Mary O'brien on mental health
From Are You Bogged Mate with Mary O'Brien · · WUDUTV
“I just wrote an opinion piece after we lost two guys to suicide in our area about four years ago and just sort of happened organically from the article.”
On , Mary O'brien, Executive Vice President, Chief Administrative Officer, Secretary & Director at NV5 GLOBAL INC, spoke about mental health during Are You Bogged Mate with Mary O'Brien on WUDUTV.
About Mary O'brien
Mary O'Brien is the founder of the Are You Bogged Mate? initiative, which she described as a program that travels to remote areas of Australia to talk to rural men about mental health in a "user friendly" and "irreverent" manner. O'Brien stated that she started the initiative after writing an opinion piece following the suicide of two men in her area. She has said her approach involves "breaking down the stigma" and connecting people to professional help, and she noted that she has received emails from men who sought support as a result. In a separate capacity, O'Brien has worked as a social worker intern at the Mount Vernon Police Department. She said she decided to pursue a master's degree in social work after a near-death experience during the COVID-19 pandemic, during which she credited a hospital social worker with saving her life. O'Brien has also given a TEDx talk in which she discussed a "paradigm shift" approach to personal change, emphasizing the concept of seeing people "in their wholeness" rather than focusing on their difficulties. She has additionally served as an emcee for the Immeasurably More Women's Conference.