Have a Chat champions

by Nicholas Duck
Trafalgar mental health charity Bettermentall has continued to expand as it looks to help the community through its 'Have a Chat' sessions.
Run by husband-wife duo Jason and Kerry Rantall, the organisation has begun to offer a variety of services to bring people into the fold, including a running group, a youth group, a fishing group and homelessness outreach services.
Topping off all that is the classic morning Have a Chat community barbeque sessions, which continue to grow in popularity.
"The Have a Chat group on Thursday is growing all the time," Jason said.
"I remember when we first started if we got two people we'd go 'wow' and sometimes it'd just be me and Kerry sitting there going 'what are we doing here?' Now, never ever under 20 and anything up to 50."
The sessions welcome community members of all walks of life to the Bettermentall hub in Contingent St to enjoy some food and talk about all manner of topics.
Whether it's something serious like mental health or life's struggles to something much lighter like the weekend sport, everyone is welcome and nothing is off limits.
Key to that, according to Jason, is the hub's open doors, creating a wide space both indoors and outdoors.

"I know for me in my anxious times when I wasn't well to go to somewhere new there had to be no boundaries. And any boundary I'd meet, that would be my excuse to go 'alright, this isn't for me.' We have the doors wide open, we have an outdoor area and we have people greeting people," he said.

"There's no program as such or expectation because those things can push people away too. People sort of know we're a mental health place so the conversation easily goes there without any force or without feeling there's a need to."
Also new are meditation and breathwork sessions following the morning barbeques, which have also seen increasing numbers.
"A lot of the guys are like I was, saying I'm not going to do that stuff. My mum mentioned it years and years ago when I was unwell and I said 'I'm not doing that weird fish slapping stuff' and now I live by it. And it's a morning and night thing for me," Jason said.
"As soon as you get nervous or anxious you pick up your phone and scroll or you grab a beer or a smoke. You do all these distracting things that are external that only bring very temporary peace. But when we start to practice meditation and mindfulness and awareness we can can bring calm to ourselves at any time."
Newly founded initiatives like an early morning running group and a fishing group that heads out to Blue Rock Dam every week have seen more people engaged.
Regardless of what the activity is, Jason said it was about the conversations they helped facilitate.
While Bettermentall would love to keep expanding, things are always challenging from a financial perspective.
"It's costly for us. Even though we get some help from the local community, there's still a high cost with what we're doing," he said.
"The actual funding is limited because we're not Victoria-wide or Australia-wide. So it's very hard to keep asking from the same community to help.
"We're still surviving on the fundraiser run I did last year. The outgoings are greater are the incomings. We've got to be creative, and we've had to be from the start because we've never had funding."
What keeps Jason and Kerry going are the success stories. "Some of the success stories are unbelievable ... I can't handle seeing people in pain. It hurts, it really hurts. So to be able to give back, even if its just planting the seed or the seed's already planted and we're watering it, whatever part we are isn't the big thing, it's to see someone change their life.
"It's not about glory and look at what we've done, it's about seeing the people achieve."
To donate to Bettermentall or to see their weekly sessions, head to the Bettermentall Facebook page.