A project aimed at raising awareness about the mental health of men in rural communities has been hailed as a success in its first year.
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The Act-Belong-Commit Community Wellbeing Project was run by a partnership of community, sporting and health agencies and attempted to draw upon the benefits and strengths of sporting groups in rural areas to improve awareness and engagement with mental health services.
As part of the project, 27 community events were hosted by clubs in the Outback and Barwon-Darling Country Rugby League competitions across the 2014 season.
These events introduced clubs and communities to the Act-Belong-Commit mental health promotion message developed in Western Australia and adapted for rural NSW along with information on how to recognise signs and symptoms of mental illness and where to seek help in their communities.
Rural Adversity Mental Health Program Development Coordinator Joanne Allen noted that the Act-Belong-Commit mental health promotion campaign was based on research suggesting that being active, having a sense of belonging within a group, and committing to doing something meaningful such as achieving personal goals or giving back to the community, are factors which are associated with being mentally healthy.
"Just as there are things we all can do to stay physically healthy, there are things we can do to keep ourselves mentally healthy," Ms Allen said.
"This is a program that recognises the importance of community groups such as sporting teams in maintaining mental health and wellbeing in communities.
"These players and communities were given a presentation with the same mental health information that is given to the first grade professional players and part of that message is that they are part of the NRL family and their wellbeing is important.
"Of community members responding to the evaluation, 60 per cent indicated that the project had changed the way they thought about mental health or illness and 45 per cent of respondents indicated that they had tried to do something to be more mentally healthy as a result of the project ."
Encouraged by requests from club and community members to follow up the progress made in 2014, Ms Allen encouraged clubs to look forward to next year's program which aims to build on these successes.
"We'd like to encourage communities to look back on the season and feel a sense of achievement for having been a part of it, set themselves some goals for next season and get involved in their clubs again as players or volunteers in 2015," she said.
