Farmer Peter Milton, his wife and Iluka employees have been working hard in the community with the assistance of headspace Bunbury to encourage people to start a conversation about mental health through Clementine the Mental Health Cow.
It has been one year since headspace began working with the team and in this time Clementine has been taken to schools to meet more than 500 students, to Mental Health week activities, celebrated R U OK? Day at Iluka minesite and even made a visit to Parliament house.
The collaboration has been very successful in engaging young people in a creative way that breaks down the stigma of mental health.
Mental Health is still a sensitive subject that many do not feel comfortable discussing. Headspace works hard in the community to normalise the conversation and the Clementine initiative married up well with headspaces’ goal.
Clementine is somewhat of an eye-sore in the school yard and students love to come and ask why she is there and it enables us to start a conversation. This random encounter with a cow is then talked about in the class room, in the home and among friends.
Clementine also has a partner Winston, a Steer that is donated, raised by the Miltons and then auctioned at the Royal Show with funds going to the Black Dog Charity Ride.
For the past two years the team have held a free event for members of the public to come together, meet Clementine and celebrate mental health. This year, more than 100 people stopped to have a pat of Clementine and a chat at Bunbury’s Back Beach.
Headspace Bunbury community engagement officer Penny McCall said the response from those who visited Clementine was incredible.
“It was beautiful to see so many community members come together to talk about mental health,” she said.
“The community is very passionate about reducing the stigma around mental health.”
In 2018 the team are hoping to take Clementine to many schools and continue raising awareness of mental health and encouraging people to have important conversations.