A national honour for Donna Stanley only begins to showcase the impact she has had on her communities.
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Ms Stanley, who lives in Orange, is the acting executive director for Aboriginal health and wellbeing for Western NSW Local Health District and assisted in leading a model of care for Aboriginal people and communities during the Delta (Covid) outbreak in 2021.
For this and much more, she was awarded the 2022 Australian Mental Health Prize in the Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander category which recognises outstanding mental health leadership at a national or community level.
"I was pretty stoked and humbled as well," she said.
"For me, I dedicate this to my brother who I lost to suicide almost 30 years ago, but also to all those people who let me in their lives to work with them, either as work colleagues or Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islander people who have suffered mental illness and needed support over that time."
A proud Gunggari woman, Ms Stanley is regularly called upon to interpret issues of grief, loss and trauma common among Aboriginal people arriving at hospital in acute distress.
During the 2021 Delta outbreak, she helped lead the response for the whole district, with the model then used across Australia for Aboriginal communities.
"We were able to have deeper conversations around what was happening, and we went above and beyond by doing special things like delivering birthday cakes to children," she said of her team's work during the pandemic.
"We were also able to give some comfort to those families that did lose loved ones and were not able to conduct sorry business as they normally would. It is usually a time where families come together, so that was hard."
Her work includes coordinating the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Mental Health First Aid Program and working with the NSW Mental Health Commission.
"We'd go into either small or highly populated Aboriginal communities or apartment block areas, where we knew we had a higher number of Aboriginal people and people from lower socio-economic backgrounds," Ms Stanley added.
"We ran vaccination programs in carparks basically.
"We also looked at food security and provided it to anybody who was Covid positive. We had big hubs in Dubbo, Bathurst and Orange and then we had arrangements with local shops in smaller communities, not just to provide the resilience packages, but also fresh fruit and vegetables, bread and fresh meat, because people couldn't get out to buy them."
Ms Stanley was previously nominated for the Mental Health Prize back in 2019, but was unsuccessful on that occasion.
While her work to better the mental health of other people has been her forte for many years, she also knows how important it is to look after one's self.
"To look after my own mental health, it is important that I go home to connect with mob and country, if not my own country then country where I am working or am connected to," she said.
"I have made it my practice to seek out cultural mentors that provide me with both professional advice and help to ground me over a cuppa.
"I enjoy spending time with family and my children and grandchildren are the greatest accomplishments in my life."
Ms Stanley added that she was keen to see continued improvements in how mental health issues are addressed within regional communities.
"While services are doing their best with what they've got, cultural capacity across mental health is not good for Aboriginal people and is hugely important," she added.
"Simple processes and pathways need to improve at all levels, taking into account Aboriginal ways of knowing, being and doing.
"There is also a need to increase the number of Aboriginal people in decision-making positions."
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