A guest blog post by Harry Long
Most of us have our heroes. It could be Avicci (who sadly died by suicide) or Ed Sheeran. It could be Nelson Mandela or Martin Luther King. It could be someone sitting right beside you that only you know. What unites those people that we look up to is often the fact that they have the strength and the courage to express something that needs to be said but that many are too afraid to say. This expression can happen in many ways including through song, political speeches or simple actions. To hear of a 15-year-old launching a campaign to have better mental health supports in schools for children and teenagers makes me think. Here is a hero for our time and our place. For many years our young people have been suffering in ways they should not have to and few are prepared to say that. Now we have a brave and highly articulate person who is not only prepared to say it, but is also starting to take action to try to improve the situation.
When I was Aisling’s age, over four decades ago, perhaps the pressures were not as great, but we still suffered all the pains, anxieties and questionings of the world we were growing up in. There were even less supports than there are now and hospitalisation often happened in cases where it wasn’t really necessary. There was a stigma attached to mental health issues that may be lessening but it is still there. The only real difference between a person who is hospitalised with mental health problems and those who aren’t is that the latter found a strategy to help them through life. Everybody suffers ups and downs throughout their lives so none of us should stand in judgement of or stigmatise those who run in to difficulties.
When you read authors like Freud and Jung and see the breadth and depth of the understanding that began with their work, it is astonishing that people still suffer as they do. Their work began over 100 years ago. For a long time, the knowledge and capability is there to help far more people, but it simply has not been done. That is why the work that Aisling has begun is so important. Here is a young person who is prepared to stand up and say that help should be available to our young people in schools. She is working with her parents and a family friend who has a degree in psychology to put in place supports for anyone who is struggling. She is right to fight the stigma attached to coming forward and admitting you need help. If more people were encouraged to do this and given the supports they need, our young people would suffer less and we would see less of the awful suicides that have plagued us in recent times.
As a man who grew up in the 1970s and 1980s in Ireland, I can only say that I wish I had the courage, the intelligence and the wonderfully articulate ways that Aisling has. I know other teenagers and young adults who are similarly fearless in expressing themselves, and this is a very positive development. The willingness to step forward and try to work with professional adults in having the voices of children and teenagers heard shows great empathy and intelligence. The potential for improvements through the work that Aisling is prepared to do is enormous. She may face criticism and attack, but the very fact of what she is doing is helping to break down barriers and stigma.
Many may look further afield for their heroes or people who inspire them. Maybe we should look closer to home at those who are taking on the difficult task of trying to have the voices of our young people heard and respected within our own communities. These are the people who are beginning to shape the society of the future. Perhaps if we listen and work with them we will find that badly needed changes in the communities we live in can really begin to happen. For all of the troubles humanity faces all around the planet, it can still be a wonderful world. If we can only learn to listen respectfully to others, especially our young people, and work together then we, with them, can be the change we wish to see in the world.
Harry Long, B.A., Ph.D.
