In a bid to shine a light on mental health for young people, headspace Bunbury are holding a number of events this week.
To celebrate Mental Health Week they will be hosting a community walk around the Big Swamp on October 10, followed by some food and activities including drumming from 10am.
headspace Bunbury community engagement office Penny McCall said it was a great week to promote services available within the South West.
“For young people in particular it’s great to reduce the stigma, to get everybody on board doing some mentally healthy activities,” she said.
“Around the CBD have a look on the ground because we’re going to be writing some mentally health messages on the pavement and encouraging people to share those.”
Pathways South West with the help of several community organisations are also supporting Mental Health Week with an exhibition, Make Your Mark, to open up peoples perception of art.
The exhibition was launched on Monday night at the Bunbury Regional Art Gallery and will be open until October 14.
Pathways group support coordinator Kerry Starnes said there would be more than 60 pieces of art included.
“Art can take people’s minds off things and they can actually concentrate and be working on something, they don’t think about other things that might be going,” she said.
Chorus mental health services manager Jerry Caruana said the week was about providing education, awareness and events where people could come together.
“The idea of mental health week is to provide exposure and awareness around mental illness, what it means and that it is OK and quite normal, everybody typically experiences some sort of mental illness during their lives,” he said.
“It’s about making it more known and helping people to understand they can get help.”
