WATCHING someone you know or care about struggle with anxiety can be saddening, frustrating and leave you feeling helpless.

Despite the fact that anxiety affects about a quarter of the population, many of us feel ill-equipped to help friends, family and colleagues through mental health issues.

The demand for more of these skills in Warwick is evident in the fact that a workshop on how to support women with anxiety sold out so quickly, local social worker Kathryn Walton had to quickly organise another.

"I wanted to offer other professionals in the community the opportunity to learn a little bit more about anxiety and how you can use your knowledge about anxiety to support women in the best possible way,” Mrs Walton said.

The workshop aims to provide professional development training for people in caring professions like applied health and aged care.

"I think that living and working in rural and regional Australia a lot of workers need to be generalist workers and we need to know a little bit about a lot of things in order to be affective,” Mrs Walton said.

Knowing how best to help women who struggle with anxiety is one of those things.

Mrs Walton said rural areas often had a 'get-on-with-it' attitude that was a barrier to understanding and addressing mental health.

"Reassurance is something we often slip into to help people feel better temporarily, but in the long term it doesn't lead to changing anxious thoughts,” she said.

"We need to help that person develop some insight into their anxiety and ways they can challenge it.”

Mrs Walton said women experienced some unique challenges when it came to mental health.

"A lot of women are primary caregivers of their children so those pressures of parenting of having a career as well and making a financial contribution,” she said.

"They are also conscious of how they look and present themselves and have to wear multiple hats in their lives.”

Mrs Walton said women often felt they were unable to show that they were struggling out of fear of what other people would think.

But building the skills to help others in the workshop could also help participants care for their own well being as well, Mrs Walton said.

The three-hour workshops will run on the March 6 and March 16 in line with Queensland Women's Week.

For more information visit: https://www.kathrynwalton.com.au/wp1/