It's Good to Talk with Jason McGinn

Connor Yeats got in touch through mental health charity, Back Onside, about sharing his story to help raise awareness. From growing up as a young lad who had strong family connections, he talks about how losing some family members affected his mental health, causing him to start drinking excessively and needing support, which he found through Back Onside and from counselling sessions when he was as young as 9 years old. Connor has always been involved in football and chats about how that has been a massive thing in his life to help him through the tough times.

In this episode Jason chats with Alex Staniforth; a record breaking adventurer, endurance athlete, international motivational speaker, author and mental health activist! Alex has had his own battles with mental health but has used the outdoors and setting himself some incredible physical challenges, including two attempts to summit Everest, as one method of combatting that. The lads discuss this as well as the benefits that the great outdoors has to offer. Alex has also co-founded a mental health charity called, "Mind over Mountains" which he speaks about as well. What a truly inspiring character Alex is and hopefully you enjoy listening to this conversation. If you want to find out more about Alex, check out his website at www.alexstaniforth.com and if you enjoyed this conversation you can find more on the podcast platform or head over to our Facebook page @itsgoodtotalkwithjasonmcginn or the Instagram handle Its Good to Talk. Thanks folks and remember, its ok not to be ok!

In this episode Jason speaks to James Docherty who has beena huge part of the Violence Reduction Unit where, amongst other things, he helps to tackle gang related violence.

James has recently he's been involved in working around Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE's) and the discussion moves in to the impact of this.

Jame's wealth of experience shines through.

In this episode, Jason talks to Steven Fegan who works at Ayrshire College as well as volunteering his time with The Samaritans.

Steven tells Jason of his journey from phoning The Samaritans during his time of desperation, where being listened to and understood helped change the course of his life and has now turned full circle as he is training to be one of the invaluable telephone counsellors for organisation where he will be taking calls like he once made himself.

Steven also tells Jason about how he is the UK's only wheelkchair bound boxercise instructor and found the spirit to not let anyhthing hold him back!

This truly is an inspiring chat!

Back after a short summer break, Jason's old pal Kenny Weston joins the discussion this time and goes in to depth about his former professional football career with Ipswich Town as well as starting his journey with Manchester United and his suffering of panic attacks.

The boys reminisce of their time in America and how Kenny changed his way of living after finding God and all that matters to him now is that his family are looked after.

This time round, Jason talks to Yokkao fight team member Spencer Brown.

The guys chat about Spencer's move from Irvine in Scotland to Thailand, being part of the world famous Yokkao fight team and the impact of thai boxing on mental health.

***Please note, this episode contains explicit language of an adult nature and listener caution is advised***

#itsgoodtotalk #spencerbrown #yokkao #muaythai #ItsOkNotToBeOk

This time, Jason chats to retired Police Scotland Cheif Inspector, Graham Goulden, who served the latter stages of his career within the Scottish Violence Reduction Unit and has now set up Cultivating Minds UK.

In this very interesting and informative chat, Graham shares his views on leadership and the bystander approach.

You can see what Graham is up to on twitter @Graham_Goulden and via his website https://grahamgoulden.com/

#bystanderapproach #itsgoodtotalk #mentalhealthawareness #ItsOkNotToBeOk

This time round Jason is joined by Father & Son duo, Eddie and Chris Woods from Karrdale Ltd, the team behind such initiatives as Inspiring Safe Communities - A Guide to Safety, Wellbeing and Communities, and Mind Yourself - An easy to follow guide to help with the understanding and self management of stress and anxiety.

The workplace is currently experiencing a jam when it comes to safety & wellbeing, leaving many scratching their heads for an engaging way forward. The motivation to create positive environments of care is strong, but the lack of new ideas is forcing companies into regurgitating the same models, ones that reached the pinnacle of success a long time ago and the risk of these important topics becoming boring and less meaningful for the worker is drawing closer.

For more information on what Karrdale do, please visit https://karrdale.com
Twitter @KarrdaleLtd

Jason speaks to Jordan Drummond, co-owner of In Da Hut Fitness of Auchinleck, East Ayrshire. Jordan set himself the mammoth task of running 10 marathons in 10 days to raise money for the mental health charity, SAMH. With over £5k raised, did he manage this huge ask? And we find out just how good exercise is for your own mental health.

This time, Jason talks to Kevin Brown, the founder of Fit Ayrshire Dads (FAD's). In this epidosde Jason asks Kevin why he founded the group, how the FAD's help to create a safe space for guys to openly chat and the lads tackle social distancing and it's true meaning.