Sam Varghese
Friday, 30 October 2009 06:10
Opinion and Analysis
Page 2 of 3
Lentz runs a company called
Open Query which provides training and consultancy for MySQL and employs eight people. He travels a great deal inside the country and meets a lot of peope during his travels.
He says the objective of bluehackers is to publicise the fact that "there are many fellow geeks among us who are intimately familiar with depression, anxiety, or bipolar disorder
"It helps to know you’re not alone. And it’s not because we’re geeks, but because we’re human. The Australian
BeyondBlue site is, of course, an excellent resource, but, because geeks have a specific work environment, there are also particular challenges in dealing with these issues, and that’s where we feel our group can help with additional insights, tips, and posts from others with experience.
"Using the logo, we can also make the topic visible at meetings and conferences around the world, ensuring that indeed no geek need feel alone in this, or feel unsupported. They can simply look around and see. Anybody will be able to show their support and understanding, in a kind and non-intrusive manner."
Lentz says that nothing is planned beyond the website. "We're not trained professionals. Australia actually has good medical infrastructure for this, including specific government funding for treatments," he points out.
"People just need to get to their GP who can run an assessment with them, and go from there. And there are the other sites that bluehackers links to, such as BeyondBlue and
workingwell.
"Gatherings have been discussed as people have asked, but we feel it's a bit indulgent, we don't want to wallow - that's not helpful.
"Education... that comes back to comfort with public speaking, and actually speaking at a conference is not the same as talking in a classroom (I've done both, although not on this topic). If a local school/college were to ask me I'd probably have a chat with the teacher and then do it, but that's just me.
"The current limited objectives have proven their value, there's no intrinsic need to expand. It's good as-is. We do aim to create more stickers and possibly other things."
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