Kylea pictured with our first group of amazing Mental Health First Aid participants at St.LukesHealth, Hobart.

Mental Health Week is part of a national mental health campaign held each year, which incorporates World Mental Health Day, held globally on October 10. In Tasmania this year Mental Health Week was from October 7 – 15, with the theme Awareness, Belonging, Connection.

With 1 in 5 Australian’s being diagnosed with a mental illness in any given year, there are still a whole lot of people struggling every day, often silently. The more we can continue to do as a community to not only seek support for ourselves and those around us, but also to give grace and understanding to those experiencing challenges, will continue breaking down the stigma and promote positive mental health outcomes and suicide prevention.

October has been particularly busy for our team across the state with our Tasmanian community having an added focus on promoting positive mental health and support seeking around Mental Health Week. Our team has been busy heading to support and take part in various events and engaging initiatives for Mental Health Week, and to deliver presentations in our community at businesses, schools, sporting clubs and other organisations.
We also kicked off delivering our first Mental Health First Aid training sessions in October with our incredibly talented course facilitator, Kylea, in both the south and north of the state! We collaborated with Make Runs Maxi and Headspace to deliver our session in the north of the state. In the south of the state, we are incredibly fortunate to run our course at the very impressive new St.LukesHealth offices in Hobart, where the space was a wonderful place for the group to expand their knowledge around mental health safety, awareness, and of course support giving.

We are grateful that our community continues to take action to engage in events, initiatives and upskilling courses which are continuing to break down the stigma and barriers for support seeking.

If you want to learn more about Mental Health First Aid, or book into our next upcoming course in January 2024, visit https://staychatty.com.au/mental-health-first-aid-training/