In a mammoth step towards one day ending the stigma surrounding men's mental health, McGrath's Adam Sutherland, Lucas Sheppard and Ben Reynolds recently held their second Movember event.
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Tackling the issue of mental health, a subject many still struggle to speak about, the trio decided to make this something the Mudgee community can participate in.
Last Friday, their second Movember campaign was held at Huntington Estate with 53 Food Co that featured the different perspectives of Jeff Lord, Ben Gregory and Dr. Alex Ghanem which saw approximately 250 attendees participate in conversations about mental health.
Typically, the event features a 'best mo' competition but this year, a 'best mullet' competition was introduced to allow for men who are facial-follically-challenged or cannot grow one due to work to participate.
"We decided to do Movember last year and made it a competition with a public vote to see who won the best mow. This year, because there are a lot of places of employment with a clean shaven policy, we decided to add the mullet contest," Adam Sutherland said.
We wanted to grow it, not about raising money, but getting people to talk about men's health, to actually talk rather than just raising money.
- Adam Sutherland
Having each experienced mental illness in some capacity, the McGrath Movember team are hoping their campaign offers a place for men to feel comfortable about sharing their experiences or daily battles.
"Lucas, Ben and myself have either ourselves or had family members who have experienced some form of mental health illness to some extent, whether that be anxiety or depression," Adam said.
"We're very open at work, we all talk about it and are vulnerable. It started from there.
"A lot of wives, partners and girlfriends are just as critical in being supportive for the male who is going through some sort of illness, they're the support crutch and they might not even know it sometimes.
"There's so much focus on women's health and that is fantastic, but men's health seems to be something that's never really talked about through society so that's where we're coming from."
Smokin Bro & Co was a sponsor for the event and supplied trophies for 'people's choice' and the 'dirty pork star' for the "wildest, roughest, dirtiest moustache".
Owner Brody Crawford said "any support in regards to these issues is good support".
"Mental health and men's mental health in general is a very important issue. Men tend to try to deal with their mental issues themselves and hold a lot in," he said.
"These kind of events help open up the conversation about men's mental health and give blokes a chance to open up and exhaust some of the things that they hold in.
"It's important that we can feel comfortable to reach out for help whether it's from a family member, friend or complete stranger and these causes help make that happen.
"Like most people, I have fought with my own demons over the decades and with some support, I've overcome the tougher side of most of my issues. Anxiety is something I deal with day to day but over the years have developed my own "tools" to deal with it which is proving successful."
It is likely the event will return in future years with hopes set on more open conversation events held at various points throughout the year.
"We've had some great feedback. We would rather not wait until November next year to do it again but hope to find times we can have another event like this to break down the barriers and stigma attached to men's health," Adam said.
If you would like to donate to the cause, head to https://movember.com/m/14019359?mc=1.
Sobering statistics
According to Lifeline,
- 75 per cent of those who take their own life are male
- People in rural populations are two times more likely to die by suicide
- Males aged 85 and older experience the highest age-specific rate of suicide
- 1 in 4 Australians are lonely and have no-one to speak to
If you have any concerns about yourself or a loved one, please contact the NSW Mental Health Line on 1800 011 511 (free call for landlines) for advice, or Lifeline on 13 11 14.