In Summary

Today, Swinburne University of Technology welcomed beyondblue’s big blue bus, ‘Roadshow Rhonda’ to the Hawthorn campus.

Currently on a 50,000km journey around Australia to encourage and support people everywhere to ‘Take 1 step’ for better mental health, Roadshow Rhonda arrived at Swinburne this morning.

The visit was a great opportunity for the Swinburne community to find out more about depression and anxiety and where to get support.

Swinburne’s Professor Greg Murray, Deputy Director, Brain and Psychological Sciences Research Centre was there to officially welcome beyondblue’s bus to the campus.

He was joined by the Hon John Pesutto, Member for Hawthorn, as well as Marianne Shearer, CEO Inner East Melbourne Medicare Local.  

Lucy McNicol, Health Promotion Nurse from SwinHealth, said Medicare Local played an important role in making the visit happen.

“After hearing from Medicare Local that the big blue bus was in town, we were keen to have Roadshow Rhonda visit our students and staff,” said Ms McNicol.

“We are all responsible for the mental wellbeing of our community and we need to be able to understand and support each other.”

As part of the visit, students and staff were encouraged to make a mental health pledge, getting them to think about what keeps them well and then asking them to make a commitment to achieve or maintain good mental health over the coming year.

Find out where the big blue bus will be next.

If you or someone you know needs support, Swinburne offers a free counselling service for students or staff and students can visit the Swinburne Psychology Clinic.