Gus Worland lends his voice to important cause

Gus Worland has “the wettest right shoulder” after a morning of mental health talks with tradies at a local construction sight.
Since launching mental health charity Gotcha4Life in 2017, the radio and TV personality has spearheaded a shift in mental health support for men in Australia.
His latest message of mental health “fitness” via the Gotcha4Life Mental Fitness Gym is clearly hitting home.
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“[It’s] a little bit of fun around a topic of mental fitness, giving them a few tips and tricks around how to start a conversation with their child that they’re struggling to chat with, or whatever other roles they may be playing as a partner or a lover or a husband or whatever they’re into it,” Worland, 55, tells 9honey.
“I’m just so lucky to be in this position,” he says of his work.
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Later in the day, Worland joined the team at Triple M for The Rush Hour, which he presents with James Brayshaw and Billy Brownless from 3pm to 5pm weekdays.
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“Now I’m driving back, and I’ve got radio that gives me my balance this afternoon, and then tomorrow I’ve got another [mental health talk] … I’m very, very lucky.”
Worland has been open about his own mental health struggles, saying he has a “good village” of people whom he can lean on during trying times.
“If you’ve got a village around you, where you don’t worry alone, you can talk about it and get it out of your head,” he says, adding it is important to get into the habit of talking about your feelings and problems.
“That’s why I talk about mental fitness,” he says.
“It’s even more powerful than your gym or your physical fitness.”
Worland is now turning his voice to another important cause – the Stop it at the Start campaign, targeting gender disrespect that, thanks to social media, is one click away for most.
“I think we do overcomplicate things at times. Like, don’t allow behaviour that perhaps has been allowed in the past to be allowed moving forward,” he says.
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“That means good blokes. And I hate the thought of calling myself a good bloke, but as a good father and a good friend and someone who talks to men a lot, if we can set the new standard around what is acceptable and what is not acceptable, then we’re more likely to stop what is happening at the moment in this country where people are getting hurt.”
Worland was recently confronted by a situation at home when his son Jack came across the work of Andrew Tate, a self-proclaimed misogynistic influencer.
It took just one conversation for Jack to understand Tate’s message wasn’t a path he wanted to take.
Worland also reminds men it’s important to lead by example when it comes to influencing the next generation.
“What I’ve been telling men to do with Gotcha4Life for years is like starting an uncomfortable conversation,” he says.
“But the more you do, it the more you practice it, the more you become confident in it and the more people hear it.
“The conversation that you walk past and don’t do anything about it, that’s the level that you’re accepting. So I don’t want to do that anymore.
“And I think I get to speak on Triple M, I get to speak on Channel 9 to a lot of people, and I want to have the standards set higher.”
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