On Wednesday, 21 students from Years 10 and 11 attended the annual “In Your Head” Mental Health Forum at the Perth Convention and Exhibition Centre. The students heard from a number of guest presenters throughout the day. The main speakers and many guest presenters spoke on topics of self-care, emotional regulation suicide prevention and mental health and wellbeing.
Nick Hudson, Founder of the Push-Up Challenge and 2024 Local Hero, spoke about his personal journey and his experience around his heart concerns from a young age and surgery, and the early beginnings of the Push-Up Challenge.
Ashlee Harrison, inspiring founder of Zero2Hero, shared with the students the very personal reason why she started Zero2Hero and her three tips to being a leader:
- Life does not put things in front of you that you are unable to handle
- Respect yourself to walk away from anything that does not make you a better person
- First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you and then you win (Gandhi).
Angie Bain, Head of Wellbeing at the Fremantle Dockers, addressed some key strategies to help with high performance pressure and shared some experiences and how she works with the current players in the lead up to game day.
Dr Justin Coulson, a Wellbeing expert and psychiatrist, spoke about suicide and his recent family experience with the topic. He talked about suicide prevention and the signs to look out for in young people who may be at risk.
Along with the opportunities to attend sessions including “Learning to love yourself”, “Dance Beats”, “Sound Healing” and “Nourish the Brain”, the students went away with a wealth of resources and tools on how to help not only their friends but themselves with wellbeing and mental health.
Mr Dion Rendall
Head of Year 11
