WARWICK SMITH/Stuff
Cat Levine from Feelings for Life Charitable Trust will deliver the Think and Be Me programme, with tools including a mood cube to help children understand their emotions. (File photo)
A fast fundraiser for a school mental health programme shows people’s willingness to prevent youth suicide and truancy, according to one organiser.
More than $600,000 was raised in less than six weeks for the Tai Tokerau Tamariki Mental Health Wellbeing Project, said Peter Smith, chairman of the Rotary Club of Whangārei City.
Schools will take part in a programme which teaches children to manage their emotions called Think and Be Me, run by Feelings for Life Charitable Trust.
The project will initially cover 60 primary schools in 2023 and 2024 in Northland – the region with the highest suicide rate in the country, according to the Ministry of Health.
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Smith said the aim was to expand to the rest of the country as more funds were raised.
Think and Be Me includes professional development for teachers, digital resources and interactive presentations to pupils.
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Peter Smith from Rotary Club of Whangārei City says there has been huge support for Te Tai Tokerau Tamariki Mental Health Wellbeing Project.
Alongside the presentations, Rotary clubs will run a free Whānau Hauora Fun Day, including games like 10-pin bowling, mini putt and relays.
Smith said the fun day aimed to ensure pupils not regularly attending class were enticed back to school when the presentations were run.
Northland also has the highest truancy rate in the country, with 34% of students regularly attending class.
“We did a pilot in some schools and teachers said: you are speaking to the converted – it’s the ones who are not here who would benefit the most.”
Chris McKeen/Stuff
More and more students from every background – rich and poor – are wagging school. No-one seems to know why. (Video first published November 2020)
Smith said the idea for the project had been brewing for a number of years, as Rotarians had long been concerned about health and mental health.
The Gumboot Friday Tractor Trek in 2020, organised by mental health advocate Mike King, struck a chord and highlighted a lack of services for primary school children, he said.
Rotary clubs from all over New Zealand, as well as in Australia and South Korea, contributed to the fundraiser, raising the money in six weeks, Smith said.
“We were determined to raise it and we actually over-shot. It is a real tender subject for people.”
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Cat Levine says Think and Be Me helps children to identify their emotions and to use strategies to regulate emotions, increasing their emotional literacy, improving social skills and decreasing bullying.
Cat Levine, from Feelings for Life Charitable Trust, has been presenting in schools for more than 10 years, running Think and Be Me programmes since 2020.
Northland psychiatrist Dr Sarah Castle also provided input, saying early intervention education was a way to reduce the huge numbers needing their services, Levine said.
One in four Kiwi children would experience a mental health issue before 18 and 50% of mental health conditions started before the age of 12, she said.
Think and Be Me helps children to identify their emotions and to use strategies to regulate emotions – like breathing techniques, distraction and calming tools.
Levine expects the project will help youngsters increase their emotional literacy, leading to better social skills, decreasing bullying and increasing positive, supportive relationships.
Long-term this is expected to lead to a decrease in self-harm and suicide, family violence and reliance on alcohol and drugs.
Levine said the Rotary support meant she now had a full team behind her, and she expected to tour Tai Tokerau for six months in 2023 with a few team members, billeted by friends and Rotarians.
