Country Spotlight on Western Australia
Depression starts small, get help before it grows is the latest campaign from WA Primary Health Alliance designed to raise awareness of the early symptoms of depression and promote help seeking behaviours. It plays into the age-old metaphor of the black dog, updating it to introduce the black puppy as a symbol for mild to moderate depression.
We see how a black puppy interferes in the lives of the main characters, and how these interferences are consistent with many of the early symptoms of depression.
This campaign speaks to Pillar 2 of the European Alliance Against Depression 4-level-model, which is to create a general awareness campaign.
This campaign is part of the WA Primary Health Alliance’s GP-centric depression management programme approach which aims to help improve the care of people with depression and prevent suicidal behaviour.
This thought-provoking campaign is the culmination of many months of research, interviews with people with lived experience and discussions with primary care clinicians and mental health professionals