Gold Industry Group and LIVIN to Spread Mental Health Message

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OUT AND ABOUT: The Gold Industry Group (GIG) has struck a new community partnership with mental health charity LIVIN.

The Gold Industry Group said the partnership was aimed at raising awareness of mental health and changing the way the mining industry and society understands, perceives and interprets mental illness.

According to a recent audit conducted by the Department of Mines and Petroleum into the psychosocial harms in the mining and resources industry, there is much to be done to protect staff with an improvement in the level of consultation with the workforce on mental health and wellbeing being identified as needing to be addressed sooner rather than later.

The Gold Industry Group is a not-for-profit, member-based industry association representing gold producers, explorers, prospectors and service providers.

The new partnership will entail the Group and its members working with LIVIN to raise awareness of mental health and engage workers and the community.

“We are proud to partner with LIVIN in an effort to connect, support and inspire others to speak up and seek help,” Gold Industry Group chairperson and Perth Mint chief executive officer Richard Hayes said.

“We are looking forward to coordinating a GIG LIVIN Tour with our members and the Goldfields community next month, from 12 to 19 June.”

The highlight of the GIG LIVIN Tour will be a free community event to be held in Kalgoorlie on Wednesday 14 June with the City of Kalgoorlie-Boulder to deliver a youth engagement project and a workshop for employees.

Mental health statistics in Australia present a frightening reality with one in four people affected by a mental health condition in their lifetime.

Suicide is the leading cause of death for Australians aged 15 to 44.

The alarming side to this being Indigenous Australians recording the highest rate of suicide in the world, an issue that requires the community to work together to support each other and raise awareness.

“In partnership with the Gold Industry Group, we aim to increase mental health literacy by giving people the basic tools and understanding to seek help and to support others in need,” LIVIN co-founder and Survivor contestant Sam Webb said.

Webb co-founded LIVIN with Casey Lyons in 2013, in honour of close friend Dwayne Lally and other close friends and family who took their own lives after suffering from a mental illness.

“It’s about LIVIN your life at the top and destroying the stigma attached to mental illness,” Webb continued.

“We want men and women to know that they are not alone and ‘It Ain’t Weak to Speak’.”

That adage is the core of LIVIN’s mission, which it hopes will encourage and inspire people to speak up and seek help.

LIVIN wants to break down the stigma surrounding the false perception that mental health issues are a form of personal weakness.

A stigma that has meant sufferers are often silent about their challenges — both to avoid the shame of having a personal or mental weakness, and for fear of being seen as a problem employee that needs to go. 

The consequences surrounding this false perception have been devastating and many people continue to suffer, with an increasing number being lost through suicide.

“For too long mental illness and suicide has been perceived as a weakness, but mental illness is no different to other illnesses such as cancer, heart disease and diabetes. We will change this,” Webb’s LIVIN partner Casey Lyons said.

Through education and the use of fashion, social media and well respected people, LIVIN influences generational change with a fresh, new approach to mental health.

Following an audit of 140 resources and mining companies, the Department of Mines and Petroleum said it was important to address physiological risks within an overall safety and health management system.

“It is important that the prevention of work related stressors is incorporated into all health and safety procedures and these results have shown that there is still much to be done in this space as well,” DMP resources safety Executive director Simon Ridge said.

“Risks to psychological and physical health due to work should be viewed in the same manner as other workplace risks.”

Gold Industry Group members championing the tour include The Perth Mint, The City of Kalgoorlie-Boulder, Gold Road Resources, Ramelius Resources, Kalgoorlie-Boulder Chamber of Commerce and Industry and Cannings Purple.

The GIG LIVIN community event will be held in Kalgoorlie on Wednesday 14 June: