The Youth Aware of Mental Health (YAM) programs for 2020 are underway!
This year, 23 schools will be participating in the YAM program, with 14 schools already booked in!
It's wonderful to see local schools taking up the opportunity to educate young people about mental health, and how to find the right help for themselves or a friend.
Over the last two years, the YAM program has been delivered to over 5,8OO year 9 students across 28 government, Catholic and independent schools - wow!
After participating in YAM, one student said the program really made a difference in starting a conversation with their mother about difficult emotions:
“I just wanted to say after last week’s role play I went home and spoke to my mum about how I felt every time I was about to leave to go visit my dad. I told her the words she said made me feel sad and I would feel stressed and upset before going and seeing him. I asked mum to consider my feelings and even though her and dad don’t get along he is my dad and I love him. We ended up speaking for an hour, mum cried, I cried and it was really good.” - Student
You can read more about the roll-out of YAM to date here.
What can you do?
We all have a role to play in suicide prevention. Local young people are learning about mental health and suicide, and you can too! Here are some ways you can get involved and make a difference:
* Do community training: click here to see a list of suicide prevention training (including QPR, a FREE online training to help you recognise and respond to the warning signs for suicide).
* Connect with the right support: if you or someone you care about is in need of support, whether it's for mental health or something else, help is available locally. Click here to find a list of supports.
* Spread the word: help spread the word about the supports available locally and share our resources, such as our 'Where to go for support' poster and videos of hope and recovery.
UPDATE: some YAM programs initially scheduled for Term 1 will be postponed until later in the year. New program dates will be published once they are finalised.