Corporal James Overall served as an Australian Army medic for a decade, deploying overseas on multiple occasions, including to Afghanistan in 2015. He was instrumental in 6 mass casualty events, as a highly skilled trauma care provider and auxiliary security force member, awarded the United States Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal (NAM) for his outstanding service.

Frequently under immense pressure to perform in life or death situations, Jimmy didn't have the awareness to recognise the trauma he was internalising or the ability to process it.

Suppressing his emotions and soldiering on seemed to work, until it all caught up with him, manifesting in symptoms that couldn't be ignored.

• No longer able to meet his own expectations as a serviceman, he discharged and became a paramedic.

  Then in 2021, Jimmy and his wife lost their baby boy Luke at birth, a tragedy that broke their hearts and left him numb.

  He reached a crossroads and made the choice to finally open up and lean on others for help, allowing him to grow into the husband and father he is today, a man worthy of his own respect.

  
  

  This is James Overall...

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• Gambling’s been baked into Australian culture for generations.
  Having a punt with your mates is as normalised today as a beer and schnitty at the pub, but for a lot of young men in particular, it quickly grows into a monster that destroys lives.

  Australians lose around $32 billion every year gambling, making us the biggest losers in the world, and the fastest-growing part of that is online sports betting.

  Research shows that among Australians aged 18 to 34 who gamble online, more than 80% are at risk of harm, and about one in four are already in the high-risk category.

  Mark started betting as a teenager and spent more than a decade trapped in the cycle of chasing his losses, lying to the people he loved, and slowly losing himself, almost costing him everything.

  Now six years free from gambling, Mark’s fighting for systemic change to help others escape harm from this insidious industry.

  This is Mark Kempster...

On the cusp for a decade, but never quite making the big time in professional surfing, Cooper's life was destined to go down another path.

After seeing his sister lose multiple friends to suicide and facing his own challenges, he educated himself on mental health and founded The Good Human Factory to connect people with simple tools to improve their wellbeing.

It took off, and has since grown into countless nationwide workshops for schools and business, the popular podcast Good Humans, and an online community called The 1% Good Club that inspired Cooper’s recently published debut book.

This is Cooper Chapman...

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The Good Human Factory:

https://linktr.ee/thegoodhumanfactory?utm_source=linktree_profile_share

Matty signed up to serve in the Australian Army and deployed to Afghanistan as a young soldier.

On his 22nd birthday he was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer and soon discharged from defence.

For the past 7 years he's shared the unfiltered ups and downs of his journey through Instagram, and was recognised with an OAM for his contribution to brain cancer awareness.

He’s since travelled to some of the most dangerous parts of the world as a citizen journalist, risking his life to report from the frontline of warzones, Including in Ukraine and the Middle East.

At the core of him is an iron will, an evolving sense of purpose, love, and the ability to find the positives while enduring immense suffering.

This is Matt "Willy" Williams...

Masculinity is one of the hottest debates in our culture right now. Boys are growing up in a world that never switches off, where social media, peer pressure and online figures shape how they see themselves and each other.

Daniel is right in the thick of it. He spends his days in schools across Australia, speaking to tens of thousands of young men about identity, relationships and mental health. His work is about giving boys the space to be honest and the encouragement to be themselves, instead of hiding behind the masks they feel pressured to wear.

This conversation is not just about teenagers. Similar struggles with pressure, insecurity and false ideas of masculinity follow men well into adulthood. Daniel is challenging a generation to redefine what it means for a man to be tough and strong in our modern world.

This is Daniel Principe...

David migrated from Scotland to Australia as a teenager, worked his way into local government, and by his late thirties, had become South Australia’s youngest ever Opposition Leader. But the pressure of holding that position took a toll he eventually couldn’t hide...

In 2024, a video surfaced showing him using cocaine, sparking front page headlines, intense scrutiny, and the collapse of his career. Initially in denial out of shame and embarrassment, David then admitted the truth, pleading guilty to cocaine supply and telling the court he turned to drugs as a form of escapism. He was fined, ordered to complete community service, and has since apologised for his mistakes.

He’s recently returned from walking the Kokoda Trail for men’s mental health, symbolically turning the page on that difficult chapter in his life and beginning anew.

This is David Speirs...

There’s positive signs male suicide is finally trending down.For the first time since the Suicide Prevention Australia Community Tracker began quarterly reporting on suicide related behaviour in 2022, the stats have swung in the right direction...Suicidal thoughts, plans and attempts have all reduced.According to the latest national report for September:Serious thoughts of suicide: 19% → 13%Making a suicide plan: 6% → 3%Attempting suicide: 2% → 1%Overall suicidal behaviour: 27% → 17%Help-seeking is up...Almost a third of all Australians reached out to a support provider in the past 12 months, an increase of 10 percentage points since this time last year.Barriers remain:31% of men in high distress didn’t seek support because they thought it wasn’t serious enough (vs 25% of women)28% of men tried to manage it on their own (vs 37% of women)4% of men said they didn’t know what support was available (vs 13% of women)We’re taking action to look after ourselves.Seven out of ten Aussies report taking at least one action in the past year to support their health and wellbeing.40% worked out and ate better36% reached out to a friend28% practiced mindfulness When will suicide deaths start to drop?The decline in suicidality is yet to translate into a reduction of overall deaths. The latest available National ABS Provisional Mortality Statistics show there were 3,214 suicides in Australia in 2023 - 75% were male.

Updated statistics for 2024 are expected this October.Whether overall suicide deaths are going down yet or not, these latest figures show progress worth being optimistic about.

You can find the full report here: https://www.suicidepreventionaust.org/community-tracker

 Tom's worn a lot of different hats in his life. Tradie, AFL footballer, musician and model. On the surface, it looks like the dream run, but it doesn't tell the whole story.

Through it all, he's grappled with bouts of anxiety and depression, experiencing his most intense symptoms in a Richmond guernsey. Not understanding what he was dealing do with, he hid it for years, until telling the truth eventually started to set him free.

Now his footy days are behind him, Tom's on the tools, juggling work with his passion for making music and sharing his story as an R U Ok ambassador, showing true strength comes from being honest, not from pretending to be invincible.

This is Tom Derickx...