Winnipeg’s Friendship Bench part of national mental-health campaign

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This article was published 04/05/2017 (3107 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

 

Sitting around at Grant Park High School has taken on a colourful new meaning.

A yellow Friendship Bench, part of a national campaign to open up conversations with youth about mental health, is being installed at the Winnipeg school Thursday.

The Friendship Bench is billed as serving to “remind students of the power of hello” and encourage them to talk with one another about depression and suicidal thoughts as part of Mental Health Awareness Week, which runs May 1 to 7.

It is one of five benches being installed at five schools in five days across Canada by Sam Fiorella, founder of the in the #YellowIsForHello campaign.

“We are very excited about it. We feel mental health is a big issue for our youth and we want people to talk about it,” said Phyllis Hidichuk, head of student services at Grant Park.”It’s not a secret, it’s not a mystery. We want students and parents to be aware of what’s out there and how we can help them. We want people to start talking about it. In talking about it, it becomes less of a problem and they can get help. It’s a preventative thing as well.”

She said the school of about 1,200 students in grades 7-12 were selected by the Winnipeg School Division to be the recipient of the Friendship Bench in recognition of the leadership role the school has been taking in providing numerous mental wellness supports for students. 

In addition to Grant Park in Winnipeg on Thursday, Friendship Benches have already been placed at Sutherland Secondary in Vancouver, Strathcona High School in Edmonton and Saskatchewan Polytechnic in Regina. The fifth and final placement will be at Gonzaga High School in St. John’s, N.L., Friday.

A press release said the Teens Talk 2016 Survey from A Kids Help Phone found that one in five Canadian teenagers seriously considered suicide in the past year and that most children struggling with depression suffer in silence.

The release stated that each Friendship Bench is “a permanent symbol to encourage students to take minute of out their day to sit, breathe and talk (or think) about their mental health and that of their peers.”

The five benches installed this week are joining 27 benches that have been put in place on school campuses across Canada in the past two years during Mental Health Week.

The benches and the #YellowIsForHello campaign are designed to serve as resources to open up conversations between students about mental health, connect students with available on-campus mental-health support services through the web-address/hashtag on the benches, and be tools to help inspire and support existing mental-health awareness efforts on school campuses.

Fiorella came up with the idea to start the The Friendship Bench initiative after he lost his son Lucas in 2014. Lucas, a second-year university student at the time, had been suffering from depression, but his family wasn’t aware of his problems.

“The shock and overwhelming loss shook Sam to his very core,” the press release stated.

Fiorella decided to find a way to try to help others facing the same struggles and do it in his son’s memory.

“As a parent, learning that your child is suffering alone, when if you only knew, you could have helped, is your worst fear,” Fiorella said in a statement. “You can’t rewrite the past but you can certainly change the future. Suicide is the second leading cause of death among Canadians aged 15-34. No parent should find out their child is suffering when it’s too late to do anything about it.”

Fiorella believes youth today may not want to hear first from clinicians or parents and might prefer to initially “crowd-source everything.” Without being able to search for information on their own, they are less likely to ask for or accept help. He said the number of students asking for help seems to be rising in the schools where #YellowIsForHello benches have been donated.

Hidichuk said her experience, in line with Fiorella’s theory, is that students will often interact with each other first. 

“They are their first support system. I think he’s right in that they will approach each other first. They get talking, they see things and that there are supports out there and it’s to empower them to come forward. It’s OK to talk about it,” Hidichuk said.

Canadian Mental Health Association data show only one in five children who need mental-health services actually obtain them, the release stated.

All Friendship Benches include a plaque with a link to www.yellowisforhello.org, which provides links to mental-health support services on and off campus.

“While Lucas was silently dealing with depression, we learned from friends that he made an effort to help others who were also suffering. Each conversation started with a simple ‘hello,'” Fiorella said. “No one knows for certain how much impact they have on the lives of other people, but we have to at least try our best and start with a hello.”

For more information about  #YellowIsForHello initiative, go to www.yellowisforhello.org or for more information about The Friendship Bench go to www.thefriendshipbench.org.