Victorian Men’s Shed Secretary and Victorian Men’s Shed Association Chairman, Trevor Dobbyn, appeared on Flow FM’s Country Viewpoint program this week to highlight the importance of the Men’s Sheds concept.
The initiative, which is close to Dobbyn’s heart and is particularly relevant during the week of Men’s Health Week – an observance FlowNews24 is heavily promoting throughout the week across its stream of radio shows and online content.
Dobbyn began the interview by expanding on the history of the Ouyen Men’s Shed, which he heads in the prominent town comprising of one of Flow FM’s key broadcast towns.
“The Ouyen District Men's Shed represents the town of Ouyen and all of the small towns and hamlets around the area and the district, it's got about 29 or 30 members depending on what day of the week it is,” Dobbyn said.
“We're open on Tuesday and Thursday, we're now cooking copper lunches in there which is really good…Men's Sheds are great because they give blokes the opportunity, they give them somewhere to go during the day, they can connect with each other, with their mates and make new mates and that's what the shed does in our community,” explained Dobbyn.
Being based in a regional town, Dobbyn resonates with the common viewpoint that people living in remote areas are often restricted when it comes to access to services which allow them to declutter.
“Once you go past the tram stops and the outer fringes of Melbourne, the services get fewer and fewer and of course, we're in a pretty isolated part of Victoria in the northwest here,” said Dobbyn.
“That makes it more important than ever that you've got a men's shed in town somewhere you can go, somewhere you can talk through your problems with, a place to go where you can talk things through with other blokes and most importantly, Men's Sheds can help you connect with services that might be available.
“We can get speakers in to talk about health issues that particularly affect men…we can get health professionals there, we can get community speakers there and we can help men connect up with services that are really important for them with the hospital or other services that they might need.
“We've had black dog speakers talking about depression and men's mental health at the shed and in the community and that's really important that people can hear those stories because they often feel isolated, they don't know where to look for help and a men's shed is really important in that respect.
“The bottom line is that there's no doubt about it, Men's Sheds, like the Ouyun Men's Shed, help men in all sorts of ways and really at the bottom of it all is that they help men live longer and happier lives.”
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