Talking Men’s Health in South Western Sydney

Tackling the Challenge: Talking Men’s Health encourages men in South Western Sydney to share their stories of resilience through challenges such as migration, unemployment, mental illness and discrimination. The project led by South Western Sydney Health Service, aims to make a positive impact on men’s health by sharing stories of overcoming challenges and thriving. Stories are available to read and share here. Follow the project on SWS Wellbeing Facebook.

Each story has a link to a survey for your thoughts.

Justin - Kicking the Stigma

“I struggled with something that nobody could see and felt that nobody could understand, so, never told any of my friends”

Read Justin's story here.

Ken -  Reframing life after the loss of a child

"Our world collapsed."

Read Ken's story here.

Joe – A Migrant’s Son

Read Joe's story here.

Mark – Fighting the stigma and winning

‘As gay man, coming out of the closet was really hard but coming out of the mental health closet was even harder because the stigma is more intense against mental illness than the gay community’.

Read Mark's story here.

Jonny - A personal trainers hardest move was putting his hand up

‘You’re going to go through some horrible things, life isn’t fair … but if you need help, than you need to put your hand up.’

Read Jonny's story here.

Milad - From Iraq to Sydney: A young man’s journey through war and education

‘Some stuff I had no idea I could do, but I’ve done it – I’ve survived’

Read Milad's story here.

Paniora – Against the grain

“I felt stuck. I needed to get these feelings out of my system as quick as I could so I could get back on track”

Read Paniora's story here.

Ash Walks Through Recovery

'People just want you to listen, they don’t want you to solve their problems. They just need to be heard.'

Read Ash's story here.

Andy – Tackles the Challenge

‘It took me to be vulnerable enough to say - hey I’m struggling. ‘I’ve never really been that person to actually put my hand up to say - can you help me?’

Read Andy's story here.

Matthew – Delving deep for recovery

‘I identified to not be controlled by my feelings and yes, it’s OK to be upset’

Read Matthew's story here.

John – More to life than a diagnosis

‘Joining local groups has helped me develop as a person’.

Read John's story here.

Jarrad – Crash survivor and living life with a brain injury

‘Life is a like a maze with hard turns, and road blocks. You have to accept it and roll with it. I might have limitations, but that won’t stop me’.

Read Jarrad's story here.

Ian – A builder learns how to rebuild

‘If someone falls over and breaks a leg, you know straight away they’re in trouble. But with mental illness it’s so important to encourage people to seek help when they need it’.

Read Ian's story here.

Malcolm – A travelers reflections

‘Suddenly, life started to look up because I was mixing with lots of people’.

Read Malcolm's story here.

Tom – Flying high in support of men’s health

‘Your football team lost on the weekend, but you still talk about it. Your health should be no different’.

Read Tom's story here.

Rod - a White-Tail Spider bite began the chain of events which changed his life.

‘You don’t realise so many people are willing to give you a hand – that they want to give you a hand’

Read Rod's story here.

Adam - How you going mate?

Read Adam's story here.

Micheal - How to survive

‘If I can support one person to change their life, it’s been worth it - I’ll then go find the next person.’

Read Micheal's story here.

Emmanuel - When reaching out for help, is being strong

‘Ask for help, not because you are weak, but because you want to remain strong.’

Read Emmanuel's story here.

Travis - Making Connections

'I always look to engage in good conversations or interesting tasks to manage some of the negative thoughts and to build meaningful relationships'

Read Travis's story here.