Alliance Against Depression

The Shire of Waroona held an event at the Waroona Memorial Hall on Tuesday 10th September to raise awareness for World Suicide Prevention Day.

A fantastic, free community event promoting local awareness and focusing attention on the importance of mental health and accessing primary mental health care by offering easy access to information.

Attendees were offered relevant and important information from stallholders including GP Down South, Zero2Hero, family Support Services, Passionate Lives, songs of hope and Compassionate Friends.

Guests enjoyed outstanding vocal entertainment performed by Songs of Hope, where several people sang original songs describing their own personal mental health journey which was very inspiring.

On Thursday 29 August 2019 the Waroona Shire hosted the inaugural meeting to discuss the Waroona Alliance Against Depression.

The first meeting at the Waroona Community Resource Centre had an impressive 17 people from 10 different agencies, groups and individuals attend, showing the Waroona community’s level of commitment to the Alliance and wellbeing of their community.

Representatives from the Harvey Medical group, Compassionate Friends, Family Support Services, Quambie Park Aged Care, St Joseph’s Catholic Primary School, Waroona District High School, WA Primary Health Alliance, Waroona Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Corporation, South West Aboriginal Medical Service and the Shire of Waroona attended. It is anticipated that the group will meet on a monthly basis with more members welcome.

A perfect example of a diverse and broad stakeholder group. Alliance Against Depression Trainer, Maya Cherian from WA Primary Health Alliance presented to the group with an introduction to the EAAD and framework.

Congratulations to the community of Waroona we can't wait to see what comes next from this passionate community.

Enhancing self-help skills and improving access to peer support is part of the aim within the 'Patient, high-risk groups and relatives' pillar of the AAD Framework.

The August edition of Health Consumers' Council magazine features Alliance Against Depression and also provides some useful information and synergies that could contribute to a local Alliance.

Great to see the Kwinana Alliance Against Depression gaining traction within its community in raising awareness of and taking action on depression and suicide.

In May's Better health, together video, WA Primary Health Alliance CEO, Learne Durrington chats to Chorus CEO, Dan Minchin about loneliness and the social connectedness pilot we have funded in the Mandurah area. The pilot will look into and address the barriers people have to accessing community services, with the aim of better linking primary and community care.

In this month’s Better health, together video, WA Primary Health Alliance CEO, Learne Durrington chats with Principal Advisor and Research Director, Dr Danny Rock about depression and our recent campaign to bring about awareness of this common mental health condition.

WA Primary Health Alliance have launched an important campaign, Depression looks different for everybody, which aims to raise awareness of depression, encourage people to talk about their feelings and urge them to seek help.The campaign captures personal stories of depression as mini documentaries and in artworks to help people recognise the symptoms of this mental health condition that impacts about 1 million Australians each year.Four Western Australians are featured, and local artists were commissioned to produce paintings to demonstrate that depression looks different for everybody.The result is a powerful approach that aims to help people recognise depression if it comes up in their lives, or in someone they know, and direct them to insidemymind.org.au(External link) where they can find useful information on depression and how to get help.

One of the elements of the Alliance Against Depression framework is use of media.

WAPHA has worked with young people aged 16-24 to create messages and choose images for the purpose of raising awareness and reducing stigma associated with depression

The Rockingham-Peel-Kwinana region targeted social media campaign will run during May and June, with messages including:

Talk to someone you trust about how you’re feeling today. Find out how to start a conversation: bit.ly/Think-Mental-Health-support

Helplines:

eheadspace 1800 650 890

Lifeline WA 13 11 14

The campaign messages have been seen at least once by over 27,596 people in the first two weeks.

Perth Suicide Prevention Trial Site has been funded by the Commonwealth Department of Health as part of a national initiative to reduce suicides. The Perth South Suicide Prevention Trial: Community Response Working Group is led from a group of passionate individuals and agencies in the Rockingham area. The working group aims to identify ways to reduce depression and suicidality within this age group in order to decrease the number of deaths by suicide and help identify key interventions for Youth at Risk that will inform future legislation, reform and strategy.

The 'closed' networking page for members of the Response Working Group can be accessed here. To find out more about the group and ways you can support work in the Rockingham-Peel-Kwinana region please contact alliance@wapha.org.au