One Wave Is all It Takes – Tackling Depression and talking facts on how to support those around you at work and at home. 
Mental health, what does that really mean? Is that confined to social media, teenagers, those out of work, stressful situations in your career or not really finding a place anymore in life and not being able to talk about it – at all….
It could mean suffering with bipolar or depression or having hereditary illnesses in your family and not feeling you can actually share this with your kids, with your colleagues.
In today’s podcast I chat with Occupational Therapist and passionate surfer, Joel Pilgrim, about the new foundation ONE WAVE IS ALL IT TAKES; supporting those in local communities effected my some form of mental illness or depression.
The what, they why and how this is so engaging – one wave at a time.
 

Joel forms his therapy around getting out in the ocean, having the ability to forget about everything else out there and just go surfing. He saw the absolute amazing impact that had on people.
“When you try and connect inside in a more clinical setting, in an official way, there was no way you could kind of create that engagement”.
According to Joel, it’s all about the community, that’s the one thing that’s really going to change the way we move forward with mental health. Connection, engagement, education are all things that play a part in that but without community we don’t really have that sense of we’re in this together.
 
And from this idea of community comes ‘One Wave and Fluro Fridays’, a movement of 20,000 people around the world. Connecting to this message that one wave is all it takes to really turn around your life.
Founded by Grant Trebilco, this is an initiative to bring mental health sufferers and their families and their friends together to create an environment where you can just come and collectively share.
Fluro Fridays have been represented in 101 locations around the world.
 
 
Why are we talking about this now?
It’s not like depression or mental illness is new, but today we are seeing younger people come through or specially working men, between the age of 35 and 50 with the highest depression rate at the moment.

* Do we feel like we have to put on this fake mask: I’m doing fine, I’m a big rough and tough guy?
* How is social media influencing this and the virtual world?
* Are not allowing people to connect and have real deep relationships due to an ever increasing online presence.
* Even though, everyone’s “connected” people feel very lonely and they’re very isolated.

 
Making depression OK to discuss
One of the challenges we face is the stigma around talking about your personal life with someone that you’ve never met before.  How do we overcome this? How do we make people open up?

* So what happens when someone starts to open up?
* We all want to ask questions, are you okay?

Here are Joel’s 5 tips if you are confronted with a friend or a family member that comes and says, “I’m not OK”

* Open up the dialogue.
* Give them the space.
* You don’ have all the answers. A lot of people often say, what do I say? I don’t know what to say, how do I deal with this situation and my simple response is: you don’t need to know. Its simply, I’m here for you and I’m going to help you get through this.
* Acknowledge and make them feel safe. No judgement, you don’t have to give a solution, you just have to say, thanks for shearing, you’re not alone anymore.