I am Not Atlas

The City of Launceston Council is hosting two mental health workshops.

They are sold out.

The council facilitates a suicide prevention program and employs a suicide prevention co-ordinator, Stephanie Armour.

The need for the council to employ a suicide prevention co-ordinator is deeply challenging.

Sadly, and particularly for North-East Tasmania, the statistics do not lie and the rationale for Ms. Armour's appointment is tragically obvious.

The suicide rates across Australia make for crippling reading.

In 2021 there were 2358 suicide deaths across the male population with 786 females taking their lives.

The statistic in Tasmania is utterly devastating, with 13.5 suicide deaths per 100,000 people in 2021, with Western Australia and Queensland slightly higher, and the Northern Territory even higher at 18.4 suicide deaths per 100,000 people.

In North-East Tasmania, including Launceston and stretching to the East Coast, the rate per 100,000 people between 2017-2021 climbed to 16.8.

In 2021, there were 36 suicide deaths in a population of 40,499.

But none of this is surprising.

We know there are significant issues with mental health in regional areas across Australia, which is keenly felt in North-East Tasmania.

Sadly, the answers, prevention strategies, and proactive interventions are not definitive, although there are some key risk factors that have been identified over time.

The risk factors are detailed on the Australian government's suicide and self-harm monitoring website:

"Risk factors and behaviours can be modifiable (change over time; for example, illicit drug use) or non-modifiable (permanent or constant; for example, a personal history of self-harm). They can also be background factors (such as a childhood history of abuse) or recent stressful life events.

"Information on these risk factors in Australians has been obtained from a number of sources.

"This includes the presence of psychosocial factors (for example, a past history of self-harm; relationship problems; legal issues; bereavement; unemployment; homelessness; and disability) in deaths by suicide obtained by manual review of reports and coronial findings held by the National Coronial Information System (NCIS) by the Australian Bureau of Statistics."

Ms. Armour told the Examiner in 2022, "It's a time to reflect on memories of loved ones lost from suicide ... By simply talking to our loved ones, we can help them feel not so alone and that there are other people out there who can support them".

I applaud the City of Launceston Council for their leadership, acknowledgement of the challenges we face, and their proactive care of our community.

We all have our challenges, and we all have our struggles, but there are moments when the weight is heavier.

It's difficult to know what to do when the weight of the world is on your shoulders.

Atlas, the mythical Greek half god, half giant, is often understood to have carried the weight of the world, but he actually carried the sky.

The Farnese-Atlas, exhibited in the National Archaeological Museum of Naples, a marble sculpture crafted in the second century AD depicts Atlas shouldering a large celestial sphere.

Romantically, a celestial sphere illustrates the heavens with all the stars attached.
How a term so beautiful could morph into a modern day understanding about the weight of the world on your shoulders avidly depicts the challenges we face as a community.

The bronze Atlas statue in New York at the Rockefeller Center, sculpted by Lee Lawrie in 1937 and standing 14 metres tall, showcases a towering figure bearing the weight of an unfilled sphere (the heavens on his shoulders).

New York Atlas exudes strength. He has only been in situ for a mere 86 years.

New York Atlas is broad and extremely athletic, bronzed and ripped with bulging muscles and an enormous Michael Phelps-like wingspan comfortably supporting the giant sphere.

And as is the American want, New York Atlas is full of bluster, bravo, and gusto.

He is only overpowered by the Rockefeller Center itself, showcasing what they build may be more important than who they are.

By comparison, Ancient Atlas is continually at his wits end.

He is old and wise, but there are cracks appearing in a facade of strength.

Ancient Atlas is bearing the weight on his back and his head has turned as a result.

Not as ripped as the much younger New York interpretation, Ancient Atlas is stretching every sinew, comfortably resting his arms to support the sphere but feeling the strain through his shoulders and lower body.

Ancient Atlas remains tense. I am guessing the enormity of Atlas' struggles.

Ancient Atlas, at face value, requires far more support than New York Atlas who appears to be carrying the world with ease, big and strong and shiny and muscular, but his world is actually hollow.

They both may be okay, resilient and determined. Perhaps only one of the half god, half giant Atlas may require my immediate support.

Yet, disconcertingly, although both appear stoic and brave they do not talk nor share their struggles.

They behave in a manner traditionally expected of men, they soldier on not wanting to expose their vulnerabilities for fear of being perceived a failure or letting others down.

If they only knew how much we admire and respect them, and how much we care.