00:05The Northern Territory is a difficult place to live with a mental health issue.
00:10From primary school basically and then into high school I had friends, parents commit
00:14suicide or friends commit suicide and I sort of felt that I was drawn to this magnet of
00:19suicide.
00:20I'm from South America, Colombia and I was a terrorist victim.
00:25After giving birth I was diagnosed with postpartum psychosis.
00:32I came up to Darwin thinking I could leave that behind and it didn't work.
00:38After that post-traumatic stress disorder and all the symptoms.
00:43I remember I went to a party with my friends and I said farewell.
00:49They thought I'm going to Melbourne but they don't know that that night I was really planning
00:54to end my life.
00:55I did go to a couple of surgeries and they were basically like we can't help you right
01:01now, come back in a couple of weeks and then I ended up in hospital.
01:06I was basically found unconscious.
01:13The Northern Territory has the highest rates of suicide, self-harm hospitalisations and acute
01:20mental illness.
01:22In the Northern Territory 52 people died by suicide in 2024.
01:27That's the latest year that data is available.
01:30People are missing out on preliminary healthcare, only getting access to care in acute hospital
01:36settings like the Royal Darwin Hospital's Cowdy Ward.
01:39For Spike and Maria, it was community-based mental healthcare that was vital in their recovery
01:46and maintaining their health.
01:48I actually saw some pictures the other day on Facebook, which was from a couple of years
01:51back when I was in Cowdy for a second time.
01:53And my beard was white.
01:55I dyed it all white.
01:57And that was there.
01:59So that was two years ago.
02:00And everyone keeps saying to me, why don't you dye it the same colour as your natural hair?
02:04And I said no, because that's a memory that I'm not going back.
02:06My son is now slowly, slowly getting in track and my boy is in my care now.
02:18Spike, Astrid and Maria all now work at a mental health service, using their lived experience
02:24to help others.
02:26Although services like this residential pre- or post-hospital service are still stretched
02:33to their limits.
02:34We're at capacity, so we have a 97% occupancy rate and strong evidence of low readmission
02:42back into hospital.
02:43So it is a system that works.
02:46Where the need is felt in urban areas, the gap of care needs versus access is felt even
02:53greater in communities, people often reaching the point of needing to be care flighted into
02:59hospital.
03:00We need this at all levels of government.
03:02There's an understanding that an investment in early intervention prevention is not just
03:08the right thing to do, it's a sensible pragmatic thing.
03:11a plea for life saving support.
03:14A plea for life saving support.
03:16You
