Thread: Richard Prosser

On the subject of (youth) suicide a very frustrated and cynical Mike King (who struggles to obtain funding) recently posted on the LinkedIn site this open communication to a female I will not name in deference to this site’s no politics rule. I have deliberately redacted the names of any politicians mentioned and have also added some freelance commentary for context but I am sure you will get the gist of what Mike was saying.

Dear (unnamed Prime Minister of non specified country)

For the last 10 years me and my little team at I Am Hope have been visiting schools from Cape Reinga to Bluff in order to better understand what is driving our appalling youth suicide rate.

After speaking with, and listening to over 300,000 young people,we have made some groundbreaking discoveries which I will share with you now

- 40% of young people will have a suicidal thought before they leave school
- Shockingly, 80% of those kids never ask for help for fear of what friends, family, or society will think, say, or do.
- The number one problem driving suicidal thinking in young people is imposter syndrome and an overactive inner critic
- Young people want help but don’t know how to access it, can’t find it, have to jump through to many hoops to get it or the help they receive is not actually helpful

To combat these issues we have developed two in school programs and demand is so high we have a six month waiting list. We have also developed a world class counselling service we designed to take the pressure off our mental health crisis teams

Could you please explain what expertise ( unnamed Minister of Foreign Affairs from the same non specified country)’s husband has in suicide prevention and what his funding (MK is referring to a $28,000 grant here) was used for please?

Kind regards

MK

PS: What happened to the gang funding? Any positive outcomes?