The Ride the Wave project (Phase 1) was delivered in 2024 in the coastal towns of Exmouth, Carnarvon and Kalbarri in Western Australia (WA). The project, part of a long term postvention response, amplified the voices of local community people to share in the community media forms of videos, radio messages and posters to reduce the stigma towards mental health challenges, promote help seeking behaviour and provide education around risk and protective factors.
Towns along the coast of the Midwest and Gascoyne have experienced higher than usual levels of suicide over the last few years. These towns are small and often isolated, resulting in large ripple effects from each death. The Western Australian Suicide Prevention Framework 2021–2025 report highlights many of the risk factors seen in these rural and remote towns.
Research by Meadows and Foxwell (2011) found that community broadcasting makes a significant contribution to mental health within the community by empowering audiences to better understand and control issues that impact their emotional and social wellbeing. Involvement in the development of messages in itself is an empowering process for individuals who are role models and advocates of change, sharing their experience to help others within the community (Granger et al., 2018). This transfers to the community who are then empowered to make a change as they engage with content of someone in a similar context who has made a transformation.
The Ride the Wave project used the powerful tool of community media to support people in sharing lived experiences of their mental health journey, ways they stay mentally healthy and how they might check in on a mate who may be struggling. Although all community could participate in the project, men were highly encouraged to ensure content reflected the need in community. In each of the towns, there was overwhelming positive response to content developed. Participants felt a sense of empowerment that their lived experience story created dialogue in the community, reducing stigma around mental illness, promoting protective factors and encouraging help seeking behaviour. There is hope that these conversations will begin to shift the stigmatised attitude towards mental illness to create a better future for all in the community. Due to the success of the project, Phase 2 is currently being implemented in more coastal towns along the Midwest and Gascoyne of WA.