Take Action!

11 November 2017

Our first action was to organise a time to speak in assembly about the help line and how to access it when you are feeling low. We came across a disabler when organising this action, some teachers did not think that we should share our message in this way. Therefore, we needed to go back and do more research around the best way to deliver our message.

When looking at the Ministry of Health website it states “It’s OK to talk about suicide. However, talking about the details of a suicide (like the method) can put vulnerable people at risk.” This is exactly the angle that we wanted to look at this from “It’s okay not to be okay, but it’s not okay not to talk about it.” This led us to looking into other ways to share our message. We thought that maybe a way to overcome this disabler is to instead share a message in the morning notices.

The notice we asked to include was:

“WHERE TO GET HELP:

If you are worried about your or someone else’s mental health, the best place to get help is your GP or local mental health provider. If you need to talk to someone, the following free helplines operate 24/7:

DEPRESSION HELPLINE: 0800 111 757

LIFELINE: 0800 543 354

NEED TO TALK? Call or text 1737

SAMARITANS: 0800 726 666

YOUTHLINE: 0800 376 633 or text 234 ”

We feel that this was a good outcome for our first action. A large range of students heard the message and were given access to a helpline. What enabled us to do this was being able to share a message in the daily notices, our research around what is appropriate to say and support from our English teachers to write the message.

On reflection we think that this was a good way to share our message. We are excited to get on to our next action for this project - The Shoe Project. Look into this more here: yeswecare.nz

What can we do?!

Checking in - These are the action plans that we have created for our project focusing on preventing teen suicide in our community.

“It’s okay to not be okay, but it’s not okay not to talk about it!”

Steps needed to achieve the goal.	What will help us achieve this goal?(Enablers)	Possible barriers and how they could be overcome.	Who is responsible for this step?	Date this step will be achieved by.
Have a meeting with Mr Rogers to book an assembly slot to share the numbers and information about lifeline.	Miss Aitken letting me out of class to see Mr Rogers. Mr Rogers being in his office.	Mr Rogers says no to our group presenting this information - we could overcome this by asking the Deans if we can present in Dean’s assemblies. Mr Rogers being away - we could overcome this by emailing him to book a slot.	Kelsey, Alby and Scott.	1/11/17
Create a demonstration - like what they did in town with the shoes for the teens who have taken their lives in town.	Knowing the numbers. Getting the shoes. Finding the time and place to have this demonstration. Brainstorming with teachers where would be the best place for this.	Wet weather - having a postponement day	Kelsey & Alby	11/11/17
Make some pamphlets and share these in the community to raise awareness of the demonstration that we are doing.	Creative excellence Having the facts and information correct Printing budget Distributing these in our community	Not enough money to print - could email or create a website. People won’t help distribute - put in a common place where access is not an issue.	Scott and Alby	20/11/17
Create a “Share happiness day!”	Talking to Mr Rogers about having this day and what it entails. Have fun things to promote happiness around the school - candy, music, high fives etc.	Not enough money for things - have free things like music, high fives, hugs, smile station etc.	Kelsey, Alby and Scott	Before 10/12/17

All of the possible barriers have been sorted out and our action plans have been checked by our teachers! Look out Hornby, here we come! Let’s spread the happiness!!! Just like Coke did in the video below!

"Stay Woke"

At Hornby High we have been asked how we can have a positive impact on our community?

To do this first we had to choose a topic. I chose teen suicide because it is something that I think affects too many people in our community and I would like to find some way to make a difference.

We had to work in groups that had a similar vision to us. Other people that had a similar vision to me were Alby and Scott. We formed a group called “Stay woke”.

To help us understand teen suicide further we needed to find websites that gave us information on what is what and what you can do. Here is a list of the websites we found:

Website Name	Link	Date we accessed site
Stuff	http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/85305366/The-highest-rate-of-teen-suicide-in-the-developed-world	20/10/17
Stats Nz	http://www.stats.govt.nz/browse_for_stats/snapshots-of-nz/nz-social-indicators/Home/Health/suicide.aspx	20/10/17
Stuff	http://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/news/85452513/canterbury-records-most-suicides-in-new-zealand	20/10/17
Depression.org	https://depression.org.nz/help-someone/	20/10/17
health.com	http://www.health.com/health/gallery/0,,20452135,00.html	20/10/17

We then had to answer some questions about our topic:

Who is affected? Family, friends, teenager, community

What are the issues? Loss of life, negative impact on community.

When and how did this start? It has been happening for a while but with the rise of social media and cyber bullying it is becoming more prevalent.

Where is it happening? All over the world. The statistics for Christchurch in particular are really scary.

Why is this happening? Teens with depression or anxiety, feelings of hopelessness, teens seeing no other way out.

Then we had to say what we plan to do to help solve this issue:

We want to make a difference in our community by providing students a safe place to talk about their issues and know that: “It’s okay to not be okay, but it’s not okay not to talk about it!”