By Jed Lanyon
R U OK? It’s a question that’s important now more than ever when you consider the impact the coronavirus pandemic is having on our everyday lives.
Healesville Primary School and Healesville High School have teamed up to remind the wider community that R U OK? Day on Thursday 10 September is a welcomed opportunity to ask a friend or a loved one that very question.
Healesville High School’s wellbeing coordinator Lisa Mathieson and Healesville Primary School teacher Ali Bryan have come up with a range of activities for all age groups in order to raise awareness on mental health and suicide prevention.
The pair are pushing for the entire town to get involved on R U OK? Day and take part in a Wellbeing Walk while wearing the colour yellow. Students from both schools have created colourful emojis to stick on their letterboxes and front windows in order to highlight the cause so Healesville residents take their daily walk and get the ball rolling in creating a dialogue about experiencing different emotions and feelings.
Ms Mathieson said they were inspired to create the Wellbeing Walk following the rainbows that families displayed out the front of their houses during the first wave of Covid-19 restrictions.
“When we came up with the idea we thought it could include the broader community,” she said.
“We’re getting a really good response from a lot of community groups, who are separated from the school environment but are showing a lot of interest.
“Using emojis is a form of expressing something like emotions without using your words, which is very much the language for kids these days.
“We just encourage people to stick their emojis on their letterbox, front window or shop front so that people can spot them as they’re walking by and say ‘that person’s feeling a bit tired or a little bit crazy’, you can have those conversations around how different people are feeling.”
Ms Bryan wants the entire Healesville community to get involved and create their own emojis to display.
“I think people are missing their usual community outlets and local sporting clubs. We thought it’d be a good idea to do something as a community instead of focusing on certain groups.
“Being a parent as well, the whole message around suicide prevention is really important.
When you turn on the news and hear about a suicide, or a teen suicide, it’s just horrific as a parent.”
R U OK? Day Aims to normalise the message of asking ‘are you okay?’ in order to have a conversation which could change someone’s life.
“It’d be great to see parents having a chat to their kids on how people or their friends might look if they’re not feeling okay,” Ms Bryan said.
“If we start promoting the messaging at a young age for primary school kids to have that conversation, it then becomes normal by the time they’re in high school … And with remote learning it’s important now to have those conversations and just try to reach as many people as possible.
“I think letting kids know that it’s a hard time at the moment and that things aren’t normal and aren’t going to always be this way is something that’s important and that they can talk to family and friends about how they’re feeling.”
For more information about R U OK? Day, visit: https://www.ruok.org.au
Printed versions of the RU OK? Emoji template are available from some local businesses that are still operating at the moment.
For more information on how to get involved in local activities, visit the Facebook pages of Healesville High School and Healesville Primary School.
