Tania Burstin Zip It Interview

Tania Burstin Zip It Interview

The inaugural Zip It for Mental Health challenge kicked off at midnight on the 10th of October with Australians around the country, and further afield, donating their voices for 24hrs to help turn up the volume on mental health issues in Australia.

Zippers, who are being silent in solidarity with people suffering silently with mental health issues, are also helping to raise vital funds for 4 key national mental health organisations: Black Dog Institute, headspace, Lifeline and Suicide Prevention Australia. Over $30,000 has been raised thus far.

This new national mental health initiative, conceived by charity queen Tania Burtsin, uses silence as a mechanism to draw much needed attention to mental health in Australia. Burstin says, "The concept of 'silence' is significant in mental health discourse; on the one hand people are often described as suffering silently with mental illness, while on the other, silence is prescribed as a remedy for the noise and chaos of the everyday. This campaign brings these two themes together in a unique and fun challenge'.

Zip It is being championed by several Australian celebrities, including: hip-hop group The Herd, actor Steve Bastoni and model Nick Bracks. For those unable to partake in the challenge can sponsoring a celebrity or purchasing a Talk Pass for one of them, is a great way to offer support the campaign.

According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, almost half the population (45.5%) will experience a mental health disorder at some point. Depression and anxiety, which often occur together, are the most common mental disorders experienced by Australians. Untreated, mental illness can lead to suicide and in Australia more people die from suicide than on our roads. The objective of the Zip It campaign is to make some noise about mental health and raise funds for those organisations working tirelessly to redress these statistics.
For more information see www.zipit.org.au

Interview with Tania Burstin

Question: What is Zip It?

Tania Burstin: Zip It is a challenge to keep silent for 24 hours and raise money and awareness for mental health charities.


Question: What inspired you to found Zip It?

Tania Burstin: I felt that this was such an important issue - having been touched by youth suicide (school friend of my daughter), post natal depression (family member), depression (family member), I thought if I am touched in so many ways then others must be as well.

I wanted to find an "event" that was meaningful and symbolic but also had potential to raise money, and did not involve running!


Question: What research did you conduct before becoming aware of the increasing issues surrounding Mental Illness in Australia?

Tania Burstin: We approached four mental health charities and invited them to partner with us and become recipients of the funds. We sought their advice on mental health in Australia in general on the Zip It campaign in particular.


Question: How did the Zip It Challenge, 2012, go?

Tania Burstin: Awesome! We have raised over $54,000 with over 150 participants. The feedback was very positive with many participants saying they would come back next year. We are proud of this result in the inaugural year. We had comedians, politicians, students, celebrities and general public zipping it. The social media campaign was very engaging with hourly messaging from Zip It HQ on the day.


Question: What was the idea behind developing the Zip It Challenge?

Tania Burstin: Donate your voice for mental health and help turn up the volume.
When one is SILENT one can LISTEN.


Question: How can Australians support Zip It?

Tania Burstin: Donate to a celebrity Zipper
Register to Zip It and get sponsored
Make a direct donation


Question: What is your goal for Zip It?

Tania Burstin: To become a yearly event and raised over $1million per year for mental health!


Question: Where do the funds raised by Zip It go?

Tania Burstin: Four great mental health charities Headspace: www.headspace.org.au
Suicide Prevention Australia http://suicidepreventionaust.org
Black Dog www.blackdoginstitute.org.au
Lifeline www.lifeline.org.au


Question: Why did you choose these organisations?

Tania Burstin: They are all well respected organsiations working in different aspects of the mental health area.