Voice of Real Australia is a regular newsletter from ACM, which has journalists in every state and territory. Sign up here to get it by email, or here to forward it to a friend. Today's is written by The Advocate journalist Meg Whitfield.
I'm not too sure what I expected when I signed up for my first ever class of goat yoga.
Maybe some goats gently ambling around while the participants found their zen - with the occasional moment of chaos, of course.
In reality, it was so much better.
For one, I got to experience the joyful moment of about twenty people bleeting in unison in the name of mental health.
And then there was the absolute entitlement of a goat who plonked themselves down on a mat and settled in for a snooze, yoga participant be damned.
It's also quite something learning just how high a young goat can jump, and the power of a few small branches of gum leaves hovered over someone attempting kid's pose.
The session took place at Smithton, which is a town of about 4000 people on the North-West coast of Tasmania.
It's dairy country - a proud, often stoic place where mental health is still something people are getting completely comfortable talking about.
However, that's changing - and these cheeky goats are a part of that.
On this week's episode of the Voice of Real Australia podcast, I met with Alyssia Coates, the woman behind a goat enterprise that's trying to normalise conversations around mental health.
It's not always easy getting mental health support in regional areas. There are fewer in person services available, and costs or distances needing to be travelled can restrict access.
In Tasmania, advocates also say a shortage of clinicians state-wide and a lack of specialised services mean people are also falling through the gaps.
There is agreement that things are changing - and investment from the state government has increased in recent years with big infrastructure on the way.
However, no one is shying away from the fact that there's more work to be done.
Baa-maste!
Listen to the full story on the podcast search Voice of Real Australia, on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or your preferred app.
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Meg Whitfield
Journalist at the Advocate Newspaper, Burnie, proudly covering Tasmania's North-West and West Coast. Got a tip?
Journalist at the Advocate Newspaper, Burnie, proudly covering Tasmania's North-West and West Coast. Got a tip?
