10th October, 2013
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REDUCING THE STIGMA OF MENTAL ILLNESS: The Wesley LifeForce Service Finder website. |
A new website offering fast access to suicide prevention, crisis support and mental health services across Australia has been unveiled by the Wesley Mission on World Mental Health Day.
Developed with funding from the federal Department of Health, Wesley LifeForce Service Finder website enables people to access contact numbers of key support services via their computer or mobile device.
Rev Dr Keith Garner, CEO of Wesley Mission, says the new website will "save lives".
"The Wesley LifeForce Service Finder is designed to help reduce the stigma people feel when they seek help," he says. "It will also mean more people will get the support they need when they need it."
Wesley Mission says the launch of the website on World Mental Health Day underlines the day’s objectives of encouraging help seeking behaviour, reducing the stigma associated with mental illness and fostering connectivity throughout communities.
Wesley LifeForce, which works in the areas of prevention or suicide as well as intervention and ‘postvention’, was created in 1995 in response to the increasing number of suicides occurring in Australia. More than 15,000 Australians have taken workshops led by the Wesley LifeForce team.
Wesley Mission’s work in the area of suicide prevention goes back at least 50 years when it founded the Lifeline movement.
~ www.wesleymission.org.au/wesleylifeforceservicefinder
– DAVID ADAMS
