(Jaine)
This past week we went to three more agencies. One of the organizations that we had the pleasure of visiting was the “Young &Well Cooperative Research Center.” This Youth Center is currently taking incredible strides towards bringing together resources for youth and tackling challenges for mental health, well being, and Australia’s leading cause of death, suicide. The center mostly provides programs for more targeted, marginalized groups through clinical services. Nevertheless, their programs are available to all youth and they offer universal support through a series of apps. The apps are geared to keep young people engaged in the importance of a positive well-being and to encourage youth to begin conversations with family members regarding their mental health. It is amazing how efficiently Young & Well CRC campaigns their services to the public! Young people all around Australia know how to connect with either their website, hotline, or apps, if they were to ever be vulnerable to the stigmas of mental health. I strongly believe that the US lacks in the “campaigning” aspect of Mental Health. It appears to me that Australians have an increased overall awareness of the topic, and services available are a lot more known to the public. I suppose that if I were to look at it from a population perspective, the total amount of people occupying Australia is equivalent to that of just California. Although it may be more difficult to increase mindfulness throughout our country, I still believe that a lot more can be done to make sure that our young people are informed about possible outlets that can aid in their Mental Health and Well-being.
I love the ways that this organization utilizes technology to campaign their services. I find it pretty cool that this program has the capability of gaging how much their technology is improving youth’s well-being over time. While talking to the directors of the agency, I could tell that their usage of apps has really turned out to be successful! They have come up with various apps regarding positive reinforcement after relationship breakups, drinking responsibly, nice messages to send to friends and family, and my favorite, an app to navigate a person’s playlist to enhance their mood. “Music eScape” can be found on iTunes and it basically categorizes an individual’s music library into songs that are happy, sad, angry, and various other moods. Then, if a person is feeling down they can simply open the app and play a song in the “happy” category to uplift their spirits…Genius! I personally love the idea of this app because I am constantly listening to music throughout the day and I have realized the effects that genres of songs can have on my mood. Once I download this app, I will for sure keep my playlist on “Super Happy Nae” so that I can blissfully dance all of my worries away!
(Erin)
Looking back on this past weekend, I cannot believe how many activities we fit into a short three day trip to the Great Ocean Road and the Grampians. I have to give a big thank you to our tour guide Katie for planning a perfect weekend full of natural beauty and meditation. After this weekend, I am a changed person, much more in touch with my emotions and appreciative for the world around me.
On day 1 riding along the Great Ocean Road, we made frequent stops at the finest Victorian attractions. The weather was quite cold and rainy, but thankfully it was very hard to focus on the rain when we were experiencing such incredible sights. One truly beautiful moment was walking through the rainforest with the rain trickling (or pouring) down on us as we got about half way through the walk. While most times in life I have detested the rain, in this moment, I felt at peace with nature. The rain had a way of glistening so brightly on the indigenous ferns. It made me stop to think about how lucky I was to be experiencing something so unique to where I was in the world. I had many of these moments along the Great Ocean Road where I was able to embrace the opportunity that I have b
een given to travel to Australia with such an amazing group of people. Another special moment from this day was a walk through an alley where wild Australian birds flew down and gracefully landed on all of our hands and heads. We could have spent hours walking up and down that alley. At one point I had four birds on me at once…thankfully none of the birds had any accidents, if you know what I mean!
Early in the morning on day 2, I was happy to have gotten out of bed early for sunrise meditation with our tour guide Katie. We walked to a spot near the 12 Apostles where the sunrise could be seen in the distance, coupled with a few wild kangaroos hopping along as they woke up and stretched their legs. Meditation is a very new thing for me, but I was able to feel its power right away. It set me up for a day full of mindfulness and “creating my own energy,” as Katie says. We stopped at many different places on the Great Ocean Road, and even had a barbeque and my very first “shrimp on the barbie”. At night we stayed in cabins at a Grampians caravan park, which was a very different experience for a lot of us. My favorite part was when we circled around the campfire at night and shared what we had most enjoyed about our Australian adventure thus far. I have always had a love for campfires, but this experience added a special twist to a typical night at the campfire. We shared things that made us feel closer as a group and appreciate all of the amazing things we have seen and done in the last few weeks.
Unfortunately, the Great Ocean Road trip came to an end on the third day, but not until we had made a few more unbelievable stops. We walked down what seemed like a million steps to a breathtaking waterfall and again had a mediation session led by
Katie. What was even more amazing was the hard work that each person put into walking up and down the steps. Everyone comes from different backgrounds of physical fitness, so to see everyone able to accomplish this was incredible. It highlighted Katie’s guidance to use other people’s energy to create your own energy, allowing you to push yourself to limits you never thought were possible.
Overall, this second week was nothing less than spectacular. Although our trip to the Great Ocean Road has come to an end, these are moments I will hold onto for a lifetime. I look forward to what next week brings. I am excited to finish out the last few agency visits and see what new insight they have to offer!
Erin and Jaine