The SHE Warriors - Daniela Calleja Bitar - Malta’s ‘Most Remarkable Woman’

Despite recently being awarded ‘The Most Remarkable Woman’ at the Mara Awards, Daniela Calleja Bitar is an extraordinarily private person, you will be hard pressed to find out anything about Daniela online. However, as the CEO of the Richmond Foundation, Daniela has dedicated her life to making change in the field of mental health and in doing so, affecting thousands of men and women.

In this down to earth SHE Warriors interview Dan sits down with Trudy to share her journey working in the area of mental health. Daniela reflects on her first interview with the Richmond Foundation 25 years ago to today where she and her team have been ‘silently vocal’ over the past two and a half decades to change the perception of mental health and the support provided.

Daniela dives into how conversations surrounding mental illness have changed from the first Xarabank discussion addressing mental health challenges that was originally intended to have guests speak about their illnesses with blacked out faces and masked voices, to the benchmark of COVID which forced society to face the topic of mental health face on and speak more freely about the issues faced.

Trudy also delves into the emergence of Social Media and asks about the long term impact that this new era of reality merging with a virtual life. Daniela outline the impact that today’s lifestyle is having on all of us, but particularly young people.

The conversation steers towards the most vulnerable groups including young men and teenagers, with guidelines for what we need to look out for in our loved ones, and ourselves, for early detection of developing mental help issues. The episode also explores the origins of Daniela strong sense of purpose, the strength of the team around her, and the key support network that she draws on to sustain her when the challenges of the role push hard.

This interview is not just the story of one woman’s dedication to changing the landscape of mental health and her drive to making lasting change across the country, it is also testament to those facing challenges and the incredible teams dedicated to improving the lives of the 1 in 3 of us who will face a mental health issue at some point in our lives.

Many thanks to Brown's, Hyatt Regency and Intimissimi who make these conversations possible.