Construction noises started at the Kiewa Street car park around 6.30am on Saturday with workers speaking loudly to each other, dropping metal objects on concrete, revving machinery, reverse beeping etc.

It is a ridiculous time to start work next to a hotel on a weekend. At 7.10am it was clear that there was no prospect of going back to sleep as construction continued outside my window. I could only hope that construction didn’t start up again on Sunday morning before I needed to drive my family back another eight hours to Newcastle.

Last Monday (October 9),  thousands of Australians across the country generously threw their support behind headspace day, kicking off National Mental Health Week.

Headspace day is an opportunity to educate young people on the importance of taking care of mental health issues early, before they become more serious. Every year, a quarter of all young Australians will experience mental health issues and we want them to know that headspace is here to help. Research shows that 75 per cent of mental health issues emerge before the age of 25. By getting on top of issues early, the chances of recovery are greatly increased.

On headspace day we asked all Australians to share their personal mental health tips, telling us how they take care of their mental health. We gathered thousands of ideas to show young people the many different ways to maintain a healthy headspace.

It has been inspiring to see so many Australians share on #headspaceday, including Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, Opposition leader Bill Shorten, musicians, sports stars, and our own headspace day ambassador Anna Flanagan.

Our headspace clinicians say talking about how we take care of our mental health can encourage others to do the same. It is just as important to take care of our minds, as it is our bodies.

With 100 centres across Australia, and phone and online chat service eheadspace, over the past decade headspace has enabled over 355,000 young people to access mental health care.

There is still time to support headspace. Just visit headspaceday.org.au, write your personal mental health tip on a headspace day postcard and share on your social media with #headspaceday. Thank you to everyone who took part in headspace day, we look forward to your support in the future.

I would have to disagree with animal lover Jenny Moxham (‘It won’t help animals’, The Border Mail letters, October 16) that allowing tenants to have pets will exacerbate animal suffering.

Dog and cat rescue volunteers cite landlords who won’t allow pets as the main reason that animals have to be surrendered. This is no reflection at all on the care shown to the animal. It’s a fact of life that people who may have been allowed a pet in a rental, or as a home owner, can very easily find their circumstances change in regards to that. 

That does not make them bad people, bad pet owners, or bad tenants.