MURRAY LIFTS THE LID ON MENTAL HEALTH RESEARCH

Past District Governor Dr Murray Verso was the special guest speaker at the cluster meeting which was held to raise funds for mental health research. He explained that he is a strong supporter of the Rotary Foundation and an equally strong advocate of the Australian Rotary Health program. He commended the Lift the Lid campaign which was a unique way of raising funds for ARH to continue their research into mental health.

ARH is one of the great success stories of Rotary in Australia. Through the generous support of Rotarians, Rotary Clubs, Rotary Districts, individuals and commercial and government supporters, ARH has funded over $33 million of research since its establishment in 1981. Since that time there have been a number of significant and successful programs including the research into Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS). Dr Terry Dwyer initiated this program in 1988 and has resulted in the number of deaths in Victoria have dropped from 140 per year to 20. Other examples of the good work done by ARH include domestic violence awareness, increased number of organ transplants and ovarian cancer testing.

Since 2000, ARH's main focus has been on mental health. Each year approximately 1-in-5 Australians will experience a mental illness and in order to help future generations of young Australians, we need to look ahead through research and find out how we can prevent this type of illness occurring.

Murray thanked everyone for attending and for contributing to this good cause.