In the Wheatbelt region it has become increasingly apparent from men that engage with Holyoake at Community Events, Field Days, along with those that access support from our service, that men were not engaging with generic national or state-based awareness campaigns as they did not identify or resonate with imagery and/or messaging. Holyoake took the initiative to establish focus groups (membership from a cross section of men aged 21 to 75 years, including lived experience, professionals working in the mental health sector and those that identified as ATSI) to collaborate alongside Holyoake to authentically co-design a localised mental health and suicide prevention campaign.
The key themes that emerged were; our males were not looking after their own mental health and wellbeing; they wanted to feel more empowered to be able to take greater control of their mental health, make it a priority, be able to identify risk factors, harmful or unsafe behaviours along with the signs of psychological distress, whilst also reducing stigma around help seeking. This campaign empowered our men to make the move from “I know I need help” to “actively seeking help”.
The Campaigns take home message were clear and concise: Keep it simple, honest, relevant, authentic, vulnerable, and memorable.
4ME & MEN EVERYWHERE Phase 1 was launched during WA Men’s Health Week, along with co-designed merchandise and promotional assets. During Phase 2, focus groups and individuals were re-engaged to develop complimentary ‘calls to actions’ and awareness raising / health promotion messaging. This innovative approach moved away from typical campaign approaches, in that it used co-designed merchandise and promotional assets as the engagement ‘hook’, and then utilised this foundational platform to promote and elevate ‘calls to action’ and awareness raising messaging. This approach has seen significantly increased engagement with the campaign, with Wheatbelt men taking ownership and becoming advocates and champions of 4ME & MEN EVERYWHERE and its powerful awareness raising messaging. This approach has negated the typical costs associated with advertising and marketing, the campaign has become self-perpetuating through Wheatbelt advocates and champions.
This presentation will walk participants through the process of the campaign development, outline our key learnings, and showcase the outcomes of authentic co-design in engaging and empowering one of our most statistically vulnerable sub populations. Inspiring them to invest in their wellbeing, work actively to reduce self-stigma and empower males make positives changes for this generation and future generations.