Mental Health Awareness at St Catherine's
This week is Mental Health Awareness week, and Last month on Thursday, 10 September, Australia had its annual R U Ok? Day. It’s a day to remind Australians that starting a conversation about mental health is really as simple as just asking a 3-word question: Are you okay?
But the conversation shouldn’t stop there. This year the theme of R U OK? Day was all about what to say after taking the first step and starting the conversation.
Residents celebrating R U Okay Day
We may not all be experts on mental health, but we are a community that cares about the wellbeing of our friends and neighbours. To celebrate R U Ok? Day, a group of residents got together for an informal chat over cups of tea, and wrote down some positive messages about mental health. The messages were later used as decorations for a formal hall themed around mental health.
Talking about mental health can be difficult and awkward, but our residents looked to the prompts from R U OK? Day to direct the conversation. R U OK? Day offers a great 4 step plan you can follow when asking someone about their mental health, any day of the year.
1. Ask the question “Are you okay?”
2. Listen to the response
3. Encourage Action
4. Check in
St Catherine’s College understands the importance of mental health for our residents. Our program of activities and events is designed to assist our residents to lead an active lifestyle and reap all the benefits of being a part of our college community. We also have a team of Residential Advisors trained in Mental Health First Aid that you can chat to, and wonderful staff that can help you access resources when you need them.
We also have a number of residents that are actively involved with various organisations tackling mental health, such as Black Dog Institute, Zero2Hero, The Blue Tree Project, ManUp and many more. Mental health is clearly an important to issue to young people, and it is fantastic to see so many of our residents taking action.
This mental health awareness week, take time to check in with those around you and remember to seek out help if you are struggling. Building communities that are supportive and accepting of mental health conversations is important, and St Catherine’s will continue to do their part in de-stigmatising this issue with the help of our amazing young people.
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