Mental Health Awareness Week: Balance Aotearoa putting on concert in Whanganui

Jamie Rickards and Rana Aston of Balance Aotearoa. Photo / Bevan Conley

Balance Aotearoa is holding a free concert in Majestic Square to kick off Mental Health Awareness Week in Whanganui in mid-September.

Balance is a charitable trust that provides peer support and education for mental health and addiction. Balance’s Jamie Rickards is organising the event and as a musician, she thought the concert would be a great way to get the community together as Whanganui was a musical city.

“I have a lot of very talented friends and know a lot of very talented people that I knew would give up their time and efforts for the cause,” she said.

The performers for the day would range from country to the blues with the show headlined by local band The Replicants.

Spot prizes will also be available for awards like the coolest dancer and the funkiest-dressed person.

Rickards hoped the event would provide a sense of community to those who come.

“Because we’re better off as one,” she said.

It would also provide more information on the services available to people and raise awareness.

Mental Health Awareness Week was created by the Mental Health Foundation of New Zealand as a way of making the public more aware of both mental health and the local services available to help those with mental health struggles.

“It’s a good week to try and thank the people that work in mental health, plus know that there are places here in Whanganui that will help and support you through those times,” Rickards said.

The week was needed, she said, as struggles with mental health and mental illness were prevalent in the community.

“Either people have been touched by mental illness or they have a family member or a friend who has needed support.”

She said the most common issue she saw around mental health in Whanganui was the stigma still attached to talking about getting help.

“I feel like a lot more people would get help if it wasn’t... such a taboo subject.”

However, this had been lifting over the last decade or so, and the week was part of this, as it also served as a way of normalising mental health struggles.

“Everyone struggles and you may have different variances of your struggle, but it is all a hill that we’ve either climbed ourselves or had to help someone climb,” she said.

Balance service manager Rana Aston said this year the foundation’s theme of the week was “Five Ways in Five Days” advocating the different ways everyone can keep themselves well.

“It’s not just people who are diagnosed with a mental illness or have a really bad addiction problem, I think everybody struggles with something at some point with some sort of feeling that feels unmanageable,” she said.

She wanted people to be able to recognise those feelings and practise healthy behaviours to keep them on a steady path.

The week officially runs from September 18 to September 24 and Aston said Balance would also be part of a group of shared stalls at the River Traders Market that week.

The event is planned to be held on Sunday, September 17 from 11am to 4pm, and fellow local mental health and addiction services will be at the show running stalls and advertising their services to those in attendance.

If other organisations or performers are interested in getting involved in the concert, they should email Rickards at jamie@balance.org.nz.

Finn Williams is a multimedia journalist for the Whanganui Chronicle. He joined the Chronicle in early 2022 and regularly covers stories about business, events and emergencies. He also enjoys writing opinion columns on whatever interests him.