2022 Awards

Ian Thorpe has been a prominent advocate for mental health awareness, prevention, stigma reduction and help-seeking since first publicly speaking about his own lived experience in 2014. He has drawn on his own experience of anxiety and depression to connect with and reassure others that they are not alone, and to encourage and inspire them to seek support.

As one of Australia’s most famous Olympians, his work has been especially impactful in reducing stigma and normalising conversations about mental health.

“It’s an honour to be recognised for the work I have been doing in the mental health space. To be acknowledged with other experts and people who are contributing to the wellbeing and safety of vulnerable people within our community is humbling,” he said.

"I’m pleased to not only have my work acknowledged but also the societal shift that work on any individual’s mental health is accepted and no longer stigmatised in a way that it was a decade ago."

Mr Thorpe has been instrumental in the creation of mental health fundraising initiative Laps for Life, leading its publicity since 2019. Laps for Life is a national swimming challenge event designed to support the participants’ mental health and wellbeing, while also raising funds to prevent youth suicide. Since its inception, over 20,000 people across Australia have taken part and the event has raised over $5 million for youth mental health support services.

After becoming aware of the impact of social isolation, depression and dementia on the elderly, Gary Thorpe created Silver Memories, a 24-hour-a-day nostalgia broadcast service based on the principles of Reminiscence Therapy. The service broadcasts age-appropriate music (presently 1930s to 1970s) and screens thousands of beautiful images to provide engagement for people living in aged care, particularly those living with dementia. The service has been operating for 15 years as a not-for-profit service and is now broadcast via satellite to almost 200 aged care homes across Queensland, New South Wales, ACT, Victoria and South Australia. Through Silver Memories Mr Thorpe has raised awareness of the need to provide age-appropriate entertainment for people living with dementia in aged care.

“Silver Memories is very homely and personal – the announcers are people as old as the listeners, talking to them as their peers. They are simply sharing their love of music and memories from when they were young. They have a lot of life experience and provide a form of companionship, helping to reduce loneliness and social isolation,” he said.

“We don’t do advertising or news as this can cause distress in some of the residents. Our goal is to only trigger happy memories. Research has backed up that we are on the right track and feedback shows that what we do is clearly making a difference to people way beyond our expectations.”