Health group Youth Insearch warn trauma from pandemic may not peak for years

The peak of distress following a pandemic may not surface for a number of years, which is why a youth trauma recovery group wants to see action taken now to prevent suicides.

When Nelani Botha was a teenager, bullies told her she should just go kill herself because her life “wasn’t worth living”.

Subjected to a relentless stream of abuse both online and in the schoolyard, the troubled girl felt like she had no escape.

She says she didn’t receive the support she needed from the school to help resolve the issue.

Now, mental health experts Youth Insearch have raised fresh concerns about the pandemic’s long-term impact on youth suicide.

“I became suicidal at 15. I think that’s when I reached my absolute lowest point,” Miss Botha, who moved from South Africa to Sydney’s Hills district in 2009, said.

Nelani Botha, 20, (with dog Coco) was severely bullied as a teen after coming to Australia from South Africa. Picture: Sam Ruttyn

“I was being told to go back to my country and that I didn’t belong here.

“When I spoke up about feeling suicidal, I was told a lot that I was attention seeking and I was just making it up.

“It made me feel like I was just looking for attention when I was actually really screaming out for help.”

Miss Botha is one of 32,000 at risk youth who have been helped by peer-led youth trauma recovery organisation Youth Insearch.

The organisation champions training young people, who have suffered from mental ill-health, to assist other young people going through what they have experienced previously.

Miss Botha is one of the lucky ones.

In 2020, 381 young people suicided Australia wide. While youth suicide rate appears to have dropped during the pandemic, Youth Insearch clinical lead and psychologist Leanne Hall remains on edge.

“What we know from past histories and previous pandemics is that the peak of that distress doesn’t often hit until a couple of years after the pandemic,” she said.

“So my worry is that if we don’t do something now that we may see increases in suicide for young people over the next few years.”

Mrs Hall has been pushing both state and federal governments this week to broaden funding options in mental health.

helped by peer-led youth trauma recovery organisation Youth Insearch. Picture: Sam Ruttyn

“I’d like to see them start to prioritise how they can build a workforce of peers with lived experience, particularly in those regions like those rural regions, remote regions, low socio-economic, all those areas where we know there are a lot of vulnerable young people,” she said.

The Sunday Telegraph’s Can We Talk campaign is shining a light on youth suicide and calling on Education Minister Sarah Mitchel to increase the number of counsellors and psychologists in NSW schools to 1 for every 500 students.

“I know from personal experience with my own kids that school counsellors are so busy they can’t actually meet the needs,” Mrs Hall said.

“So I think that’s a very important piece of the puzzle. Sometimes it’s a case of looking at other supplementary options with schools and looking to put external resources in to help those wellbeing teams manage (within schools).”

I just didn’t feel that there was much left for me to live for. I just didn’t see a future for myself at the age of 15

The Federal Government has invested $2.3 billion in the National Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Plan, while the NSW Government said it has increased the school counselling service from 790 in 2015 to 1240 as at January 2022.

Originally published as Health group Youth Insearch warn trauma from pandemic may not peak for years