Bus Stop is getting to work this month, completing push ups to raise awareness for mental health problems alongside Lifeline Australia
In Brisbane, Bus Stop Sales is moving to raise awareness for suicide and mental health in conjunction with Lifeline Australia.
About one in five Australians will experience a mental health condition every year. The importance of workplace mental health is rapidly increasing in the post-pandemic environment and particularly within the transport industry, where team members work across challenging front-line roles and shift environments.
Team members from the Bus Stop head office are putting their bodies to the test this month, raising funds for the annual Push Up Challenge for mental health.
Bus Stop General Manager of National Fleets Stephen Long says the business signed up for the Push-Up Challenge to raise community awareness and discuss mental health and suicide.
By completing the challenge as a team, Long and the Bus Stop team can provide personal support to each other and foster a better understanding of mental health.
“It’s important to me to raise awareness and for people to talk about and break the stigma around mental health and seek assistance when needed,” Long says.
“It is a win-win and opens up the conversation about mental health while raising money to support keeping Lifeline’s 13 11 14 number going.”
Lifeline Queensland’s Luke Lindsay says those funds go directly to training more people to answer calls and texts to the service.
“We’ve seen around a 20 per cent increase in people reaching out to Lifeline in the past 12 to 18 months,” he says.
“And that on average has seen in Queensland answering around 350 calls daily.”
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The disturbing data from the National Mental Health Survey demands that prevention and early intervention for the rising tide of mental ill health in Australia’s young people be a top priority.
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The Push Up Challenge participants will take on 3,144 push-ups across 24 days, spotlighting the tragic number of lives lost to suicide in Australia in 2021.
“When working in a high-pressure industry, it is crucial to have conversations about mental health and suicide, and we need to see more workplaces making it a priority,” Bus Stop Group director Pete White says.
“The Push Up Challenge is for everybody, and the terrific thing about the challenge is how it connects people through exercise while empowering them with ways to make a positive difference in other people’s lives.”
Last year, more than 174,000 participants completed 240 million push-ups and raised $9 million for mental health programs and services.