Kaete Walker

My professional background over the years has, predominately, been that of a community mental health nurse.

Variously, and not necessarily in any historical order, also having been: a NSW TAFE teacher in mental health; a transgender project support worker; a co-ordinator in a non govt rehabilitation service for persons having mental illness; a project officer developing, and overseeing, a hospital based support programme for relatives of persons having mental illness; a clinical nurse consultant specialising in psychiatry; a university tutor and clinical supervisor; a co-ordinator of a rural mental health service; a welfare officer, pursuant the 1958 and 1991 NSW Mental Health Acts; a counsellor in private practice; a general nurse working in emergency and acute care; and, way back in the very beginning of my working career, for three years a trainee clerk.

Currently, I work within a NSW area health service, as a registered nurse providing counselling, therapy, and case management services, to persons having acute mental health issues. It's a position I enjoy doing, for I perceive it's one that can potentially very much make a major difference to those in society who are so often marginalised and discriminated.

In addition my professional experience, as given above, I've also had the experience of myself, a) being a survivor of the suicides of two close relatives and, before that, two friends- one of whom was an artist, and the other of whom at one time a colleague; and, b) having been diagnosed as having Bipolar Affective Disorder Type II. This personal experience gives me somewhat a unique perspective, I expect. The suicides took a long time to recover from and, as I reflect back now, it was interesting the dynamics of coping that I had. More of this, perhaps, at a later time. To my own mind, a great site to visit about Bipolar Disorder, particularly for information and research, is the Blackdog Institute http://www.blackdoginstitute.org.au/

Friend and I live in the east end of Newcastle, NSW, Australia. We live close to several wonderful beaches, major shopping centres, to rail, and other, transport links, and to each our own close relatives and friends. There are others not nearly so fortunate as we, and not so fortunate as you yourself may be, too. Please spare a thought, and help such people, however, and wherever, you may be able to do so.

My immediate close family consists of: a) my daughter, currently a university student in Sydney; b) my mother, 84 years of age, and more than quite energetic and spritely; c) my sister, three years younger than I, a primary school teacher based in Wollongong, and her husband; and, d) three eldest nieces. All of whom, I feel very immensely proud.

My parents arrived in Australia, four months prior to my own birth, in 1951. Born in the UK, they had emigrated to Australia for reasons of obtaining better employment and lifestyle prospects. I rather suspect it must have been more than very hard for them to detach from their own families of origin and to come to a country so distant geographic. My father initially took up a position in a small village to the west of Newcastle, NSW, as a coal mine surveyor. Later, he went on, when I was in my early teens, to become a coal mine manager, later a mining superintendent, and several years later still, after I and my other sibs had left home, the mining company's CEO. After official retirement, for several years he retained positions on various boards associated with the industry. My mother gave birth in Australia to four children, of whom three now survive. Active on various school related and other committees, she was pivotal in the education and care of her own and other's children, and was then, as she still is, a very nurturing and caring person, loyal to her friends and family, alike, and, to all who know her, more than a wonderful inspiration.

Family and friends are strong interests to me, and strong sources of enjoyment. In addition, and away from work, some of my other interests being bicycle riding, maintaining various email lists of one sort or another, my (currently struggling) herb garden, listening to music, particularly classical music, doing meditation, and the study of linguistics. I've begun to think, recently, that I should have a blog. Mmm, well maybe.

T.S. Eliot's poem, 'EAST COKER'

Home is where one starts from. As we grow older
The world becomes stranger, the pattern more complicated
Of dead and living. Not the intense moment
Isolated, with no before and after,
But a lifetime burning in every moment
And not the lifetime of one man only
But of old stones that cannot be deciphered.
There is a time for the evening under starlight,
A time for the evening under lamplight
(The evening with the photograph album).
Love is most nearly itself
When here and now cease to matter.
Old men ought to be explorers
Here or there does not matter
We must be still and still moving
Into another intensity
For a further union, a deeper communion
Through the dark cold and the empty desolation,
The wave cry, the wind cry, the vast waters
Of the petrel and the porpoise. In my end is my beginning.