{"id":819170,"date":"2026-08-19T21:22:13","date_gmt":"2026-08-19T21:22:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/819170\/"},"modified":"2026-08-19T21:22:13","modified_gmt":"2026-08-19T21:22:13","slug":"hobart-construction-worker-starts-mens-mental-health-group-at-bakery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/819170\/","title":{"rendered":"Hobart construction worker starts men\u2019s mental health group at bakery"},"content":{"rendered":"

After watching too many mates struggle in silence, Hobart man Chris Kilpatrick decided it was time to get men talking.<\/p>\n

The construction worker started Banjo\u2019s Banter 4 Blokes, a fortnightly men\u2019s group where men meet over coffee and breakfast to talk about life, work and mental health.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s always been put down for men to kinda just grit their teeth and show up and just get on with it and not really talk about it,\u201d he told Pulse.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m in the construction industry and suicide\u2019s really prevalent in the construction industry.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Kilpatrick works in construction where he said suicide is prevalent<\/p>\n

What started with 12 men at the first gathering has now grown to 30, meeting fortnightly at 6:30am on Wednesdays at the Banjo\u2019s Bakery Cafe in Lenah Valley.<\/p>\n

Kilpatrick said the early start was deliberate.<\/p>\n

\"\"Steven Baker shared the impact of losing close mate Shane Warne with the group<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no excuses then,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can\u2019t say that you got something on.\u201d<\/p>\n

Coffee and food are covered by Kilpatrick\u2019s business and the owner of the Banjo\u2019s franchise, so cost is never a barrier.<\/p>\n

One story stands out for Kilpatrick \u2013 an international student studying in Hobart who found the group through a community Facebook page and had no support network.<\/p>\n

\"\"What started with 12 men has now grown to 30 at each gathering<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s got no way of getting there at that time of the morning,\u201d Kilpatrick said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve picked him up the last couple of mornings.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHe comes along and engages and he\u2019s loving it and is trying to build a new network for himself of support in the community.\u201d<\/p>\n

The group, only five gatherings old, occasionally brings in guest speakers to share their story.<\/p>\n

\"\"The group meets fortnightly at Banjo\u2019s Bakery Cafe in Lenah Valley<\/p>\n

This week, former St Kilda footballer Steven Baker shared, including the impact of losing close mate Shane Warne and falling into alcohol and drugs.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt just goes to show, it doesn\u2019t matter who you are or where you come from or who your mates are, that you can be impacted by the same stuff,\u201d Kilpatrick said.<\/p>\n

The group is also looking at running sessions on alternate weeks at another location on the eastern shore, so men would have a gathering to attend every Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Kilpatrick said the conversations had shifted over time from surface-level chat to something more meaningful.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou create this space and you consistently show up every fortnight and the guys that are coming back in are beginning to have real conversations and that\u2019s what it\u2019s about,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

To find out more, search for Banjo\u2019s Banter 4 Blokes on Facebook.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After watching too many mates struggle in silence, Hobart man Chris Kilpatrick decided it was time to get…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":819171,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[60],"tags":[97,259,260],"class_list":["post-819170","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mental-health","tag-health","tag-mental-health","tag-mentalhealth"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/819170","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=819170"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/819170\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/819171"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=819170"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=819170"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=819170"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}