Gus Worland: Dee Why launch of youth mental health partnership
Helping teenagers help themselves learn how to face the mental challenges of modern life is part of a partnership between a northern beaches charity and the PCYC.
Manly
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Young people struggling with mental health across NSW are set to benefit from a new partnership aimed at helping them become more resilient to life’s challenges.
The northern beaches-based Gotcha4Life Foundation, set up by local, and popular radio personality, Gus Worland, is throwing its support behind a program being run by Police Citizens Youth Clubs (PCYC).
Through GRIT — Growth-mindset Resilience Intervention for Teenagers — the PCYC helps young people better cope with the pressures of life through improving mental fitness and learning ways to build resilience.
Worland, who co-hosts the Dead Set Legends sports talk program on Triple M and is an acclaimed documentary film maker, was at the Northern Beaches PCYC at Dee Why on Monday to announce the partnership that will help deliver mental resilience programs, presentations and workshops to PCYC clubs across NSW.
Gotcha4Life has been working to improve mental health and reduce the number of suicides through counselling, workshops, mentoring support and training programs.
Worland, who said he had previous mental health challenges in his life, told the Manly Daily that building mental fitness — the “social and emotional muscle and the resilience required to deal better with the challenges that life throws at us” — was vitally important.
He praised the PCYC, through GRIT, for making sure that kids were getting more than just physical fitness in their clubs, but building their mental fitness as well.
“There are workshops from Gotcha4Life, ‘Tomorrow Man’ and ‘Tomorrow Woman’, that will support GRIT.
“They basically make the kids look at what the rules are about what it takes to be a man and a woman today compared to when those rules were set so many years ago.
“One example is burying your emotions, manning up and shutting up, compared to what we think these days where it’s ‘man up, speak up’.
“It takes more courage to speak about the issues going on between your ears then pushing them down again.
“If you keep pushing them down, then there’s eventually going to be some sort of ‘pop’.”
PCYC CEO Dominic Teakle said each day 65 PCYC clubs across the state see a total of 100,000 young people who are experiencing anxiety, depression and other mental health challenges,
“That’s why it’s important we help them build the skills they need to develop resilience,” Mr Teakle said.
“This partnership with Gotcha4Life complements our goal to integrate mental resilience skills training with nutrition education, and physical fitness.”
Worland most young people were aware that mental health may be an issue for them, but don’t know to help themselves.
“We are giving them the tools, through the workshops, to start a conversation that is a little more difficult than just your banter conversation. How do you grab one of your mates and say “hey, you’re my best mate and I need you to help me with something’?
“For us, it’s about giving therm those skills that could save their life.”
Gotcha4Life is now also supporting GRIT’s fundraising campaign, the Star Jump Challenge, to provide funding for the rollout of the GRIT program in as many PCYC clubs as possible.
Go to https://www.starjumpchallenge.org.au/
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