Bondi Rescue lifeguard Clint Kimmins has spoken about the emotional impact having to deal with suicides in the ocean has on himself and his colleagues.
If you or somebody you care for needs help or information about depression, suicide, anxiety, or mental health issues, contact Beyond Blue on 1300 22 4636 or Lifeline on 13 11 14.
During an appearance on the Good Humans podcast, Kimmins said that Bondi lifeguards dealt with suicides often, but it wasn’t ever aired on the show.
“It’s not a story I like to tell but I think it’s a very important thing to say, is the mental health and the suicides,” he said.
“On Bondi Rescue, they don’t show any of the suicide stuff, they don’t show any of the mental health stuff.
“The things that we were dealing with, especially throughout Covid, the mental health thing … You’ve got young lifeguards going around on jet skis doing body retrievals … And it’s ugly. It’s not healthy at all.”
Kimmins explained that Bondi Rescue glamourised the job of being a lifeguard in a way, and often doesn’t explore the mental impact being a lifeguard has.
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“Those lifeguards down there do such a good job of protecting not only the people in the water, but the community. If there’s a car crash, those guys are running across the road barefoot to pull out people,” he added.
“Even though they’ve got a reality TV show that runs around it that shows a lot of the goofing off, they never really show a lot of the heavy stuff that goes on, like how we go away and deal with these really traumatic events.”
Kimmins was fired from his job as a lifeguard in Bondi after he refused to comply with vaccine mandates. At the time he said that his colleagues who failed to show a vaccination certificate were notified of their termination by an email from the council.
“We were on the frontline throughout the pandemic when they made us close the beaches and we’ve been left covered in blood from rescuing people and doing suicide retrievals,” he told The Courier-Mail at the time.
“To be treated this way is hugely disappointing. I just think the whole thing’s been poorly handled – people should be being kind to each other at this time.”
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