Mark Peart

Support my walk for mental health research: in honour of my late dad, peter peart (lowe).

In the last year, Affective Disorders affected 1.5 million people in Australia (8% of the population), according to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (https://www.aihw.gov.au/mental-health/overview/prevalence-and-impact-of-mental-illness#howmanymentallyill). The same study shows that Anxiety Disorders affected 3.4 million people, or 17% of the population, and Substance Use Disorders 650,000 or 3%. What’s more, 43% of the population, or 8.5 million people, have experienced a mental illness during their life. Mental illness touches most people, though family, friends, colleagues, class-mates and loved ones. My dad, Peter Peart (Lowe), lived with an undiagnosed mental illness most of his life, certainly all the time I knew him. He could be gregarious and hilarious one moment and descend into a total conniption the next. He likely had Bi-Polar Affective Disorder, what used to be called Manic-Depression, or maybe Delusional Depression. It’s unclear and he passed away about 20 years ago. He was certainly psychotic, having delusions of serving in multiple wars (though he maybe served in one), and grandiose ideas and views of himself. He was also brilliant. Raised in Oak Park, then a rough suburb in the north of Melbourne, Victoria, he attended a polytechnic college and wasn’t expected to compete schooling past 15 or 16. He eventually became a Geotechnical Engineer, with a BSc from the University of British Columbia in Canada, one of the best engineering training grounds around. He didn’t know who his own father was, and his Mum, my Grand-mother, had minimal schooling. She worked as a cleaner in rural hotels, in the Erickson Electronics factory as a factory floor person, and later did piece work at home, sewing hessian sacks for cheese-making. She was awesome, gritty and smart, and kept an orderly home for her five children. Dad became a motor mechanic, finishing as a qualified trades person around 18 years old. As an Engineer in Canada, he worked for Thompson Dames and Moore, and served Canada in developing the Tar Sands, and working on Highways in the interior of British Columbia. Later on, he and his best friend built a business, Access Engineering, inspecting penstocks in hydro power plants in BC, Quebec and parts of the US, and working on other dangerous and hard to reach built environments. Later, when my sister and I were kids, he started Peter Peart Geotechnical Ltd. and worked mainly on domestic residential projects on the north shore of Vancouver. In the early 70s he moved to Canada with my Mum, and they both made use of free education programs the Government of Canada had rolled out in that era. They both gained high school certificates, and later went to university. Peter died early at 59 of cancer, and they never found the primary. It’s very likely his undiagnosed, and unmanaged mental health played a big role in his physical health. It certainly made those last moments difficult for himself and everyone around him. He was often burning with mental illness, and struggled to look after himself. He also loved the outdoors, and walking. He would take me on great adventures, on Vancouver Island, around the Lower Mainland of BC, and all over the Pacific North West. We got to see towering temperate rainforests, pods of orca, and all sorts of natural wonders. These are genuinely the times he was happiest and most at ease in the world. And you know. “like father, like son.” These are some of the reasons why, over the next three and a bit weeks of October, in the lead up to one on my favourite holidays, I’ll be walking to raise money for mental health research and programming.  I love bush walking, and I’m committed to getting out there and putting one foot in front of the other. Consider donating! Proceeds go towards mental health education, research and other initiatives of Black Dog. This October, I’m taking part in One Foot Forward to help Australians impacted by mental illness and suicide. I'm walking to raise funds for Black Dog Institute to put ground-breaking new mental health treatment, education, and digital services into the hands of the people who need them most. It would mean so much to me if you donated to support my walk. Together, we can create better mental health for people in Australian, and in turn all over.