You never know who might be struggling with their mental health.
It sounds cliche, but it’s true.
Mental health doesn't discriminate and can manifest itself in even the most well-adjusted person. And although it may not be visible, people can easily become caught in a battle with their own mind.
Angela Hayward has seen it before.
When the Grand Falls-Windsor resident was a teenager, it was discovered a friend of hers was self-harming. This friend didn't appear to be out of the ordinary. There were no outward signs she was struggling with her mental health.
At the time, Hayward didn't know what to look for. The signs could've been there, but she had no idea what they would have looked like.
That is something she is looking to fix on Saturday.
The now 21-year-old is signed up to take part in a workshop called safeTALK, on May 11, at the Youth 2000 Centre in Grand Falls-Windsor. It’s a training session in suicide awareness.
Offered by the Youth 2000 Centre, it’s intended to help people recognize the signs of a person struggling with their mental health and set them on a path to get help they need.
Hayward will be completing the personal care assistant program at Keyin College in the near future and she doesn't under estimate the benefit of having the knowledge that will come with safeTALK.
"It is definitely a good thing to know because you never know who might be struggling," she said.
The numbers for Newfoundland and Labrador regarding hospitalizations for mental health and self-injury are higher than the Canadian average.
The Vital Signs report released by Memorial University's Harris Centre in 2018 indicates the Canadian average for people who have been admitted to hospital after deliberately injuring themselves was 68 out of every 100,000 people from 2016-2017.
The Newfoundland average is 105. In central parts of the province, that number is 95 people per 100,000.
In the same report, 12 per cent of Canadians were admitted to hospital for mental health reasons at least three times. Again, the percentage for this province was higher than the country at 13 per cent. Central Newfoundland was the same as the provincial average.
Terri Lynn Burry is the program co-ordinator at the Youth 2000 Centre. She saw safeTALK sessions as a way to help bridge a gap she sees in mental health programs in this province.
She feels youth mental health services are lacking. When youth speak up about their issues, they aren't being listened too. safeTALK is gives people an avenue to learn what they should be looking for in their peers who could be in trouble.
It is always easier to talk to people in the same societal category as yourself and that’s what this program is designed to promote.
"It is an underdeveloped area of mental health help," said Burry. "It is about helping yourself and your peers."
