to myself, I could be convinced to stay in this caper. And I pretty much have. By the way, things have evolved a long way from those days.

In a strange twist, Steve, later developed schizophrenia and completed suicide in 1996. He was living with me up until a few weeks beforehand.

4. What is your best Mental Health advice/daily tip?

My best tip would be to just be nice and kind. It’s cheap, everyone likes being treated that way, and you can practice it wherever you are, even when alone.

You can read more about the important role mental health awareness plays through the Mental Health Australia website.

Are you a mental health nurse looking to apply your expertise and care all around the country? Register with Affinity and start helping those in some of our most rural and remote locations.