The Y WA is embracing Mental Health Week from 5-12 October with the launch of their sixth annual short film series Inside Our Minds, aiming to reduce stigma, raise awareness, and encourage support-seeking of the mental ill-health of young people in Western Australia.
Each year the project works with young people from traditionally underrepresented communities. In 2024, seven courageous young people experiencing mental health issues and disability in their lives will be heard.
The award-winning series, which is supported by Mineral Resources (MinRes), will see a video released each day during Mental Health Week across the Y WA’s social media networks, as well as playing throughout the week at the Northbridge Piazza, in Yagan Square and across the Curtin University Campus.
In 2024 the Y WA engaged young person Rachael Burns as a volunteer to support the project. Rachael is a passionate youth advocate in both mental health and disability spaces and drew on her lived experience, assisting to guide the development of this year’s campaign, and taking part as one of the seven young people being heard in the video series.
Rachael said, “For me, sharing and speaking has many purposes. I speak publicly not only to help others struggling with mental ill health but also those caring for people experiencing mental ill health. I aim to prevent similar experiences to what I went through, increase understanding, promote compassion and human dignity, and breakdown stigma surrounding these conditions. I also speak to bring justice to my own experiences and to heal the part of me that was silenced for so long. The part that was denied a voice and hidden in the shadows.”
The series has chosen not to dive into the details of each young person’s disability, unless the young people themselves choose to share it. Ensuring diversity across many forms of disability, participants include neurodivergent young people, people with chronic illness and people with physical disabilities. Additionally, this year’s campaign raises an important conversation around how mental illness itself can also be considered a disability.
According to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare almost one in two (48 per cent) people with severe or profound disability, and 37 per cent of people with other forms of disability, self-reported anxiety disorders such as feeling anxious, nervous or tense. This compares with 14% of people without disability.
The Y WA CEO Dr Tim McDonald said, “Every year when we work on a new Inside Our Minds series, we have the privilege of providing a platform for young people to share their lived mental health experiences. At the Y WA one of our primary goals is to assist our youth community to flourish and give them a voice so this initiative has become a crucial event in our annual calendar.”
This year The Periscope Crew, staffed and run by young people with disabilities, did the filming, production, and editing work. The beauty of the engagement with The Periscope Crew elevated the campaign’s process, being produced by and with young people with disabilities, telling the stories of other young people with disabilities.
Inside Our Minds was started by a young person at the Y WA, Martin Johnson, who now works for MinRes but continues to oversee work on the project. MinRes has partnered with the Y WA to support the video series since 2021. In addition to financial support, MinRes provides a media studio at its headquarters to film the series.
MinRes Psychologist and Head of Mental Health Chris Harris said MinRes recognised the importance of partnering with organisations such as the Y WA to encourage open conversations and breakdown the stigma surrounding mental health.
“At MinRes we know that mental health is just as important as physical health. We aim to provide an environment that actively promotes taking care of your mental health and providing opportunities for our employees to seek support when they need it,” Chris said.
“We’re proud to join forces with organisations like the Y WA to extend that support to the wider community. By funding this video series, we aim to help raise awareness and foster understanding about the mental health challenges faced by young people, particularly those with a disability.”
Over the last five years, the themes for Inside Our Minds have included culturally and linguistically diverse young people, Indigenous mental health and LGBTQIA+ young people.
View the 2024 Inside Our Minds video series and teaser here.
If you are experiencing an emotional crisis and require urgent support, you can phone Lifeline to speak to a Crisis Supporter on 13 11 14, text 0477 131 114 or chat to Lifeline online at www.lifeline.org.au (all services are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week). If you or anyone you know is experiencing mental health issues the Y suggest contacting Beyond Blue on 1300 224 636.
