Sep 14, 2023

Mind your mental health

A Mini Mental Health and Wellbeing Conference is being held in Deniliquin on the 18th October 2023, with the theme Minding Your Mental Health.

This free event, organised by Deniliquin Mental Health Awareness Group ( Deni MHAG) as part of their Mental Health Months activities, aimed at engaging community members, employers and service providers in the space of disability, health and wellbeing. It also hopes to attract people from surrounding communities such as Moulamein, Wakool, Barham, Mathoura, Finley, Berrigan and Jerilderie. Everyone is welcome.

The full day event will also include some evening sessions, aiming at catering for people who work and unable to attend the day sessions. People will have the option of attending any sessions they want and can register for a full day or simply just register and attend sessions of interest to them, or those that fit into their schedule for the day.

“A community survey was done some months ago about topics people would be interested in and we have used this as a guide to plan the program”, Lourene Liebenberg from Deni MHAG says. “We have really spent a lot of time putting this program together, hoping to meet the needs of most of the community. For this reason, and evening session will also be held, with a repeat of some of the day sessions, to accommodate those who are unable to attend during the day”.

The event will have two streams, being a wellbeing stream and a mental health education stream. The Wellbeing Stream will have a session on stress management and include some experiential wellbeing sessions on mindfulness, breathing grounding techniques and yoga.

The educational stream will focus on high prevalence disorders such as anxiety and depression and will include sessions on youth mental health, mental health and ageing, loss and grief and depression and anxiety in adults.

The day and evening session will also include a forum session with a focus on local services and an opportunity for a Q and A session with an expert panel.

As part of the event, we are planning a 3hr QPR suicide intervention training by Wellways ; and a special early morning session on Mentally Health Workplaces for employers.

The full program and the opportunity to register should be available on the Deni MHAG website very soon. “For now, we are asking people to make this a not-to miss event in their calendars and save the date.”, Lourene Liebenberg says.

“The facts are that one in five Australian Adults have a diagnosable mental illness in any one year and one in seven young people aged 4 to 17 years, experience a mental health condition in any given year”.

“Mental health is everyone’s business. Not only do we all have mental health, just as we have physical health; but given the prevalence of mental health conditions (which includes depression and anxiety), we all know someone, or care for someone or work with someone who might be having some difficulty with their mental health or needing some support. This event will have as strong focus on increasing knowledge and understanding and pathways to help”.