Chisholm’s manager of engineering, Matthew Baker has started a mental health initiative across the engineering department.
The initiative, called Mental Health Mondays, is where the engineering team wear TradeMutt shirts at the Dandenong campus of Chisholm.
“It gives us that opportunity, the conversation ice-breaker, to have that conversation and also shows that we’re invested in our student wellbeing,” Mr Baker said.
Mr Baker saw a student wearing the TradeMutt shirt and started thinking of ways to be involved.
“We train apprentices in metal trade, so fabrication and welding and within one of our workshops, I saw a student with one of the shirts on and I asked him around what it was, why and how.
“He informed me what they are and we did our own research on it and thought it was a fantastic initiative.
“We looked into ways we could be part of it because a big part of what we do is support apprentices through the two to four years they undertake an apprenticeship. We realised it’s vital to look after their mental wellbeing, not just their education,” Mr Baker said.
From being surprised by the shirts to being supportive of the initiative, it’s been a month since Mr Baker’s discovery.
“They were really on board once we explained what they were and what they meant and so we had a really good uptake of it. We’ve had about 100 per cent staff involvement that includes not just teachers but administrators and managers.”
This is A Conversation Starter (TIACS) is a not-for-profit mental health support service funded by TradeMutt.
“The TIACS literally does that, people go, ‘hey nice shirt’ and it gives the teachers the opportunity to remind them about mental health and their own wellbeing,” Mr Baker said.
Mr Baker has worked with Chisholm for the past seven years and said he has never seen anything like this in Victoria.
“At the moment the engineering department is trialling it but we’re hoping to roll it out to all of the trade areas within Chisholm, and possibly some of the other departments as well,” Mr Baker said.
He also intends to invest in Chisholm-branded TradeMutt shirts in the future and encourage other departments across Chisholm to get involved.
“I had mine on today and went to a managers meeting and had people asking me, ‘what’s with the shirt?’.”
By supporting TradeMutt, the team at Chisholm is also helping TradeMutt fund the mental health support service TIACS.
The not-for-profit provides a text and calls service and access to mental health clinicians for free to those who need it.
So far, more than 2900 tradies have received free mental health support through TIACS. Fifty per cent of TradeMutt profits are donated to charity and more than $600,000 in mental health support has been delivered to tradies.
