Leesa has been part of the Mental Health First Aider (MHFAider) Network since completing her training in 2021. Despite her role in sales and customer service, Leesa’s true passion lies in mental health advocacy. 

Having personally experienced depression and anxiety, Leesa has been involved in mental health advocacy since her teenage years, volunteering as a guest speaker for Beyond Blue’s youth ambassador program and collaborated with ReachOut to collect stories of lived experiences.

Her passion for mental health education and awareness inspired Leesa to launch her own podcast, High Tide Low Tide where she and her guests discuss their mental health journeys, early signs, lowest points, and current self-care practices.

“I completed my Mental Health First Aid training through my connection with Breakthrough Mental Health Research Foundation. I had done some fundraising for them and as a thank you, they gifted me a place in one of the courses.” 

“I was really excited by the fact Mental Health First Aid was a course anyone could complete. I thought that it is really incredible to equip regular people with tools and knowledge to assist people who might be going through something with their mental health,” Leesa says.

Leesa’s podcast focuses on talking, sharing, and speaking with others about their lived experience of mental illness. While sharing stories of mental illness can be an empowering and informative, divulging personal experiences can sometimes be challenging for both Leesa and her guests.

“When I’m interviewing guests for the podcast, I’m dealing with people who are being very vulnerable, talking about a lot of different things that have gone on in the past.

“[Mental Health First Aid training] has given me a lot of different tools to be able to know how to make sure that people are in the right space to be sharing their story, for starters, because obviously there’s a duty of care there.”

“I’m so glad to be able to provide [the podcast], but I also need to take care of myself. Learning these skills through these courses has also taught me how to take care of myself.”

The training has also helped Leesa to support listeners of her podcast who reach out from time to time for guidance and assistance.

“I get a lot of messages through social media from people who’ve listened, and resonated with different parts of people’s stories, whether it’s my own or somebody else’s, who are looking to connect. Sometimes people who contact me don’t know where to get help, or they don’t know who to reach out to.”

“I think if I didn’t have this [Mental Health First Aid] training, I probably wouldn’t be able to manage having these conversations as well as I feel I have been able to.”

Outside of her own advocacy and podcasting work, Leesa reflects on how Mental Health First Aid training has helped to normalize conversations about mental health in the greater community.

“Mental Health First Aid [training] has enabled me to be able to be there for the people in my life, and for that further network of people through the podcast. It’s enabled me to better care for others in a different way.”

Listen to Leesa’s podcast High Tide Low Tide here 
You can read more about Leesa Scanlan here

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