Mental Health First Aid with Beyond Blue - PUBLIC SEMINAR

We are honoured to have a community speaker from Beyond Blue, Les Shearn, coming to present their journey of hope, recovery and resilience with depression and/or anxiety condition. 

As a disclaimer, this session will involve discussion of a personal story and experiences with a mental condition and may touch on the theme of suicidality. For some of you, it may be difficult hear this story, especially if you have experienced a mental health condition yourself, or supported a friend or family member. The talk is completely optional and if you’re worried that the content may be triggering or upsetting you don’t have to stay and you may also leave at any time during the presentation.

We would love you to attend Les’s talk, and we encourage you to check in with yourself and your fellow members afterwards. If you are feeling impacted, please reach out to any of our members at Hyde Park, the Beyond Blue support service, or Lifeline on 13 11 14 for support. We will also have a more detailed list of contacts at the end of the session.

About Les Shearn:

Les has wide ranging experience working as an Executive Human Resources and Safety Professional across multiple sectors both within Australia and Internationally including Public Services, Defence, Resources, Manufacturing, Support Services, Broadcasting and New Media.

Les is a volunteer speaker for Beyond Blue, a national organisation that works to raise awareness about anxiety and depression, reduce the associated stigma and encourage people to get help.

Les became a Beyond Blue speaker in the hope that sharing his story with others would assist both sufferers and carers’ progress along the road to recovery. There is a light at the end of the tunnel and it is a matter of perseverance, no matter how challenged one becomes, to keep going as you will finally get there. He is particularly passionate about assisting men to reach out, share with others how they are feeling and to ask for help. There is a strength in this that needs to be recognised and celebrated. He wants to celebrate this with others.

Les’s interests include spending time with his family doing new and interesting things, travelling, reading and running. He is married to Taryn and together they have two children, Aidan and Maya. He will shortly be getting back into the pilot’s seat to finish his training to obtain his private pilot’s licence, a journey he started over 5 years ago!