Community & Business
26 April, 2022
Tahnee does it again
FROM small town girl to one of Queensland’s most influential young women, Dr Tahnee Bridson has another trophy to add to her shelf, being awarded the First National Real Estate Leadership Award as part of the 7NEWS Young Achiever Awards for 2022.
Dr Bridson is the founder of Hand-n-Hand Peer Support Inc, a support outlet for medical workers across the country struggling with their mental health.
Her motivation behind the campaign stemmed from the loss of her colleague and friend Dr Bestmann, who tragically lost his battle with mental illness.
After Dr Bestmann’s passing, Tahnee established her new volunteer driven program in 2020, to support doctors, nurses and other healthcare workers, all who are at a higher risk of burn-out and suicide.
In the past, Tahnee has said that Dr Bestmann was a true mentor to her and encouraged her to create an outlet for medical workers who also need the support they give.
“Dr Bestmann was my GP growing up and also my parents GP and then also became my mentor when I did placement with him as a medical student,” Tahnee said.
“When we lost him to suicide that was the first realisation that mental health was a really big problem in doctors and healthcare workers.
“From there my interest grew and I took on the role in seeing how I could help promote doctors and healthcare workers accessing their own mental health support.”
Starting out as just a small Whatsapp group chat has no become a 2000-person support group of health workers from all areas coming together.
