Reaching out for support has been made easy thanks to an app created by Australian army veteran Michael Handley, who has always got your ’six’.
REDSIX has pioneered the action step in the mental health market and has become the most downloaded mental health support app in one of Australia’s highest risk suicide markets, the Australian veteran space since its release.
In 2023 they are releasing REDSIX 2.0 and will make reaching out for support even easier for everyone and every industry.
“I served just under eight years in the military. I was diagnosed with PTSD and a few other mental health disorders due to my service,“ director and chief executive officer Michael Handley
said.
“As I left the defence force and transitioned into civilian life, I always maintained an active role within the veteran community. As I progressed within this space, the numbers of suicides, losing their battles within, from 2016, 2017 and 2018, the number went from one or two a month to seven to 10. I looked around and thought, what’s happening in this veteran space and why are we losing so many members?
“My research showed me that a lot of the services and support mechanisms available to the veteran community hadn’t evolved or moved with time. We were still relying on techniques we used with the Vietnam veterans. We needed something new and something fast, because we were dealing with the loss of human life.“
He went on to self-fund a support app that allowed users to reach out for early intervention peer to peer support or professional support services at a press of a button.
The main function of the app allows users to choose one of four mood settings.
The Red mood button immediately alerts your pre-programmed support (mates/friends) via text message with a link they simply press to engage in conversation. The Black mood button is a direct link to 24/7 professional support services.
Chair of the Rotarians 4 Mental Health organising committee, Bob Birkhead from the Rotary Club of Noosa Heads said they wanted to work collaboratively with people like Mike to get the message out about applications that worked.
“We’re well aware that the Sunshine Coast is somewhere between 15 and 20 per cent above the national average in terms of the level of suicides,“ Bob said.
“While a lot of our work has been through the awareness campaign Don’t Bottle it Up, we recognise that we need to move more towards what can be done in an action sense to create opportunities for people to find pathways.
“What really excites me about this particular app, is that Mike plans to take it to everyone. I’m just so impressed with what he’s doing and this is an app that will be dynamically mind-changing for people.“
Michael said the name came from his time serving in the military.
“Red is the international colour for danger. It’s something that we’re all at risk of. Six is a term that we use in the military and the emergency services as a direction. Basically when we’re moving around, patrolling, we use a clock face as a guide for direction. If we’re all patrolling towards 12 o’clock, someone will always ask ’Who’s got my 6?’ Which basically means who’s got my back. I thought that really reiterated the whole support mechanism of what Redsix is about. We’ve always got your back.“
Michael said he’s been approached by people all over the world wanting access to this app.
“The direction we’re going now, any organisation or business can download the app and run it in-house,“ he said.
“They can then be proactive in providing support to that employee.“
The statistics around mental health at the moment are alarming and it’s only going to get worse.
“So we really need to focus on action now, not just awareness,“ Michael said.
“We’ve toyed around with this for too long now and we really need to inject some funding into initiatives that actually make it easier for those who do need support.“
REDSIX has pioneered this process without any funding.
“This is a marathon, not a sprint, and eventually we will start to attract the sponsorship and funding that we need to take this even further and get it out to more people. That’s the journey that we’re currently on.
“We are actively looking for sponsorship and partnership opportunities from industries passionate about mental health support to our community and would welcome any discussion on supporting REDSIX making this mental health resource available to everyone in 2023,“ Michael said.
For more information, visit redsix.com.au
To get in touch, email michael@redsix.com.au
