KERANG Technical High School students have been urged to ask for help if they feel they are not coping.
Or if you feel that someone else is not coping, ask them the question.
To reinforce the message, the students formed the word ASK on the school tennis courts.
KTHS chaplain, Michael Walker said that it is not always easy to talk about these issues, but encouraged students to seek out someone who may be able to help.
The message for all students: Ask your mates, “Are you okay?”, hence the RUOK? campaign.
RUOK?’s vision is a world where we’re all connected and are protected from suicide.
Its mission is to inspire and empower everyone to meaningfully connect with people around them and support anyone struggling with life.
Its goals are to:
• Boost our confidence to meaningfully connect and ask about life’s ups and down;
• Nurture our sense of responsibility to regularly connect and support others;
• Strengthen our sense of belonging because we know people are there for us;
• Be relevant, strong and dynamic.
We know that suicide prevention is an enormously complex and sensitive challenge the world over. But we also know that some of the world’s smartest people have been working tirelessly and developed credible theories that suggest there’s power in that simplest of questions – “Are you okay?”
Because his father took his own life, United States academic, Dr Thomas Joiner has dedicated his research to try and answer that question “why?”
His theory tries to answer that complex question by describing three forces at play in someone at risk. The first force is the person thinks they’re a burden on others; the second is that they can withstand a high degree of pain; and the third is they don’t feel connected to others.
Dr Joiner believes that it is this lack of connection (or lack of belonging) that we want to prevent.
By inspiring people to take the time to ask “are you okay?” and listen, we can help people struggling with life feel connected long before they even think about suicide.
“It all comes down to regular, face-to-face, meaningful conversations about life. And asking ‘are you okay?’ is a great place to start,” he said.
