Episode 63: Owning Your Emotions, Asking for Help and Redefining Masculinity with Jack Jones from The Banksia Project

Today on Holistic Health Radio, I’m joined by Jack Jones, a Mental Health Expert, Advocate, Speaker and Program Director of The Banksia Project. Focused on early intervention in mental health, The Banksia Project provides evidence-based peer to peer support for individuals. Prevention is always better than a cure, which is why their programs aim to increase self-awareness, encourage positive lifestyle choices, and facilitate ongoing support to foster positive mental health within ourselves and our communities.

Jack himself comes from a personal place of knowing all of this – a lived experience of depression that took its toll on his life and prevented him from seeing clearly the things that once gave him joy. Like many, the question of “why me” popped into his head because he had everything going right for him in life. But mental illness does not discriminate. It knows no race, gender, education level or socioeconomic background.

As many of my listeners are aware, I talk about women’s health and mental health quite regularly, but the truth is men are affected to. And the women in their lives whether that be a mother, wife, partner or a friend play a role in men’s mental health. They are both affected by its presence, a support system to help those men struggling seek help and can provide a non-judgemental space to chat about fears, worries and emotions.

In today’s podcast Jack and I will be chatting about:

• His own personal story with mental health
• The state of men’s mental health
• Societal expectations of what it means to “be a man” and how that can impact men’s health seeking behaviours
• The important role women can play in men’s mental health – how they are both impacted and also provide great support
• Helping others open up about their emotions
• His role now at The Banksia Project and the services and support they provide

Jack was a well-educated, elite-sportsman who was diagnosed with major depressive disorder and suicidality in 2013. Some tough years, self-reflection and growth made Jack realise that if he had all of this support and still didn’t know how to manage his emotions safely, how many other people were in the same boat.

For the last three years, Jack has been involved in setting up and developing The Banksia Project, becoming its first paid employee. Jack says: “It’s a privilege to be able to help other men gain positive mental health daily and call it work.”

To find out more about Jack and The Banksia Project check out:

Instagram:@thebanksiaproject and @jack_t_jones

Facebook: @thebanksiaproject

LinkedIn: The Banksia Project

Twitter: @banksiaproject