What is your 5 in 5, Deni?
October is Mental Health Month, and the Deniliquin Mental Health Awareness Group is springing into action.
During October the group will be co-ordinating a number of events and activities to raise awareness of the importance of looking after your mental health and wellbeing, and ensuring the community is informed about pathways to help.
Deni MHAG member Lourene Liebenberg said one of the bigger activities is the return of the Deni 5 in 5 Challenge.
‘‘It is a call to action for every member of our community to get involved and make a change, or take an action related to one of the ‘5 ways to wellbeing’ — connect, be active, keep learning, be aware and help others,’’ Mrs Liebenberg said.
‘‘With warmer weather and lockdown restrictions having eased, this is as good a time to take action to combat some of the COVID fatigue many of us are feeling.
‘‘We know that doing any of these actions in the ‘5 ways to wellbeing’ can improve our feeling of wellbeing, and as such ‘fill our cups’ to continue to deal with all the things life is throwing our way.
‘‘Taking up the challenge can mean different things to different
people. Ideally, we would love to encourage people to try one new thing every week or to just participate in the action of the week in some form or shape.’’
Anyone can participate. You might want to set your own challenge and participate as an individual, or jump on board as a family and develop activities or actions you can do together.
And Deni MHAG has also issued a challenge for organisations and businesses to get involved, too.
Business support for the program can take many forms, such as:
Displaying the Deni 5 in 5 posters in your shopfront or tea room;
Encouraging ‘actions’ as a work team for every week, working your way through all of the ‘5 ways to wellbeing’;
Encouraging open conversations about mental health and wellbeing;
Displaying and providing resources about where and how to find help; and
Creating a display in your window based on one or all of the five ways. Be creative and think about what your business can promote, what you sell or deliver as a business, and link it into one of the actions of ‘5 ways to wellbeing’.
Getting involved is easy Deni MHAG will create a Deni 5 in 5 Facebook group.
This group will be used to share challenges, resources and encourage people to join in.
The social media platform is also where you can stay up to date with Channel4Change founder Brenda Norman’s ‘be active’ challenge from September 27.
Ms Norman will swim a 20km stretch of the Edward River at Deniliquin every day for five days.
A campaign will also run in the DENILIQUIN PASTORAL TIMES each Friday for the next five weeks.
‘‘We hope for this group to just be a really positive space for people to share their actions and ideas and to encourage each other in their actions of five ways to wellbeing,’’ Mrs Liebenberg said.
‘‘Very importantly, getting involved in the Deni 5 in 5, also means that it opens up the conversations about mental health and wellbeing.
‘‘It will promote the importance of looking after our mental health, and also the importance of seeking help and knowing how and where to do this.
‘‘All of this reduces stigma; and with decreased stigma and more open and supportive conversations about mental health and mental ill health, people are more likely to seek help.’’
For more information on the campaign, wellbeing resources and or pathways to seeking help, visit www.denimentalhealth.org.au.
Anyone requiring crisis support can contact Accessline on 1800 800 944, Lifeline Australia on 13 11 14, BeyondBlue on 1300 224 636 or Kids Helpline on 1800 551 800. Information is also available at www.denimentalhealth.org.au.