Mental Health Expo will return to Murray Bridge

This sponsored story is brought to you by iReach.

The Mental Health and Well-Being Expo is returning to Murray Bridge for its 18th year and is promising to promote connection and provide valuable resources to help the local community with their mental health and well-being.

The free community event will focus on improving awareness and understanding of mental health and well-being in the community through the countless activities scheduled on the day.

Bronwyn Heard, Committee Chair and one of the 2 representatives from IREACH Rural Health expressed that the various activities planned for the day are designed to get the community talking with each other.

"A lot of it is around sharing and educating people about the services that are available in Murray Bridge," she said.

So what activities are planned for the day?

Sean Phillip, founder of The Shaka Project will be delivering a presentation at 1pm on suicide prevention.

Mr Phillip founded The Shaka Project in 2019 with the goal of changing the suicide statistics in Australia.

The Shaka Project has since delivered over 500 mental health presentations across Australia.

At the core of all his presentations, Mr Phillip promotes the message "It's okay, not to be okay".

Visitors can enjoy a range of activities throughout the day, including designing their own henna tattoos and receiving a short seated massages from the team at Invision by Felicity.

iReach is offering a sensory space to visitors that want to take a break from the day's events and have a calming space to breathe. The sensory room can be found in the Vicki Nottage Gallery.

Alongside the sensory room, the Vicki Nottage Gallery will feature an exhibition of artworks for visitors to look at as part of the on-going Youth Art Prize exhibition.

Food will be provided through the day with Murray Bridge Woolworths supplying fresh fruit for morning tea while Riverside Woodfired Pizzas will be providing a free lunch and are catering for those with gluten and dairy allergies.

Coffee will be available from the Second Beginnings coffee van alongside Coffee with a Cop and Chatty Café.

Visitors will be given a free raffle ticket and a coffee voucher on arrival, with prizes to be handed out throughout the day.

The event will be hosted at the Performing Art + Function Centre on Friday, October 16 and will run from 10am-3pm.

• Get help: Talk to your GP; find a local mental health service that suits you at murraymallee.servicesdirectory.org.au; call Lifeline on 13 11 14 or Beyond Blue on 1300 224 636; or, in an emergency, call 000.

Advertising to more than 20,000 highly engaged locals can do wonders for your business. Call Jane Intini on 0418 835 768 or email jane@murraybridge.news.