Women are twice as likely to be diagnosed with depression or anxiety, and one in five women compared to one in eight men suffer from mental ill health or disorder, and young females are more likely to experience psychological distress than young males.
Recognising the importance of supporting women and young girls last week Big Picture Health (BPH) and the Black Dog institute teamed up in Ballina to run the ‘Girls can play’ – move for mental health basketball bonanza at the Ballina Indoor Sports Centre.
‘The event was designed to gather the girls together and reflect the five research based strategies to support the mental health and wellbeing of women and teenage girls: Greater emphasis on social support Supporting one another rather than competing Emphasising achievement, improvement and ability Empowering women and girls through role modelling Educating on skills and strategies for resilience, emotional regulation, and stress management,’ said a spokesperson for BPH.
Big Picture Health is a local social enterprise who works closely with community and schools to provide programs and workshops for women and youth to empower and educate through experience using positive strength based and preventative health practices.
‘We had a great turn out and we were proudly supported by the Athletes Foot in Ballina who donated vouchers and shoe bags for all of our participants. Girls ranged in age from 6–17 years of age and we had a couple of amazing mums join us as well!. We had so much fun and raised money for mental health research and education and support programs,’ said Kellie Coates, founder of BPH.
‘When women and young women connect to support and work together we achieve improved wellbeing, positive resilience change and then we role model this behaviour for others. We aim to empower women of action by growing girls with grit.’
‘Girls can play’ is just one of the programs run by BPH using sport as the vehicle for this program, it can be run in any sporting context and it is all about learning skills for the game and life. For more information on BPH see their website: www.bigpicturehealth.com.au.
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