Reconstructing Minds and Hearts.
Jorgen Gullestrup CEO of Mates in Construction an organisation that deals with suicide and mental health issues in the building industry (copyright Ray Sinclair)
BRISBANE_ Jorgen Gullestrup is 17, he decides to end his life. He takes an overdose. “It is all a bit of a messy period; I felt a worthless person. Driven by chaos and a feeling of letting people down, a sense of inadequacy and disconnected from the people I loved,” Gullestrup recalls.
That was 37 years ago, Gullestrup, 54, sits in a high-backed black office chair in front of a modestly sized desk that the room only just accommodates. His office is located on the first floor of an inner-city commercial building. On the wall above and directly behind him are two framed posters with philosophical quotes from Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela. To the left proudly hangs his framed academic certificates. Gullestrup stands tall at186cms. He leaves his desk and extends a hand to be shaken, his face is open relaxed, eyes alive, his smile is that of a friend.
“Welcome, come in, take a seat,” he says with the strong remnants of a Danish accent.
Gullestrup is the CEO of a charitable organisation Mates in Construction. It deals with the complex and sensitive subject of suicide in the construction industry.
Life back in Copenhagen living in the upper working-class town of Vanlose started out very differently for the then 15-year-old Danish teenager.
Despite having the nickname, the “Professor” because “I was reasonably smart” at school. “I hated school and never found the conformity and structure easy to deal with,” Gullestrup said.
He came from a “close and warm” family. His mother was a disabled pensioner born with Cerebral Palsy, father a storeman and packer. They lived in a communal concrete housing block for people with disabilities. Jorgen, their youngest child, was failing at school and persuaded his parents to allow him to leave and seek a trade-based apprenticeship. He left school halfway through grade nine. “Starting a plumbing apprenticeship, was the happiest I had ever been, work had value and purpose, I met interesting people and earned money.
“Then around 17, a cloud, like a fog started settling on me, slowly in a creeping way it affects you. It saps you of confidence, you doubt yourself and distance those you care about,” he said.
Jorgen Gullestrup was referred to a psychiatrist and diagnosed with Endogenous Depression.
Psychologist and Life Coach Ben MacLaine, 49, said “This type of depression has no apparent external factors, such as the death of a loved one, relationship breakdowns, injury or ageing issues, which is mainly the depression cases I see, where the reason is apparent.
“Endogenous Depression, by contrast, has no external factors and a far more complex, relating to a probable neuro-chemical imbalance, it is possible that some people have a genetic predisposition to this type of depressive illness. The internal imbalance can lead to suicide ideation and this, in turn, can lead to a plan to carry out the action,” he said.
Gullestrup felt like his psychiatrist was treating the illness and not him. He found himself on a “cocktail of drugs” some 30 years ago, he still remembers antidepressants being as ‘subtle as a sledgehammer.’ Medications were called experimental in the early 1980s. He was taking an anti-depressant, plus a drug to make him sleep and an amphetamine to wake him up. His apprenticeship continued despite his lack of functionality, a side effect of the medication. “I ended up not knowing what the illness was and what was the drugs,” he said.
Around this time the young plumber joined the Vanlose Motorcycle Club, “not quite Hells Angels, we did bits and pieces that weren’t quite legal,” he says. Hanging out most days at the clubhouse and the small local pub, The Three
Bottles, Gullestrup developed an alcohol problem. “Mondays and Wednesdays, I had to turn up at the boss’s office and would take half of a tablet of Antabuse,” he said. The result of which makes a person violently ill if they consume alcohol. “The boss wanted me sober enough to work during the week.”
At 17 years old, Jorgen Gullestrup had a major depressive episode. He can’t remember the details. What he can clearly remember is the look on his father’s face when the ambulance arrived. “Everything was hazy, but I will never forget the look on Dad’s face.
His thinking was confused, he was hurting his parents. Jorgen was disconnected from them and thought “Maybe it is better if I’m not here. But the look of pain and anguish on Dad’s face said the opposite.” he said.
Jorgen in 1988 “sick of only being seen as his illness.” Leaves Denmark and arrives in Queensland, Australia, having married a woman from the clubhouse.
They headed for a new life.
He soon discovered his plumbing qualifications weren’t recognised in Australia and felt the belt strap of prejudice from plumbing companies. He joined the Plumbers Union and rose to become the secretary. The membership was relatively small, 900 which rose to 2,500 and as secretary, he became aware of losing members to suicide. He also sat on the board of Building Employees Redundancy Trust (BERT). While going through death claims, he noticed there were a lot of members lost to suicide. A Royal Commission into the building industry was launched into Queensland’s Commercial Building and Construction Industry (CBCI), on average over forty workers take their own lives each year. Suicides in the industry represented 2.4% of all suicides by working-age males 15 to 64 years old. Out of enquiry, Mates in Construction developed and continues to grow and gain prominence with the mental health sector.
Mates in Construction Operations Manager John Brady has known Gullestrup for 11 years. Together they wrote the program “Jorgen was a Danish communist, and I was an Irish Catholic, I couldn’t work out what we had in common.
“But what we had in common was a passion. A passion for men who had been broken, because we had both been broken a bit ourselves,” Brady said.
Minds and hearts are broken every day by the random events of life unfolding. None of us can predict the future. We all may need a helping hand, an ear to listen and eyes to see through the stoic front, a life in jeopardy spiralling out of control. Jorgen Gullestrup is such a person.
As a young plumber in Denmark, he found value and purpose. As a man who holds a master’s degree from Griffith University in Suicidology and is passionate about the importance of the work he is doing, he pauses reflectively
“I found my passion and purpose again, I feel valued for the work I do,” Gullestrup said.
For those who might recognise this in themselves or others contact:
Mates in Construction Helpline: 1300 642 111 http://matesinconstruction.org.au/contact/
