By Sonia Isaacs
WORLD Mental Health Day is this Thursday October 10, and a local not for profit is shouting over 1,000 coffees across the community to foster conversation and raise awareness. Silver Fox Initiative founder, Neil Collie said a big day had been planned for the ‘Coffee shout for mental health’ community awareness campaign.
He said he was thrilled with the support from local business owners and several elected representatives to get behind the initiative. The Glass House Mountains resident said he would be offering 250 free coffees across three venues at Beerwah and Glass House Mountains on October 10 but encouraged people to get in early to not miss out.
“Thanks to the generous support of our local businesses and Cr Jenny Broderick, Andrew Powell MP and Jason Hunt MP, we will be buying people coffee to spark some joy and a conversation,” Mr Collie said.
The Coffee Club Beerwah, Reposium Cafe and Glasshouse Grind are all supporting the mental health initiative. Mr Collie said a key aim of his organisation was to take away the stigma around mental health.
He said while the current health system was good in Australia, much more needed to be done, and sometimes just being able to have a chat with someone could make a huge difference to their mental health. “I would like people to feel comfortable enough to be able to call in a day off work if needed for their mental health and be able to say that and feel supported,” he said.
“The stigma still exists; people will call in sick saying they have the flu rather than feel like its acceptable to be honest and say they need a day off to improve their mental health. “We want to help change that, and it all starts with a chat.”
Mr Collie said he felt one of the reasons so many people supported Silver Fox Initiative and wanted to get onboard was because it was a locally run grass roots organisation. “I think being a on-the ground smaller organisation positioned locally and being very personable makes a big difference,” he said.
“Having had struggles myself, the chat is quite easy to get going with others as you feel their pain. “It’s also important to be genuine about the person.” Mr Collie said the organisation raised funds by selling their distinctive but fun active wear shirts. “Seeing people wearing them in our community just makes the chat easy to start,” Mr Collie said. facebook.com/ silverfoxinitiative