The changing wellbeing of Canberrans 2019 to 2024<\/a>, finding loneliness has become more prevalent in the ACT.<\/p>\nThis coincided with increased financial stress and reduced confidence in the future, causing more people to defer healthcare and avoid social events.<\/p>\n
Mental Health Community Coalition ACT CEO Lisa Kelly says. At the same time, there has been progress with treatment and services for people with acute mental illness; however, more attention needs to be given to loneliness and its corrosive effects.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhere we probably need to spend more time and more focus is on how we build community connection and cohesion and how we work together as a community to address the issue of loneliness and the impact loneliness has on people\u2019s wellbeing and subsequently on their mental health,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
Lisa says the pandemic fractured connections, and it\u2019s been a struggle to rebuild them since, with online meetings not really measuring up.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen was the last time you were on an online meeting and people were talking about, \u2018Oh what you do on the weekend? How are you? What\u2019s been going on in your life?’\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut we do that before meetings and after meetings when we\u2019re in person.\u201d<\/p>\n
Her organisation is calling on people to make connections within whatever their sphere of influence may be, whether that be in government, community organisations or simply in their daily interactions.<\/p>\n
She urged people to become joiners again to increase their social connections and to take action.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need to join and we need to initiate, we as a community need to build that cohesion and the community opportunities that we\u2019re all looking for,\u201d Lisa says.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe more people in our village and the more people around us, the more people who might notice that we\u2019re not going OK, who can provide some help and support, who make people feel like we\u2019re sharing each other\u2019s journey.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lisa says shame and stigma only reinforce isolation and make recovery harder to achieve.<\/p>\n
Courtney says prolonged negative feelings and wanting to isolate are big warning signs.<\/p>\n
She says education, like the work she is doing with MIEACT, is the key to overcoming stigma, shame and staying isolated.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf I had someone like me come into a school when I was that age and talk to me about mental health, there is no way I would have waited so long to get support, because I thought something was inherently wrong with me,\u201d Courtney says.<\/p>\n
She believes the tide is turning on stigma, particularly in the workforce, where it has become more accepted to talk about burnout and seek help.<\/p>\n
But both Lisa and Courtney say cost and workforce shortages remain big barriers to seeking help, as Medicare covers only so much, and the few psychologists and psychiatrists in the ACT are in high demand.<\/p>\n
Courtney says therapy has helped her, but it can be a long and expensive game. She also focuses on lifestyle factors such as what she eats and how she exercises.<\/p>\n
As part of Mental Health Week, MHCC ACT is highlighting the programs and services available to Canberrans. To learn more, visit MHCC ACT<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Courtney Chapman says isolation is a red flag. Photo: Supplied. Courtney Chapman\u2019s childhood trauma has haunted her into…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":204101,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[49,48,84,393,394],"class_list":{"0":"post-204100","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mental-health","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-health","11":"tag-mental-health","12":"tag-mentalhealth"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204100","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=204100"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204100\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/204101"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=204100"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=204100"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=204100"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Courtney-Chapman-1200x968.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n