Training the trainers at Mt Annan Leisure Centre

Residents will today (27th October) put personal trainers through their paces at Mt Annan Leisure Centre's 'Train the Trainer' event.

To mark Mental Health Month, the YMCA-managed facility is raising funds as it prepares to re-launch Brightside, a specialised fitness program for locals suffering the effects of mental illness.

The Y's Brightside program, a referral program which is currently run out of 13 YMCAs across NSW, is set to re-launch at Mount Annan Leisure Centre in 2013.

YMCA literature explains "with one in five Australians aged 16 to 85 having a mental health disorder and almost half the population experiencing a mental disorder, including anxiety or mood disorders, at some point in their lives, the need for a free program such as Brightside has never been more important, nor its impact so profound."

To ensure this free program can launch in Mount Annan, the Y has called on locals to donate $100 as a group or an individual for the opportunity to design a training session for their personal trainer.

YMCA Mount Annan Leisure Centre Health and Fitness Coordinator Andrew McDermott explains "Brightside has a proven impact on the physical and mental health of participants, with physical activity a main way to overcome the effects of mental illness.

"Mental Health Month is an ideal time to garner support for the program, while also raising awareness more generally of mental illness and how to treat it."

McDermott said Train the Trainer will give residents a chance to exact payback on persnal trainers, adding "people will call the shots and wipe the smiles off the trainers with a 45 minute training session."

Brightside is evidence of the Y's holistic approach to healthy living and its focus on programs and services that improve the physical, social and mental health of the communities it serves.

For more information go to www.ymcasydney.org/centre/mtannan/

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