Staff, students and the wider community of Esperance Senior High School are pushing for mental health awareness this month through the Push for Better Foundation’s annual challenge.
With a goal of 3144 push-ups, representing the number of people in Australia who took their lives in 2022, participants are doing 10 reps each session in what is becoming a friendly competition.
Wellness and engagement teacher Tim O’Farrell said the challenge was a great way to build community partnerships with the local police, ambulance and mental health agencies.
“The simple act of doing push-ups together as a local community towards a shared goal seems like a great initiative to foster a sense of connectedness and support,” he said.
The school community was split into teams with teachers from each department making up several teams, students split into sporting faction groups and an inter-agency team made up of Esperance police, St John WA volunteers and Centrecare staff.
“A lot of people tackle the challenge independently, which is amazing, but we thought that working together towards a shared goal as a whole school would be more community-building in nature, encourage greater participation and be a more enjoyable experience,” Mr O’Farrell said.
“We hold the push-up sessions on Monday and Friday mornings before school and ask participants to come and do 10 push-ups towards their team, as well as the overall goal.
“The challenge has built a bit of friendly competition and some participants are now completing far beyond the required 10 during these sessions, for themselves and their teams.”
While several staff had completed the challenge personally in previous years, this is the first time the school will tackle the awareness-raising task.
Mr O’Farrell said the school community gave high priority to mental health awareness to ensure the wellbeing and overall happiness of students.
“We understand the importance of self-care and stress reduction in maintaining good mental health,” he said.
“We foster a supportive environment, integrate mental health into our school curriculum and strive to create a school community where every student feels valued, supported and able to thrive both academically and emotionally.
“Participation in the push-up challenge has led to increased camaraderie and friendly competition among students and staff.
“The challenge has also sparked further conversations surrounding mental health support networks in our community.”
The school has until the end of June to reach the push-up goal, joining thousands of Australians across the nation aiming to address mental health in their communities.