Lockdown Kids: Family warn of ‘broken system’ after daughter’s death

Joan and Richard Cocks have dedicated their lives to helping others as nurses – but our Lockdown Kids investigation reveals they felt helpless in the lead-up to their daughter’s death.

It was in the name of saving lives but for 15-year-old Bridie Cocks the endless lockdowns in Melbourne are what killed her.

The schoolgirl ended her life after facing year-long waitlists for mental health support, with her parents, Joan and Richard Cocks, explaining that she would still be here today if she had received adequate care.

“If the schools had been left open… if we had got the help we needed, she would still be here today,” said Mrs Cocks.

Mr Cocks added that it was isolation in lockdown that triggered a deep anxiety, “She hated being alone.”

The Cocks family share their story as News Corp today launches its new docu-series, Lockdown Kids: How To Break a Generation, delving into the long-term impacts of placing the nation’s children into isolation during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The four-part series will shine a light on record-high levels of youth battling anxiety and anorexia, spiralling levels of youth crime and school refusal.

And today, the first episode unearths one of the most troubling sustained issues - a generation in crisis, with a staggering 40 per cent of youth now experiencing significant mental health concerns triggered by isolation in lockdown. You can watch the first episode above.

For Mrs Cocks, she remembers that change in her daughter vividly. Bridie had just started high school when Victoria went into the first of six lockdowns, and she immediately struggled with homeschooling and isolation.

“Her anxiety went up, especially with the home schooling,” explained Mrs Cocks. “She couldn’t understand it.

“She wanted to be with her friends. She had lots of thoughts in her mind. It affected all my children and every lockdown, I cried for my kids.”

Bridie in the months before her tragic death. Picture: Supplied

With her brothers who she had a close relationship with. Picture: Supplied

It’s pictures like this that the Cocks family cherish. Picture: Supplied

For Mr and Mrs Cocks, it was the helplessness that they will never forget. The pair were both frontline workers during the pandemic, working as nurses as Covid surged across Australia.

“I tried to ring psychologists for Bridie. I rang and rang. I’d sit there on my lunch break at work, I’d ring numerous psychologists,” said Mrs Cocks.

“There was no availability. Our books are closed. Some books are closed for a year. I just couldn’t get anyone.”

Bridie took her own life in 2022 at just 15 years old. One of the 381 young Australians, under the age of 24, who committed suicide that year.

Mrs Cocks said her daughter’s funeral attracted over 700 of her friends and family. The church was packed, with many waiting outside to pay their respects.

“I hardly cried. It was almost like it wasn’t true,” she said.

Today, suicide is still the leading cause of death for those between the age of 15-24.

But in February last year it was announced that Medicare-subsided sessions with a psychologist were being cut from 20 to 10, and it is young Australians most impacted.

Dr Imogen Bell, clinical psychologist and emerging leadership fellow from Orygen Digital, stated that young Australians are still waiting six months to see a mental health specialist.

That’s down to there only being 15 psychiatrists for every 100,000 people in the country - that number depletes in regional areas.

“Often these are young people that are presenting with a really urgent need for care straight away. They might be self harming; they might be experiencing suicidal thoughts; they may be highly anxious, or even experiencing their first episode of psychosis,” she explained.

“There’s really desperate parents trying to find ways of helping them and they have to wait six months, which is really far too long.”

Richard and Joan Cocks with pictures of their daughter, Bridie. Picture: Ian Wilson Photography

Her dad Richard has fond memories of Bridie at the beach as a young girl. Picture: Supplied

The teenager was excited about starting high school in Ballarat. Picture: Supplied

WATCH NOW: ‘Never got easier’: The Aussie kids still battling post-lockdown anxiety

The options for an increasing youth mental health crisis is either wait in line for months or for those who can afford it, go private. But the current costs for an initial consultation has blown out to a staggering $2500 for 90 minutes.

It’s services like Baytr, an independent mental health organisation, that have tried to bridge the gap by using workshops in schools and universities to arm young Australians with tools to navigate mental health.

Rob O’Leary is at the coal face of the youth mental health crisis as a lived experience program manager for Baytr, and admits there’s a distinct lack of services and policy.

He simply posed the question, “Are we even asking young people what they actually need?

“I know from listening to a lot of young people that there’s been a bit of frustration that people think that this rise in mental health is attributed to them having a lack of resilience, which we know isn’t true.

“Lots of young people are feeling very uncertain about the future.”

For Joan and Richard Cocks, the word “future’ throws up mixed emotions. There’s no future for their daughter.

Bridie will forever be 15. She will never become a woman, never become the mother she wanted to be.

“It will always hurt,” said a tearful Mrs Cocks.

Originally published as Lockdown Kids: Family warn of ‘broken system’ after daughter’s death