Olympian Steve Moneghetti, City of Ballarat Mayor Daniel Moloney, media personality John Fitzgibbon and Ballarat Community Health chief executive Sean Duffy will form a panel.

The event After Dark: getting to the brighter side of mental health challenges, will be held online on Thursday evening.

Event organiser David Pearce, mental health communicator behind On The Low Down, said he wanted conversations like this to break down barriers to men seeking help.

"Men are a lot less likely to seek help on their own... because of this men are experiencing much higher rates of suicide and substance abuse," he said.

"Things like experiencing shame, grief, feelings of loneliness or isolation can be barriers that prevent us from seeking help."

Mr Duffy said the event would help connect community members to mental health services.

"It is important we see this as a whole of community issue," he said.

"We often speak as mental health professionals to the community, but I think when you hear it from a diverse group of people that don't work in the industry, it hits home.

"We all realise it is not a particular part of the community that is affected... People can be in high profile careers and still experience mental health issues.

"Now more than ever it is important we increase our understanding and awareness and how to offer support to those who are suffering."

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Mr Fitzgibbon, who is chair of Headspace in Ballarat, said it was all about starting conversations.

"I had someone who was able to get me to have that first conversation at a time I was having challenges myself. That was a big step for me personally," he said.

"That led me to a path to focusing more on my mental health.

"We put work into our physical health, wellbeing and fitness, but we tend to forget we actually need to put work into our mental health."

Cr Moloney said he publicly shared his experience coming out as bisexual and his mental health challenges last year.

He said other people experiencing similar struggles had reached out to him since and he wanted to encourage everyone to connect with mental health services for support.

"No matter what personal hardship it is, we all face challenges at some point in our lives. To find someone to reach out and talk to is the key thing," he said.

"I found it personally invaluable a few years ago and being so well supported by my city last year really helped as well.

"It is important for city leaders to demonstrate publicly they are supportive for young men to express how they feel and talk in a constructive way."

Mr Moneghetti said the forum was a chance for him to normalise some of the feelings he had experienced, which had been difficult to confront.

"Often people will talk to me under the facade of this successful athlete, but this gives me a chance to be a normal person, which I am," he said.

Mr Moneghetti said conversations could be confronting or enlightening and he learnt from sharing too.

"We are all in this together. You can say it all you like. This gives meat to the words... hopefully it is proof we are better off for helping each other out," he said.

People are encouraged to register for the After Dark event at onthelowdown.com.au/online-events.

On The Low Down has also launched a new podcast series Hear for Each Other which features interviews with some of the panellists.

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