Sharnae Zanotti is the Senior Project Officer, Public Education and Health Promotion, at the WA Mental Health Commission.
Sharnae is a member of the WA Injury Prevention Network and kindly shared her story with us so that more people can learn about her involvement in injury prevention.
How would you describe your role in one or two sentences?
Alongside Laura Castafaro, I co-manage two of our state-wide public education programs, Think Mental Health and Drug Aware (you may not know, but the Mental Health Commission is also the peak government agency for reducing harm from alcohol and other drugs).
What projects are you currently working on?
We are working on a new campaign that will launch in 2022 that will help young adults to gain and maintain their mental health, regardless of whether or not they are experiencing a mental health issue or condition. Drug Aware is also in the planning phase for a new campaign to help teenagers learn about how drugs can adversely impact their developing brains.
We are also working on a project across government, with non-government organisations and the events sector on how to make events safer for those who do choose to use drugs such as MDMA. Part of this project also includes our campaign Party Smarter that will be back in the market this month. If anyone is interested, to support all of our campaigns we create toolkits to assist public health practitioners extend them in their communities.
How do you see mental health projects evolving over the next five years?
Mental health is such a complex issue and is more than just about encouraging people to seek help. Our understanding of mental health is constantly evolving, and every day new research is published around preventing mental health issues and conditions and on the importance of positive mental health promotion.
This research provides public health practitioners such as my team here at the MHC with the information we need to help all Western Australians to gain and maintain positive mental health, whatever that might look like for them.
How can people connect with you and learn more about work being done by the Mental Health Commission?
To learn more about the Mental Health Commission you can visit https://www.mhc.wa.gov.au/. All of our public education programs also have their own websites:
- https://drugaware.com.au/
- https://www.thinkmentalhealthwa.com.au/
- https://alcoholthinkagain.com.au/
- https://strongspiritstrongmind.com.au/
If you would like to connect with Sharnae contact her via [email protected].
Want to meet more people like Sharnae?
Join Connect.ed!
CONNECT.ed is a free networking tool for everyone working within the injury prevention and community safety sector.