Polar walk for bipolar disorder

Christchurch forensic psychologist Erik Monasterio plans to walk to the South Pole - and back - to raise funds for people suffering bipolar mental health problems.

Dr Monasterio will walk with 11 other people, hauling all their supplies, in temperatures as low as -20degC in November.

The five-week endurance walk is part of a fund raiser involving efforts at both the North Pole and South Pole. The Antarctic trekkers will travel from the Patriot Hills, south of Argentina, to the pole, then try to return by a different route, to Scott Base.

A North Pole expedition is planned for next April.

Dr Monasterio told the Otago University magazine he was attracted to the project by the fact that two of the Antarctic team members would be people with bipolar disorder. The expedition would force them to develop inner strengths which may help them better manager their disorder, he said.

The participants would find their well-being improved by the need to survive in a hostile environments, to get organised and the daily discipline of sledge hauling.

"Professionally, I'm interested in how clear goals help those with mental illness," he said.

He also wanted to do something to reduce the negative and stereotypical preconceptions people had about mental illness in general.

Dr Monasterio described himself as a "risk taker" and said he had spent years on various expeditions, mountaineering and working as a guide in remote areas of the Himalayas and Latin America.

- NZPA