Beehive Foundation founders Mark Haughton, Di Ashton and Michael Spiteri with Dandenong Southern Stingrays region manager Mark Wheeler and Berwick Junior Football Club vice-president Richard Robertson.By Lilly O’Gorman
IT’S about six months since the launch of Cardinia and Casey’s first suicide support group, and now the whole community is joining the conversation.
Politicians, police, sporting clubs, schools, welfare agencies, parents and young people have all spoken up about youth suicide in the region.
The latest non-profit to emerge is the Beehive Foundation, offering ‘youth support through sport’.
About 35 people attended the Beehive Foundation launch on Monday night in Dandenong, and it already has strong support from Dandenong Southern Stingrays Football Club and Berwick Junior Football Club.
Beehive Foundation co-founder Michael Spiteri said the initiative was delivered through three programs: The Hive, The Buzz and The Edge.
The Hive has been delivered at Berwick Junior FC for the past two years, and this year 22 team members will take part in mentoring and leadership activities.
The Buzz targets parents, teaching them to make clubs more inclusive. “One of the biggest issues we’ve found is that a lot of junior clubs are focussed on winning,” Mr Spiteri said.
The key program, called The Edge, is designed to arm young people with coping strategies. Mr Spiteri said a leading expert in positive psychology was joining the Beehive foundation program.
He said interest in the initiative had exploded over the past three weeks.
“In the community it is quite a prominent issue at the moment, and I think people have made the connection that at Beehive we have programs that could make a difference,” Mr Spiteri said.
“We’re not focusing on kids at risk, we’re focusing on kids in general.
“If we can start to teach kids coping mechanisms at the ages of around 14 and 16 then they can use those in sport, at school, and everyday life, and it’ll give them fundamental coping strategies for life.”
Another meeting set to address youth suicide will be organised by Gembrook MP Brad Battin.
Mr Battin will meet with Minister for Mental Health Mary Wooldridge and a number of local stakeholders, including school principals.
“I congratulate the young people in our area for starting the conversation and working to raise awareness of youth suicide,” Mr Battin said.
“It is important to keep your eye out for signs of change in your children, your friends or other young people you may come in to contact with. For more information or advice see headspace.org.au and remember it is OK to ask for help.”
Local police have also shown their support. Acting Senior Sergeant Phil Byrne from Pakenham Police said Cardinia and Casey police were working together to tackle youth suicide.
“We want to know as much as possible,” he said.
Act Sen Sgt Byrne said youth suicide was an issue across the region and that the police wanted to know more about what they could do.
“We want to elicit as much information as we can,” he said.
Windermere’s Bronwyn Owen and Brad Desmond launched the region’s very first suicide support group in January this year, as reported in the Gazette (Suicide Stigma, 11 January 2012).
It was the beginning of Windermere Child and Family Service’s prevention and intervention program which is currently being rolled out into at least four high schools in the area.
Social worker and program manager Ms Owen said the community’s response to tackling suicide was gaining momentum.
Visit beyondblue.org.au, call Suicide Helpline Victoria on 1300 651 257 or Lifeline on 131 119 if you are in need of immediate assistance or talk to someone you can trust.
