Alison Kelly
Became a carer, at the age of 6, for her mother who had been constantly suicidal throughout her life.
Vision
We are committed to being recognised as a world leader in the delivery of prevention and early intervention mental health strategies.
Values
Creativity, Commitment, Mindfulness, Integrity, Community
Who we work with:
- School aged children and young people aged 10-18
- Aboriginal Torres Strait Islander populations
- CALD Youths
- LGBTIQ+ communities
- Workplaces SMB, SME, & NGO's
Program Model:
The Mind Blank program model is designed to cover the following topics: signs and symptoms of mental health issues, addressing negative self-talk and low self-esteem, building resilience, conflict resolution skill building, mental health help-seeking, self-care, and mindfulness practices.
The program is conducted by professional actors and trained up health care workers to facilitate workshops designed to supports students to build resilience skills and have conversations that save lives.
Through interactive theatre the facilitators can guide the audience through scene work in order to build awareness of the subject matter and learn new skills. Students are guided to problem-solve alternate pathways for the characters in the scene work provided. This format gives the audience the power to visually see the scenes play out with alternate solutions.
Currently than 1% of government funding towards mental health programs is invested into prevention strategies. We have been pioneering a new path to focus on what is important. For example: investing in our children through early intervention practices is powerful. It is one of the biggest returns of investments as it builds the foundation for life!
The case for the support and benefits of investing in wellbeing and prevention are overwhelming:
Prevention-focused approaches are more cost-effective than treatment approaches [1]
Australia has succeeded in reducing the burden of disease of many health conditions (infectious diseases, cancers, diabetes, heart disease, stroke) by focusing on prevention at the same time as improving treatments. Primary prevention has been neglected in mental health policy and the personal, social and economic impacts of mental ill-health have not decreased in over 25 years [2]
Investing in wellbeing and prevention of mental ill-health can have a positive flow-on effect supporting children to go on to live a long and contributing life [3]
There is strong evidence that mental health conditions are not inevitable, and many common conditions can be prevented from occurring, or at least substantially delayed, through a focus on prevention [4]
By bring in an arts based model to help educate the public we offer a unique service offering that is like nothing that is currently being offered. Research on our program model confirms evidence to support increased help-seeking and a reduction of mental health stigma as an outcome of the program [5].
1. https://everymind.org.au/mental-health/prevention-and-promotion-approaches
2. https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports-data/health-conditions-disability-deaths/burden-of-disease/overview
3. https://www.mentalhealthcommission.gov.au/getmedia/5b7112be-6402-4b23-919d-8fb9b6027506/National-Children%E2%80%99s-Mental-Health-and-Wellbeing-Strategy-%E2%80%93-Report
4. https://www.who.int/mental_health/evidence/en/prevention_of_mental_disorders_sr.pdf
5. https://ro.uow.edu.au/theses1/662/