Become a mental health champion

MAREEBA residents who have a desire to help their community and care about the wellbeing of their colleagues, teammates and friends are being asked to become a mental health champion through the Black Cockatoo Foundation’s new initiative.

The foundation hopes to develop a well-supported group of community champions across a wide range of community networks in family, cultural, sporting, workplace or personal interest areas.

These champions will empower the community and use their knowledge to recognise, connect and respond to someone experiencing a mental health problem or crisis.

They will complete a twoday mental health first aid training course and a kitchen table learning circle session where they will learn how to apply their learned knowledge and build the network and support mechanisms.

Black Cockatoo Foundation CEO Louise Livingstone said creating an effective mental health champion network would greatly benefit the wider community.

“The goal is to build the capacity of people within and across the Mareeba community who have a desire to champion Mental Health liter- acy, with the view to increase prevention, recognition, and referral to professional services,” she said.

“In doing so we will work toward minimising stigma within the community, especially within diverse, hardto-access, cultural and socioeconomic groups.

“We need more mental health literacy and support skills in the community to help catch more individuals experiencing mental health problems and troubled times.”

For more information on how to become a mental health champion, email ninaakselsengrant@gmail.com

FOUR men have been charged with stealing after they butchered a dead steer they found on a roadside near a cattle station.

A 27-year-old Earlville man, a 34-year-old Mareeba man and two Chillagoe men aged 22 and 26 have each been charged with one count of stealing.

Around 5pm on 9 February, police allege the men located a dead steer on the roadside near a cattle station and then butchered the animal, transporting the meat to addresses in Chillagoe.

Officers executed search warrants on numerous addresses in Chillagoe on 10 February, seizing samples of meat for DNA comparison.

The men are scheduled to appear at the Mareeba Magistrates Court on 13 March.