Young people engage on mental health when sessions prioritise safety over information

The useful part

The two-day program comes as national data shows youth mental illness rates climbing sharply. Mental illness accounts for around 15% of Australia's disease burden but receives just 7% of national health spending, the report noted. Trust comes before honesty zero2hero senior facilitator Stuart Hayward said student questions shifted in tone as the day progressed.

How it works

• zero2hero CEO Ashlee Harrison said the events showed young people are willing to engage when they feel respected and safe, and that the resulting conversations move quickly toward substantive territory.
• Initial questions were broad, he said, but became more specific as students grew more comfortable, moving toward topics such as recognising when a friend needs help and starting difficult conversations.
• "You could almost feel the point where a group realised, 'Okay, we are safe to actually talk about this here,'" Hayward said.
• Once that shift occurred, he said, students began describing situations they were actually navigating rather than responses they believed adults wanted to hear.
• She said she would have liked to see more time allocated to student-led question-and-answer sessions.

What to take from it

"When they feel safe, respected and like we genuinely care about what they think, they happily engage," Harrison said. "Mental health is serious, but that doesn't mean every conversation we have about it has to feel sombre or clinical," Harrison said. Harrison said sustained mental health education beyond single events remains necessary, pointing to ongoing conversations in classrooms and among peers as the setting where literacy and help-seeking skills are reinforced.

Details worth keeping

Harrison also said serious subject matter, including suicide prevention, does not require a heavy atmosphere to be taken seriously by students, and that combining humour and connection with difficult topics does not undermine their significance. Zero2hero, a Western Australia-based charity, has run "In Your Head" events for schools for several years, with past iterations drawing between 700 and 1,500 attendees to venues including the Perth Convention and Exhibition Centre.

Related coverage

• Localnews8: When young people need support with their mental health, many first turn to a peer.
• Ukrunchat: Every year, around 200 children lose their lives to suicide.
• Huffingtonpost: Would you know how to speak to a young person who's experiencing suicidal thoughts?
• Yourstory: Discover why Gen Z is embracing therapy, prioritising mental health, and changing conversations around emotional well-being.
• Theeducatoronline: Mental health has overtaken screen time and bullying as the health issue troubling Australian educators most, according to a new survey of more than 2,000 educators