A Moray arts charity has launched a new project which aims to raise awareness of mental health problems among men in the region.
Moray Arts Development Engagement (M:ADE) is looking for local male volunteers to share their experiences of suffering from depression, anxiety or suicidal thoughts.
The charity hopes to create a short film showing their experiences to use as a resource for schools and community groups.
Stacey Toner, director of M:ADE, hopes to gather local views on mental health problems which affect one in four people across the UK.
She said: “I’ve just recently come back to Moray and after starting to integrate with local community groups I’ve come to realise mental health is a driver for a lot of projects but I couldn’t find any local resources.
“The mental health research statistics out there are from a national perspective so we want to create something Moray based.”
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M:ADE has already found eight out of 12 volunteers needed for the film project, all aged between 18 and 40.
It’s now hoped that more men aged between 30 and 40 from the east of Moray will come forward to share their experiences in the short film created by Jason Sinclair.
The aim of the project is to encourage more people to discuss their mental health openly.
She said: “I think this will be a small addition to a bigger dialogue about mental health UK-wide.
“The aim of the project is to raise awareness to encourage more people to talk about it and make it easier for schools and families to discuss it.
“The end result for us is to create something that is actively used in the community and a nice added touch would be if the guys involved stay in touch with each other or want to continue to do something about it.”
If you are a male aged between 18-40 and want to get involved in the project, contact stacey@morayartsdevelopmentengagement.org or 07495581961.
You must be available to take part on Saturday February 2.
