RAISING mental health awareness while boosting fitness levels will be the focus of several Mount Gambier residents as they participate in headspace national’s Push-Up challenge this month.
Community teams, including headspace and Mount Gambier and District Hospital staff – will take on the challenge of completing 3128 push-ups during July.
The campaign aims to highlight Australia’s suicide rates, with Dr Gillian Watterson claiming children and adolescents in regional South Australia are “at-risk” due to a number of reasons, including lack of services compared to metropolitan areas.
“As a children’s doctor we look after on average five to 10 young people per day with a mental health disorder,” Dr Watterson said.
“I have seen a number of children and young people locally who benefit from headspace and I refer a lot from my clinic to their service.
“The less formal approach makes the young people feel less nervous about attending and they gain great friendships from young people going through similar issues.”
The Mount Gambier teams will start their push-up journey on Monday with a number of locals already putting their hands up for the challenge.
Headspace community liaison worker Mikarla Papini said the specific number of push-ups to be performed reflects the number of lives lost to mental health issues recorded around Australia last year.
“It raises money for headspace and is close to our heart but we love the idea of it because it incorporates the mental health side with the physical health side while also raising awareness throughout the nation, “Ms Papini said.
“We have 21 days to do the amount of push-ups, which will be split between the teams but we think some may start having a little bit of fun with it.”
Donations can be made to participating teams through headspace, with people able to sign up for the cause through The Push-Up Challenge website.
