Commitment from a group of SOUTH West Victorian community members and mental health practitioners is making real change to the community attitude to the stigma associated with mental ill-health.
Our aim is to enable rural areas to embrace a community focused approach to supporting people and families with mental ill health and hopefully enable suffers to seek help and bring an end to the tragic loss of life to su***de.
LET’S TALK foundation was created in 2016 after a shocking increase in su***de rates in our community. To quote a family member bereaved “if only they felt they could talk to someone, that it’s OK to be struggling and help is here…” This thought resonated with so many of the families and friends who lost someone to su***de.
The LET’S TALK foundation took this message and turned it into a community wide action. The message is clear and concise. End stigma, increase help seeking and increase the community knowledge around mental illness and distress.
Since its inception there have been community talks to well over 12,000 people in our region. The LET’S TALK foundation has participated in a wide array of events to increase its ‘reach’ to groups of people not often included in such awareness raising campaigns. LETS TALK has been involved in presentations to schools, local music events, hot rod and bike shows, sprint cars, community running events, trucking shows, farmer groups, tradies, golf, football and netball and cricket and even included a Kokoda trek, Perth to Warrnambool Bike Ride and 80kms walk through the Grampians.
The participation in these events are organised by volunteers of people who are passionate about making a difference to stigma. In the coming year the Foundation plan to host an open water swim and this is just one more event in an ongoing calendar of community driven events to keep awareness high and the message at the forefront of peoples thinking.
Requests for the Foundation to speak locally and through the southwest has grown and more people are needed to carry the group’s message. We need our work to be achievable by everybody. Funding from these events will contribute to putting an additional experience presenter on the ground to visit local schools, sporting clubs and groups
The aim of the group is to enable communities to Reduce the Stigma of Mental Illness, encourage help-seeking; and Increase the competency of the whole community of how to ask the question where there are concerns for a person’s mental wellbeing.
1 in 3 will benefit from some mental health support during their life and the statistics around mental health are staggering. The message we want to put out is that, you are not alone.
LETS TALK is also an acronym and provides an easily identifiable message to all. We need to look after ourselves and step out and talk about mental health and we as a community need to be ready and willing to listen and provide help when needed.
· Learn self care
· Express your feelings
· Tell someone
· Someone loves you
· Talk
· Ask
· Listen
· Keep talking
To Contact:
LET'S TALK FOUNDATION LTD
P.O. Box 164
Warrnambool Vic 3280
www.facebook.com/letstalksouthwest/
