All the goodness in former police minister Wade Noonan’s life had been drained; he could no longer find enjoyment in anything.
So the Williamstown MP took three months’ leave in February to deal with the “human misery and suffering” his work had exposed him to.
He returned to work on Monday but he is no longer police minister, instead he has been sworn in as Minister for Employment, Industry and Resources.
There was no one incident that triggered Mr Noonan’s trauma, but he traces its origins to the height of the ambulance crisis, when Labor was in opposition, when he met families of children who had died waiting for ambulances.
In some cases these people became “treasured friends”, and Mr Noonan carried their grief as he became police minister.
Firefighters suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) often talk about their bucket of trauma gradually filling up over time, and when it is full, PTSD takes over.
For Mr Noonan the exposure to “unspeakable crimes, a level of detail that the public doesn’t see” as police minister began to fill his bucket.
It was the “accumulation of events”, he says, that began with that work in opposition.
“All the goodness had drained out of my life, and I couldn’t find any enjoyment in anything,” Mr Noonan said.
Upon taking leave, and reading stories of journalists’ experience of dealing with human misery, he discovered that he was suffering from vicarious trauma.
This trauma shares symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder including anxiety, depression, irritability and insomnia.
Good things in life
So he sought help, took up new hobbies, spent more time with his family and tried to focus on the good things in life.
“I had an awareness that things weren’t right, I was determined not to get to a crisis point,” he said.
“I did consider quitting, not just quitting the ministry but walking away from politics.”
But returning to work was a critical part of his recovery, so his press conference with the Premier and new Police Minister Lisa Neville this week was a major milestone in his progress.
His public comments about mental health have stimulated more conversations in the police force about dealing with trauma.
By Richard Willingham/The Age
