Employers and key staff members across the region are encouraged to attend the first of a series of free workshops on mental health planned for the last week in April at Warwick Hospital aimed at improving awareness of mental health issues and how they affect the workplace.
The Warwick Chamber of Commerce Inc and Community Network of Warwick, in partnership with the Warwick Hospital, is supporting the Warwick and Southern Downs community through a calendar of free community training and workshops.
Held on-site at the Warwick Hospital, Locke Street, Warwick, in the executive meeting room, the first in the series of community education and training will be a four-hour ‘Mental Health First Aid’ course focused on how to provide support and help to someone considering self-harm or suicide.
The course will be held on Thursday 27 April, commencing at 9.40am for registration.
Warwick Chamber of Commerce Inc president Julia Keogh says the skills and insight that can be taken from this workshop would be of assistance to anyone in our community.
“An interested adult can attend the free training and we stress that the course is not a therapy or support group, rather it is an education course and it is important that people undertaking the course are relatively robust when they attend,” she said.
Ms Keogh said the Queensland Suicide Prevention Action Plan 2015-17 had its major goal of achieving a 50 per cent reduction in suicide in Queensland within a decade.
“We have been actively building our Southern Downs Collaborative Community Care partnerships during the past few years and those partnerships now provide that essential connection between commerce and our community,” Ms Keogh said.
“We only needed to find a suitable location to hold regular workshops, close to all necessary facilities and regular access to highly-skilled trainers and workshop facilitators.
“Our partnership with Warwick Hospital to provide the venue was the final piece in the jigsaw.
“From a chamber perspective, a well-informed business community can start to address the December-January 2017 company director report showing that untreated mental health disorders are costing Australian employers around $10.9 billion each year.
“However, the Chamber of Commerce and Industry Qld (CCIQ) stated back in 2014, that there was evidence to show that for every $1 that a business invests in mental health, there is a return of $2.30.
“Happy and healthy employees create happy and healthy workplaces.
“So my challenge to all employers in our region, in fact, to all living, working or volunteering in the Southern Downs, is to take full advantage of the first Collaborative Community Care workshop focusing on Mental Health First Aid, on 27 April.
“By encouraging key staff members to attend this training, employers across the Southern Downs will be leading the way in building a resilient, well-informed workforce.”
Inquiries to Julia Keogh on 0438 665 440.
