Queenslanders are being encouraged to take time for themselves after latest Queensland Health survey of just over 5000 Queenslanders found just 14 per cent had rated their mental wellbeing as high.
The survey, which was conducted over a 12-month period, also found 18 per cent indicated they had high mental resilience, while 46 per cent of Queenslanders expressed low mental resilience when confronted with a stressful or disruptive situation.
Princess Alexandra Hospital Mental Health Director Dr Manaan Kar Ray said normalising and talking about mental health was the first step in addressing stigma around mental health.
“One in four people are living with a mental health challenge worldwide, but the eyes can’t see what the mind doesn’t know,” Dr Kar Ray said.
Dr Kar Ray said there were several ways people could improve their wellbeing such as going for a walk, working in the garden, calling a friend or even listening to a podcast.
“Knowledge is power and mental health podcasts deliver helpful information in a way that’s easy to digest.”
Creative, Social and Digital Media Manager and podcast host Elise Meakin said Queensland Health’s latest season of the My Amazing Body podcast focuses specifically on mental health, and has so far garnered more than 67,900 listens.
“It’s been an intense year and a half for a lot of Queenslanders, so we created something special to help support them,” Ms Meakin said.
“We hope this podcast will give Queenslanders some of the tools they need to help improve their mental wellbeing while reducing the stigma that still surrounds mental health conditions.
“By developing five specific podcast episodes that explore the physical and chemical reactions our bodies go through when we are experiencing mental health conditions like depression and anxiety, we hope to breakdown the stigma and open up conversations about mental health.”
Moreton Bay for Peach Tree Perinatal Wellness Locations Coordinator Jen McCall who features on Queensland Health mental wellbeing podcast said it wasn’t until she connected with the organisation, she realised she experienced perinatal depression and anxiety.
“I wasn’t ever diagnosed, and I didn’t really know that what I was experiencing was perinatal depression, until some years later when I put it all together,” she said.
“All I knew was that motherhood was not the idyllic and beautiful experience that I had expected it to be. And that I just wasn’t really sure whether everybody was pretending.
“I really, really loved having a child, it just seemed to be like this thing that you just had to endure rather than really enjoy as such.
“There were parts that I enjoyed, but it was really more just like an endurance race of like, ‘You can get through this’.”
You can catch Jen’s full story and the entire My Amazing Body podcast series on all podcast streaming apps (e.g Spotify and Audiocraft) or here: Podcast: My Amazing Body | Queensland Health
