This week our guest speaker was Michelle Gerdts - General Manager of Read the Play, Mental Health Geelong based Charity.
The Group brings Mental Health and Wellbeing programs to the Barwon region sporting clubs and would like to bring the Read the Play program to sporting clubs in Colac.
They have been operating for about 17 years and have had 30,000 participants over that time. 48% of participants had experienced or witnessed cyber bullying in the past 12 months. Only 57% sought help. 2 out of 3 young people experienced or knew someone who had experienced a mental health difficulty in the last 12 months. Only 58% of males and 76% of females sought help.
Read the Play is a unique program that uses young people's engagement with sport and connection to their local club to deliver important messages that improve mental health literacy and knowledge about where to seek help for mental health problems.
Some of the programs are:
14-16 year olds
Huddle Up and MVP - which aims to increase knowledge on mental health, promote help seeking behaviour and influence beliefs and attitudes related to identifying and responding to their peers who may be at risk of mental ill-health or cyber bullying.
16-18 year olds
Play on - Increase mental health literacy, increase knowledge of the impact underage alcohol use can have on mental health, strong focus on influencing beliefs and attitudes towards underage drinking and increasing confidence in being able to respond to at risk peers.
Take a Chance - Increase knowledge of the impact that poor mental health can have on decision making and risk taking, strong focus on understanding why young people take risks and teaching the skills to assess risks, acknowledging that it's great to try new things and to be mindful of consequences and staying safe.
