Denmark Black Dog Ride participants celebrate a decade of breaking down the stigma of mental-health discussion

Denmark Black Dog Ride participants celebrated 10 years of encouraging open discussions about mental health and suicide at the weekend with a one-day ride in perfect conditions. More than 100 motorcyclists completed a ride that started and finished in Denmark on Sunday after meandering through Mt Barker and Albany while promoting their message to “get out there and talk”. Organiser Rob Wood said it was particularly pleasing to see some younger faces alongside the old familiar ones taking part in this year’s ride. “The conversations we have are ongoing really, the ride itself is a collective showing of support and we’re trying to get the message out there that it’s OK to talk about mental health in the open,” he said. “Get rid of the stigma and just talk about it.” The annual ride was one of more than 40 held across Australia at the weekend, including five in WA. WA State Coordinator, Steve Ingram said the Black Dog Ride’s One Dayer was an enjoyable and meaningful way to help start conversations about depression and suicide prevention. “More than 3000 lives are lost to suicide in Australia every year, and one in five Aussies will be affected by mental illness every year, with three million living with depression or anxiety,” Mr Ingram said. “The tragic loss of loved ones to suicide is what drives Black Dog Ride to build a community culture of awareness, inclusion and acceptance, and we’d love for more people from the local community to get behind that in 2024.” Mr Wood said it had been pleasing to watch the Denmark ride grow over the past decade. “I think people have become quite a lot more open to talking about mental health,” he said. “When we did the national rides, we’d have our black dog mascot on the back of the bike and people used to ask ‘what’s that all about?’, but now people recognise it. “They come up to talk to us and it is slowly getting recognised, but there is still a long way to go.” He said the main message of the ride after 10 years was still to “get out there and talk to people”. “We’ve actually trained a lot of people in the area of mental health first aid, so that means we are getting more and more eyes out there looking after each other as well,” he said. Lifeline 13 11 14 Beyond Blue 1300 224 636