You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles
YUMPU automatically turns print PDFs into web optimized ePapers that Google loves.
6 Tuesday <strong>September</strong> <strong>25</strong> <strong>2018</strong><br />
Latest Christchurch news at www.star.kiwi<br />
WESTERN NEWS<br />
<strong>News</strong><br />
Campaigner’s aim is to get people<br />
Hornby mental health<br />
advocate Robert Read<br />
is the founder of a<br />
successful online mental<br />
health page and recently<br />
launched the campaign<br />
Let’s Chalk about Mental<br />
Health. He talks to<br />
reporter Anan Zaki about<br />
his work and his personal<br />
battle with depression<br />
ROBERT READ will never<br />
forget the year 2013.<br />
His only son, Slade, was born<br />
in March that year. It was also<br />
the year his life nearly came to<br />
an end.<br />
The date was October 19, 2013.<br />
Most of the day passed<br />
through uneventfully.<br />
Mr Read had been struggling<br />
to come to terms with<br />
parenthood and the weight of<br />
responsibility on his shoulders.<br />
He spent the day “self-medicating”<br />
with alcohol.<br />
At the time, Mr Read had<br />
no idea that depression was<br />
eating away at him. He never<br />
thought about why he was<br />
constantly resorting to the<br />
bottle.<br />
It was about 7pm and Mr<br />
Read, then aged <strong>25</strong>, sliced up a<br />
pizza with a knife for dinner.<br />
LET’S TALK: Mental health advocate Robert Read draws messages of support in chalk at<br />
Cathedral Square.<br />
Before he ate, he went outside for<br />
a cigarette.<br />
“For whatever reason, I took<br />
the knife with me and I sat on<br />
my deck for the next five hours.”<br />
For most of those five hours,<br />
he held the knife hard against his<br />
throat. Mr Read had decided that<br />
his time was up.<br />
“I wasn’t responding to texts,<br />
calls, I wasn’t interacting with<br />
anyone. I was just sitting there,<br />
within myself basically screaming<br />
that I’m done, I can’t take<br />
this anymore, I’m a failure,” Mr<br />
Read said.<br />
But a friend, worried about<br />
him not picking up his phone,<br />
walked into the house as the<br />
knife was still pressed against Mr<br />
Read’s throat.<br />
After witnessing the suicide<br />
attempt, his friend rushed him<br />
to Christchurch Hospital’s emergency<br />
department.<br />
“When we were there, the<br />
treatment that I got was less than<br />
satisfactory.<br />
“Basically they said: ‘You’ve<br />
got post-natal depression, here’s<br />
a couple of pills and come back<br />
in a couple months if you’re not<br />
feeling better’.”<br />
Mr Read’s reaction to that was<br />
to do the worst.<br />
“I thought, if you let me go<br />
home tonight I’m finishing what<br />
I started. Which they didn’t obviously<br />
take seriously,” he said.<br />
Mr Read was put into the care<br />
of his family. He opened up<br />
to his family about his mental<br />
health.<br />
He finally got the professional<br />
support he needed.<br />
“There was an impression from<br />
the knife blade on me for twoand-a-half<br />
weeks afterwards,”<br />
Mr Read said.<br />
After getting treatment<br />
through medication and counselling<br />
in 2014, Mr Read knew he<br />
wasn’t alone.<br />
He set up a Facebook page to<br />
run a charity event called Suicide<br />
Awareness and Prevention.<br />
“I kind of came around and<br />
was like, I need to do something<br />
about this [suicide].”<br />
But the event didn’t happen as<br />
he’d hoped. He could not secure<br />
a mental health charity who<br />
wanted to accept money.<br />
“I find it really funny now<br />
because some of these same<br />
organisations are begging for<br />
money,” Mr Read said.<br />
He believed mental health<br />
charities didn’t want to benefit<br />
from his event because of who<br />
he was.<br />
A brand new look and location<br />
Halswell Pharmacy hasn’t moved far. Just<br />
next door. So it is still conveniently located<br />
opposite Halswellhealth doctors on Ensign<br />
Street. Come and visit the warm, spacious<br />
new pharmacy today.<br />
As you enter, the highly skilled and trained<br />
pharmacy team will greet you with a smile.<br />
They are part of your healthcare team and<br />
will help answer any of your questions.<br />
Browse through the neat and easily laid out<br />
shop to find any of your desired healthcare<br />
and beauty needs.<br />
Needing to buy a gift? You will find a great<br />
selection at Halswell Pharmacy.<br />
Pharmacist and owner, Karen, is passionate<br />
about pharmacy and her customers. She<br />
has 20 years experience as a pharmacist,<br />
ten of that at Halswell Pharmacy! There<br />
is always a pharmacist on duty and they<br />
are now easily recognised in their white<br />
dispensing jackets.<br />
Call in to Halswell Pharmacy today for any<br />
of your health needs, questions or concerns.<br />
Karen, Casey, Amanda, Aynsley, Leah, Kelly<br />
and Nicky are there to help you.<br />
Pharmacy services<br />
• Prescriptions<br />
• Private consultations<br />
• Seasonal ailments<br />
• Medico blister packs<br />
• Natural Health<br />
• Blood pressure testing<br />
• Pain management<br />
• Emergency contraceptive pill<br />
• First aid advise<br />
• Skin care<br />
• Oral contraceptive pill<br />
• Erectile dysfunction treatment<br />
• Smoking cessation<br />
• Gifts & much more<br />
• Safe disposal of expired<br />
& unused medicines<br />
• Eye infection (conjunctivitis)<br />
Rosamund Pl<br />
STOCKISTS OF Ethique, Revlon (20% OFF) , Trilogy, Evolu, Sukin & Olive<br />
‘Where patient care comes first’<br />
29 Ensign Street, Halswell<br />
Open Mon - Fri 8.30am-6pm<br />
t 03 322 8737 f 03 322 8777<br />
e info@halswellpharmacy.co.nz<br />
w halswellpharmacy.co.nz<br />
WE ARE HERE<br />
29 Ensign Street<br />
Balcairn St<br />
Ensign St
Change language