Veterans in Darwin 'Walking off the War Within'
Veterans and their supporters took to East Point Reserve today to 'Walk off the War Within'. The annual event brings the community together to raise awareness about veterans' mental health and marks an opportunity for people to open up about their experiences and break down stigmas.
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00:00 20 kilometres with a 20 kilo pack.
00:05 That's the challenge these veterans took on for a good cause.
00:09 The pack obviously representing that weight of mental illness and depression and how that
00:14 can hold a person back.
00:16 With R U OK? Day just passed and September marking the month of national suicide prevention,
00:22 people are being encouraged to open up and reach out.
00:25 Having anything like the Walk in Darwin that brings attention to that issue, gets people
00:29 to support veterans that might be experiencing mental ill health is really important.
00:34 While veterans take part, the Walk is also aimed at supporting first responders and other
00:39 frontline workers.
00:40 You know we need to recognise the traumatic events that a lot of these people experience
00:47 and can experience on a regular occurrence.
00:49 But the other component there is the ripple impact of these traumatic events and mental
00:55 illness on the whole of the community.
00:57 One message is clear, no one is left out of the conversation or stopped from participating.
01:03 Young and old, veteran or not.
01:06 I'm an aviation rescue firefighter and just doing it I guess on behalf of all the people
01:11 that are struggling with mental health and I think it's just a great cause to raise awareness
01:15 for it.
01:16 Walkers are sharing the load both emotionally and physically, showing that you never have
01:21 to walk alone and that battles are meant to be fought together.
01:24 As myself when I've been in the dark spaces I probably didn't talk to the people that
01:27 I should have and places like this is where you can just have a chat and that's where
01:32 it starts, meeting people.
01:33 We're not a very big community so this is the place to do it.
01:37 Walking towards a healthier future, one step at a time.
01:41 [BLANK_AUDIO]