VIDEO: Click here
Canberra Raiders stars Sandor Earl and Jack Wighton joined Menslink CEO Martin Fisk at Namadgi School in Kambah today, to speak to a group of young male students about the new Silence is Deadly Campaign.
The campaign will see the Raiders and Menslink visit as many of the high schools and Colleges as they can in Canberra this year, to help reduce the stigma of young men asking for help with mental health issues including depression and anxiety.
Today’s first visit gave the students the chance to ask the Raiders players about how they handle their own personal issues and how to go about asking for help if they need it.
Raiders back Sandor Earl said young men should not be embarrassed to ask for help when it comes to mental health issues and there were plenty of people to talk to if they need help.
“The whole purpose of the Silence is deadly program is to show young guys that they should feel able to talk to someone if they’re going through a tough time and not leave it bottled up inside,” Earl said. “We’re using our profiles in the community to tell these young men that it’s ok to ask for help and encourage them to go looking for help if they need it.”
Raiders young star Jack Wighton answered a number of questions from the students at Namadgi School on how to ask for help and said there were a number of ways to go about it of you need it.
“I’m not ashamed to say I’ve asked for help before when I’ve been going through tough times and I said to the boys today here at the school that they should talk to someone if they need help,” Wighton said. “At the Raiders we have a number of different people to talk to like coaches, teammates and senior players and I know I use a guy like Brett White if I need someone to talk to.”
As part of the Silence is Deadly campaign a number of Raiders players including Terry Campese, David Shillington, Sandor Earl and Matt McIlwrick took some time to speak about their issues and the ways in which they’ve asked for help, with these videos available at http://www.silenceisdeadly.com.au
Canberra Raiders media
