Hopeful and Hopeless

Sometimes it helps to have walked in another person’s shoes to understand their challenges. This is especially true when it comes to mental health and well being.

I’m not ashamed to say I’ve battled depression over the years. Siutational, genetic, hormonal, the source doesn’t matter as much as the management. Now, with tools and strategies in place, I understand why life was such a struggle at times. Hindsight is a great thing.

This knowledge and these experiences don’t make it easier when someone you love is in the depths of despair. When they can’t see a way forward. When they lose their joy. When they don’t see the amazing traits and characteristics that others see in them. When they’re hopeless.

What I learned in 2021 was not simple. It was hard and painful. My big takeaway is that while there is lots of talk around mental health, this does not always permetate in a meaningful way into many insitututions, in particular in education and in health.

Schools are extremely aware of the mental health challenges faced by many young people. You’d have to be pretty disconnected from your students not to notice the tsunami of challenges threatening to drown them these days. And you’d have to be pretty selfish not to care.

Our hospitals and counselling services are hyper-aware as they pick up the pieces on a daily basis. Six week wait times to get counselling post suicide attempts, and longer for those with “suicidal tendencies” are standard here in the South. Is it any wonder we have some of the highest suicide rates in the world?

Yet both the education and health sectors are severely under-resourced to provide the levels of support needed. There is a real, and dangerous, disconnect between the talk and the walk.

On top of this, discrimination abounds around the treatment of people once their mental health status becomes public. This can be as subtle as a throw away comment or as insidious as bullying in the myriad of forms and guises this occurs.

These attitudes are why people lie about their mental health status on job applications. As an employer, would you consider a tick in that box as a plus or a minus?

I believe a person who has the courage and strength of character to be honest about a mental health diagnosis is probably in a stronger position health-wise than the thousands of people trying to function with deperession and/or anxiety who are unsupported and struggling on a daily basis. It’s a desperately dark place to be.

Because like any health condition from dodgy thyroids to migraines , once a diagnosis is made and managed, there are positive flow on effects for a person’s productivity and wellbeing.

For 2022, I’d love to see us discuss depression and other mental health challenges as openly as dicky knees and failing eyesight. I’m desperate to see support for our rangatahi match need. I’m determined that schools educate staff about the importance of langauge use and, that leaders lead in a professional and genuine manner.

Most of all, I want the hopeless to feel hopeful.

Jack’s Point