There’s a moment on most patrols where someone quietly checks in on someone else. A “how are you going, really?” after a tough rescue. A joke that breaks the tension. A mate who notices you’ve gone a bit quiet and doesn’t let it slide. Surf lifesavers have always looked out for each other. This October, that instinct gets a name, a structure, and some serious backing from SLSQ.
Team Wellbeing is officially launching across Queensland, timed to land alongside Wellbeing Month, Queensland Mental Health Week and World Mental Health Day on 10 October. It’s a statewide network of members who put their hand up to champion wellbeing in their own club, and it’s built on a simple idea: the best mental health support often starts with a mate noticing, asking, and staying in the conversation.
Why This, Why Now
Surf lifesaving is built on people who show up for others, often at the hardest moments. That’s exactly why so many of our own members are reluctant to put their hand up when they’re the ones doing it tough. National research through the Answering the Call survey found that more than half of first responders who needed help for a mental health issue never sought it or never received it, with stigma and low mental health literacy named as the biggest barriers. The first dedicated study into the mental health of Australian surf lifesavers and lifeguards told a similar story, and a hopeful one: members with stronger self-efficacy and social support reported significantly lower post-traumatic stress symptoms.
In other words, the culture in the shed matters. Team Wellbeing exists to strengthen it, deliberately, in every club across the state.
It’s worth being clear about what Team Wellbeing is and isn’t. It sits alongside SLSQ’s existing Peer Support program, not inside it. Peer Support is reactive: trained members step in after a critical incident or a genuinely hard event, when someone needs structured, confidential support. Team Wellbeing is proactive. It’s the everyday culture-building that happens well before a crisis, the conversations, the check-ins and the small moments that make a club feel like somewhere people can be honest about how they’re going. Both matter. Neither replaces the other.
What It Actually Looks Like on the Ground
Team Wellbeing isn’t a course you complete or a box you tick once. It’s an ongoing collective of members, as many as want to join from a single club, who become SLSQ’s eyes and ears on wellbeing at the local level. Each month, Member Welfare provides a theme, resources and ready-to-go activation ideas that clubs can run their own way, whether that’s a full club event or a five-minute moment at the end of a patrol briefing.
Two things run continuously in the background all year. Mate Check is a short, practical wellbeing tip sent to every member via member mail, built to give people the language and confidence to check in on each other without it feeling awkward. My SLSQ Story invites members to share, in their own words or on video, what the surf lifesaving community has meant for their own wellbeing, stories that get shared across SLSQ channels to remind the whole movement why this work matters.
Clubs running an activation aren’t left to cover the cost themselves either. Team Wellbeing members can apply for a subsidy toward food, drinks, guest speakers, printing and other reasonable expenses, because a good idea for connecting a club shouldn’t stall on budget.
Why October Is the Big One
Every month on the Team Wellbeing calendar has a focus, but October carries extra weight. As Wellbeing Month, it’s anchored to Queensland Mental Health Week and World Mental Health Day, and it’s designed to be the loudest, most visible moment of the year for looking out for each other.
Clubs are encouraged to get involved however suits them. Coffee with Team Wellbeing is an informal, no-agenda open chat session members can just turn up to. The Wellbeing Relay sees a symbolic baton passed from club to club across Queensland throughout the month, with each club doing something wellbeing-related and tagging the next one to keep it moving. There’s a Wellbeing Bingo card of simple activities to work through, content busting common myths around asking for help, and honest conversations about burnout, aimed squarely at long-serving members and club leaders who so often put everyone else first. Clubs are also encouraged to make space for grief and loss, acknowledging that members may be carrying it quietly, particularly after a difficult season.
None of it requires a big production. A five-minute chat at a briefing about the signs a mate might not be okay counts just as much as a full club event. What matters is that every club is doing something.
How to Get Involved
Getting involved is deliberately simple. Team Wellbeing opens an expression of interest each year for members across every SLSQ club to apply directly to Member Welfare. There’s no interview and no selection process. Any member registered for the current season who puts their hand up is in.
There’s also no cap on numbers. If there are a few like-minded people in your club who care about this, you’re encouraged to join up together rather than go it alone, and the more members invested in wellbeing at club level, the stronger that culture becomes for everyone around them.
For members who aren’t ready to take on a formal role but want to be part of it anyway, that’s easy too. Read the Mate Check tip when it lands in your inbox. Share a myth-buster with your club group chat. Stay back for fifteen minutes after patrol with no agenda, just company. Ask a mate how they’re really going, and mean it.
Surf lifesaving has never needed reminding that people look out for each other. Team Wellbeing simply gives that instinct a home, a calendar, and a movement’s worth of support behind it. This October, that’s worth making some noise about.
For more information about Team Wellbeing or to express your interest, contact [email protected]
- APPLY — Fill out the expression of interest form at the link below. Any registered SLSQ member can apply. There is no interview process. If you are registered for the current season, you are in.
- CONNECT — Once your application is received, Member Welfare will connect you with any other Team Wellbeing members from your club or branch. We encourage you to join forces and share the load, but you are equally welcome to fly solo.
- GET STARTED — You will receive your Team Wellbeing Member Handbook, access to the full activation bank, and your first monthly newsletter with suggested activities and resources to help you hit the ground running.
- MAKE IT HAPPEN — Choose an activation that suits your club, request your collateral from Member Welfare, and bring it to life. Big or small, every activation counts.