‘Drop and give me 20’ for mental health

On average, nine people die by suicide every day in Australia.

Among the many organisations working in this space to reduce that number is Perth-based The Push-Up Challenge, which has taken a unique approach to spreading awareness and educating people about mental health.

Launched in 2017, The Push-Up Challenge is a virtual fundraising event that involves participants completing a target number of push-ups (or an alternative exercise of their choice) each day from June 5 to 28.

The challenge aims to spread awareness, boost mental and physical health, and has raised more than $40 million over the years.

The Push-Up Challenge’s charity arm, Push for Better Foundation, has become the sixth biggest philanthropic foundation in Western Australia, according to Data & Insights.

The foundation funds a suite of mental health education initiatives and support services.

During the past seven years, The Push-Up Challenge has engaged 500,000 Australians, who have completed a total 900 million push-ups (or other exercise).

This year, the target has been set at 3,249 per person, to represent the number of deaths by suicide in 2022 in Australia.

While The Push-Up Challenge has successfully expanded beyond its base in Perth to involve participants from across Australia, 2024 marks the first year the event has taken place overseas.

The challenge was held in Canada in partnership with the Canadian Mental Health Association, running from February 1 to 23.

The Push-Up Challenge founder and chief executive Nick Hudson said the organisation had been exploring opportunities to take the mental health challenge internationally for the past few years.

“Given the success of the event in Australia it made sense to try it in a different market, in a different country, and see if it delivers similar value there for that population as it has for the Australian population,” Mr Hudson told Business News.

“The community and camaraderie of Canadians is not dissimilar to that of Australians, and I can’t wait to make a positive impact on the mental health of Canadians with our partners at CMHA.

“We considered a number of countries and used some criteria to assess [viability] … Canada was great in a number of ways, so we decided to go there.

“Some of the criteria we considered included how philanthropic the country is, looking at the mental health literacy of the country, the population size – because we didn’t want it to be too big or too small – and a similar set of values to Australia was important.”

Given the long-term goal was to expand the challenge globally, Mr Hudson said the opportunity to launch in Canada was an ideal first step.

“Canada was always going to be a trial for us … it means we can grow our capacity to be able to deliver in other countries,” he said.

“We have global ambitions, but we didn’t want to do everything at once, so Canada was the first step.

“We’ve got a core team here in Perth who run the Australian event; the event in Canada is similar. None of our employees would be relocating as the events are run virtually.

“I’d say about 70 per cent of our Australian participants are on the east coast; it basically follows population.”

The Push-Up Challenge has unveiled new partnerships with Headspace and Lifeline for 2024, while the Push for Better Foundation will strengthen its impact by onboarding more students as part of its student ambassador program.

Mr Hudson said The Push-Up Challenge would be increasing its focus on the event’s impacts.

“With youth mental health continuing to be a challenge for Australia and with suicide continuing to be the leading cause of death for young people in the country, we need to do what we can to support the youth,” he said.

“In terms of Lifeline and Headspace, we support a number of their programs, including Lifeline’s text service and [other services at] their forty-one centres across Australia.

“Headspace has 150 centres across Australia, so we’ll do what we can to support those centres.

“It’s awesome to see the work they do to support young Australians.

“While Headspace and Lifeline are our primary beneficiaries, we also support our own foundation, which runs a student ambassador program.

“We’re aiming to have over 500 student ambassadors across Australia in 2024 and to support them in being leaders for mental health and helping their schools improve mental health literacy.”

On January 25, Mr Hudson was named the 2024 WA Australian of the Year Local Hero at the Australian of the Year Awards for his contribution to community through the challenge.

Mr Hudson said although it was an individual award he considered it recognition of the organisation and its mission.

“I’m hoping the award can further shine a spotlight on mental health and the importance of it in society,” he said.

“I want to live in a world where people focus on their mental health as much as they do their physical health and I’m hoping this award can help perpetuate that philosophy.

“We want more people talking about … [and] focusing on mental health, and all the things around that such as sleep, exercise, diet, connection with people, spending time outdoors.”

Mr Hudson added that The Push-Up Challenge was currently involved in the selection process to choose a third country to run the event.

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