Teenagers Talking Suicide

IN what is believed to be a first in Australia, local teenagers will be undertaking mental health first aid training this week and talking about suicide and mental health.

Geoff Ahern, a crisis mental health expert will train all year 10 students from Scone High School and Scone Grammar School in teen mental health and said the evidence shows educating teenagers about suicide and mental health saves lives.

“16 to 24 year olds think about and attempt suicide more than any other age group in Australia, so they are already a risky group and they are already talking about it,” he said.

“But if a young person takes their life, every kid in town knows about it and is talking about it but it’s us grown ups who are anxious about talking about it,” he said.

“We talk to the students about suicide and we know that that doesn’t put ideas in their head it doesn’t increase their risk of suicide it decreases their risk once we start engaging them once we start engaging them in some conversation around suicide,” Geoff Ahern said.

“I’m not sure if there is any other program in Australia where we go into schools and very intentionally talk to entire students groups about mental health and about suicide awareness,” said Mr Ahern.

Geoff Ahern said teenagers often don’t talk to their parents about suicide, because they are concerned it may distress them, but he encourages teenagers to reach out and for parents to become educated.

Parents, teachers and the broader community have embraced mental health first aid training, funded by the Where There’s A Will Foundation, with sessions being conducted across the Upper Hunter area.

“I’ve never seen anything like this in Australia it’s incredible, to see the whole of community get involved,” Mr Ahern said.

“In the middle of Melbourne we’ll run training in the middle of the week and we’ll struggle to get 10 people there, but we’ll have 30 people turn up on a weekend in Scone to give up their whole weekend to talk about youth mental health,” he said.

“It is amazing, I’ve been working in mental health for 20 years and I’ve been involved in trying to be proactive with this kind of education but I have never seen a community embrace in such a positive and practical way dealing with and addressing mental health issues and suicide risk,” said Geoff Ahern

Local teenagers are encouraged to register with eheadspace to have access to online and telephone support services.

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• Real Time Answers to Real Issues – February 8, 2017.
• Police Specialist Trains Local Teachers – November 30, 2017.