Champion Bay Senior High School Mental Health Expo exposes students to support services in Geraldton

A Geraldton school has rallied mental health support services to show students what help is available outside of school, with more than 19 local services joining the event this year. Champion Bay Senior High School devoted Wednesday morning to supporting students and their mental health by hosting a Mental Health Expo on the school grounds. Students were tasked with engaging with each service to guide them towards the many organisations available around Geraldton and empowering them to manage their own wellbeing. CBSHS student program co-ordinator Jenna McGregor said she organised the expo as a way for students to understand what support agencies were available in the community. “We provide a lot of support in student services but they don’t always know what’s outside of school,” she said. Ms McGregor said Fusion Australia and Psychsense Geraldton tents were a hit for the Year 7s, including other organisations such as headspace, Centacare, Ngala, WACHS and GRAMS. “This is the first one we’ve run in several years and is by far the biggest we’ve had with over 19 support and sporting agencies join us,” she said. “It was a pretty amazing turnout.” CBSHS Year 8 leader Oscar Weston said the expo was an important and fun way to engage students with health services and he was surprised at the number of services in the community. “It’s important to recognise that not having good mental health is bad and I learnt there are a lot of mental health agencies here,” he said. “Mental health is very important and there are people out there willing to help.”