Tackling mental health head-on

David Pearce | Monash Life | 4 minute read

When David Pearce, founder and CEO of On The Low Down, heard that the Victorian Government had pledged $3.8 billion to reform the state’s mental health system, he felt a surge of hope.

Issued in May 2021, the announcement came at a time when COVID-19 had brought Victoria to a standstill and the impact of isolation and disconnection was felt across the state.

“For all its devastation, COVID was a huge instigator for a focus on mental health,” David said. “Politicians and businesses started to realise how expensive it is - socially and economically - to ignore it.”

The statistics surrounding mental health in Australia are devastating. Nine Australians die every day by suicide, a number more than double the road toll. Suicide is the leading cause of death for Australians between the ages of 15 and 44, and those in rural populations are twice as likely to take their own lives.

Poor mental health is often a silent killer, with those who experience it frequently unable to articulate its affect and too ashamed to ask for support.

Through On The Low Down, David helps regional communities transform the perception of mental health from a taboo topic to a surmountable challenge. Each of the organisation’s on-site or online events aim to strengthen connections between regional communities and health services while promoting help-seeking and interdependent decision making behaviours.

A mission born of experience

This passion for empowering individuals through services and information stems from David’s own mental health battle, which started not long after he made his first foray into the professional world.

After graduating from Monash University with a Bachelor of Arts and Science, he quickly secured a role as an environmental consultant for Sinclair Knight Merz. Life was going to plan, until a relationship breakdown pulled him into a years-long depression.

I’ll never forget this one moment,” he said, reflecting on his state of mind. “I was awake at 2am or some ungodly hour, and I looked in the mirror. There was just this really sad young man looking back at me."

Though David experienced a brief reprieve - returning to university to study a Master of Management in Economics and taking on the role of Executive Director, Operations, at Good Super - he came to understand his depression as something that needed to be constantly managed.

Committed to finding coping strategies, he began teaching himself about mental health after work, staying up late into the night to uncover information, methods and resources.

“From studying economics and science, I was interested in big data,” he said. “My science background gave me such a great foundation for understanding the concepts that are key to resolving mental health approaches, along with the capacity to dig into graphs and statistics.”

Launching On The Low Down

Buoyed by a grant from the Bank of Melbourne, David took a leap of faith, quitting his job and launching On The Low Down.

The organisation’s focus on curating events and content that combines practical advice from mental health providers, local knowledge and a straight-shooting approach resonated with regional communities, with many pre-COVID on-site events securing over a hundred sign-ups.

“That's a big deal,” David said.

To talk about something as unpopular as men's mental health, and have that kind of attendance in small regional towns - it shows that some communities really wanted to get involved and were just sick of what they had been dealing with."

The onset of the pandemic led On The Low Down to pivot to an online model, with participants now joining larger Connection Sessions, as well as  autonomous weekly catch-up groups in The Weekly Exchange.

The Weekly Exchange is designed for smaller groups of three or four to speak about the challenges they’re facing without fear of judgement, and to support others to do the same.

“Being there for others through listening rather than advising is unquestionably a good thing. Advising is complex and increases risk. Supporting others and being supported in The Weekly Exchange’s low-risk structure helps our participants feel good and improves their perspectives. It’s also an opportunity to make real friends.”

No matter its size, each event - as well as On The Low Down’s podcast, Hear for Each Other, and newsletter - champions improved mental health literacy, especially amongst men.

Cultivating mental health literacy

With suicide ranking as the leading cause of death amongst Australian males aged 15 to 44, David firmly believes that men need to develop tools for talking about their emotional landscape.

Just being able to describe your experience can make it easier for you to get a read on where you’re at in your head. If we don't have a word for what we feel, it can be harder to understand what’s driving that feeling, which can be a barrier to action.”

Checking in with your mental health

To mitigate the risk of getting to a point of crisis, David recommends a laundry list approach to checking in on your personal state of mind.

"When I’m feeling low, I do a bit of an audit on what is happening in my life and ask myself questions to gauge where I'm at," he said.

How how much exercise am I getting? How much sleep am I getting? What's my diet? Am I interacting with others? These kinds of no-brainer essentials can be tackled by anyone, anywhere in the world."

Importantly, David emphasises the need to keep track of the tone with which we speak to ourselves.

“What’s the internal voice that you use when you’re unhappy with an outcome? Are you kind to yourself? We all need to treat ourselves like we would a good friend or somebody that we love.

“It’s a hard ask for many, but showing yourself love can change your life.”

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