Four years of women's space at Mental Health Festival

Elizabeth doing a Reiki Session

An array of mental health, clinical health and health promotion services from the region have been coming together for eight years to organise this one-day festival. It is organised as part of World Mental Health Day.

Women's Health West (WHW) coordinated the women's tent space for the fourth year on Thursday 10th October 2007 at Footscray Community Arts Centre. "The women's space is very welcoming and warm" says Jenny. While Margaret said, "It's great to get a hand massage or your nails done by friendly people". When asked what she liked about the women's space this year, Betty said, "It's awesome."

From the beginning it looked like a perfect day, women engaged in activities in and around the tent space in the glorious sunshine; some women chose to chill out or grab some health information. Others participated in the stretching activities conducted by Kirsten Campbell, WHW health promotion worker. Women were also invited to contribute to draw or write about actions they can take in their daily lives to promote positive change. This process, facilitated by WHW researcher Joy Free, is designed to develop a women's power card set, to promote the mental health and wellbeing of women. "I loved the drawing," says Mary about her contribution to the power card set.

Nail Pampering Young woman getting her nails done

Then the heavens opened up and we retreated to the small intimate space in the tent where reiki by Elizabeth Mazeyko was very popular. "Next year you should have more people doing Reiki, so that nobody misses out" said Lilly who convinced Elizabeth to fit in just one more massage at the end of the day.

Health workers from ISIS Primary Care and North Western BreastScreen come together each year to run a women's health quiz. This is a fun way for women to explore knowledge and have their questions answered. The quiz has now become tradition.

Working together at the festival was a great time for women's health workers from services across the region too. It's great for us, to come together and as Kirsten from WHW says 'to have the day in the sunshine too".

Congratulations to Veronica, Kirsten, Joy and N'Deane from WHW, Jen and Susan from North Western BreastScreen, Rachel Sabbah from Western Region Health Centre and Anne O'Conner from ISIS Primary Care for creating a fantastic space for women to celebrate together.