Each year, 55,000 Australians have a heart attack. That’s one heart attack every 10 minutes.
While heart disease remains the number one killer of Australians, advances in treatments mean that more people are surviving a heart attack than 20 years ago.
However, while the body can recover physically, healing the mind is more complex!
A heart event is an emotional experience, not just a physical one. Having a heart attack or heart surgery comes as a huge shock and distress is common. Once they get home from hospital, people go on an “emotional rollercoaster” of worry, guilt, frustration, anger, fear and sadness.
Almost all people who have a cardiac event experience the cardiac blues! This is very distressing, confusing and challenging for people, especially if the health professionals treating them aren’t aware about this important problem.
While the cardiac blues resolves for most people, one in five people go on to develop major depression. People who are depressed are more likely to have another heart attack and to die prematurely.
“If patients don’t know what to expect emotionally and don’t get reassurance early, they are at risk of developing serious depression. This depression can last for a long time, often well beyond physical recovery. Once patients become depressed, they are more likely to have another heart event and to die early. This is why we have developed the Cardiac Blues resources” – Dr Barbara Murphy, Deputy Director, Heart Research Centre.
– the person’s emotional responses are acknowledged, normalised and responded to;
– the person understands the importance of dealing with emotions;
– the person has strategies for dealing with emotions; and
– the person knows when and where to seek help.
How much money is needed?
$10, 000 will enable us to produce the materials and resources to provide to health professionals and community members hosting a cardiac blues event.
$12,000 will enable us to produce an infographic explaining the prevalence and impact of the cardiac blues and depression on Australian lives.
$20, 000 will enable us to produce an animation that explains the cardiac blues to be televised as a community service announcement.