“It was fantastic,” Be Health director Meg Perceval said. She was pleased to see a diverse mix of genders and professionals in the group of around 40 who attended the free workshop.

“We covered some pretty heavy ground, and certainly some pretty challenging topics at different times, but (there was) really wonderful interaction and participation from the audience and I got some fantastic feedback as well that people just really appreciated it and had learnt a lot,” she said.

Hosted by Inverell Picnic Race Club, Meg covered a range of content throughout the afternoon, including health, mental illness statistics and how to help others. She said different personalities tended to connect with different aspects of the seminar.

“Some people really latch onto the dimensions of health and all the different aspects of what it means to be healthy and how we can improve our health and then other people are quite blown away by some of the statistics around suicide and mental illness in Australia,” she said.

She said many found the theory around why people lose their lives to suicide very moving.

“There were a few tears in the audience at different times,” she said. Meg presented an action plan, encouraging participants to discuss in depth how they could assist others. They were then able to put their new knowledge to work, roleplaying possible scenarios.  

“They really appreciate that, and they found even the people who aren’t necessarily engaging directly in that can learn a lot from watching others have a go at it,” Meg said.

Picnic Race Club secretary Rachel McLennan said the group were thrilled to see so many embrace the afternoon. She found the course very interactive, and said that helped keep everyone lighthearted throughout the heavy topics.

Anyone interested in mental health training can contact Meg on 0428 299 101.