Children’s Mental Health Week

Trigger warning:?this blog talks about suicide

This week is Children’s Mental Health Week so I wanted to take this opportunity to shine a light on mental wellbeing and tell you about me and my brother Liam.?

Mental health and wellbeing are very much part of this story. As I have gotten older, I have felt more comfortable speaking about and sharing my own struggles, mostly by choice but sometimes through circumstance. Now, talking about mental health has become a passion of mine, after my world was turned on its head on 7 October?2010.

Losing Liam

I had a close relationship with Liam; we shared a room as children and were typical brothers. I?know it?sounds clichéd but he wasn't just my brother, he truly was my very best friend. During this time,?Liam had not quite been himself, we had spoken a week or so before about this but he was reluctant to open up. That day at work he was all I could think about so I decided to skip the gym and go straight home to see if he fancied a game of FIFA – I was hoping to cheer him up and ask him to come with me to choose a car that weekend which would eventually be his 18th birthday present.

I never had the chance to have that conversation with Liam, as that night he completed suicide, despite my desperate attempt to try and to save him were all in vain.

Fundraising & Volunteering in Liam’s memory

A couple of years after losing Liam, I decided to do some fundraising in his memory, so I set up The Liam Charity to raise funds for the NSPCC’s Childline service. This is a free, private and confidential service where children can talk about any issue they’re going through, big or small.

I wanted to raise money and awareness for Childline and mental health whilst remembering Liam, for the person he was and not how he left. Fast forward to today and his fund proudly stands at ￡261,808 but beyond this, it holds so many precious memories for me and so much hope for 65,452 young people who have been able to use the Childline service because of it.

I often say that there is no such thing as a selfless act in fundraising/volunteering. The gift of time will always have its reward in one way or another. For me, it has been the perfect connection to Liam between heaven and earth, a way to celebrate and remember Liam and support other young people and their families. And?– through volunteering – I have found a focus, a voice and friends, and all have these have supported my wellbeing as I have grieved.

A listening ear through Childline (0800 1111)

Over the past 10 years, I have supported the NSPCC in many volunteer roles, all of which I have been proud to do but none more than being a Childline counsellor. Whatever problems or dangers children face, Childline gives them somewhere to turn to for support when they need it, on the phone, online, anytime. It is a safe place to speak about their feelings without shame, judgement or fear.“For almost two years the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on mental health has been hugely detrimental. And this is particularly true for children and young people. Mental/emotional health was the top concern of children and young people contacting Childline, making up over a third of all counselling sessions in 2020/21. And Childline's Calm Zone, an area of the Childline website designed to relieve stress, saw visits peak to 10,000 a week during April 2020”??NSPCC Childline

Being on the other end of a call or chat is a unique experience, one of empowerment where you can see the incredible strength and resilience so many possess which often masks how fragile and confused a young mind can be. The end goal is that a young life has been valued and they have had the support they need to take more control of their lives, in most cases for the very first time.

The NSPCC also have an Adult Helpline (0808 800 5000) which is for those who are concerned about a young person and want to seek advice on how they can support them with their mental health or anything else, for that matter.

How are you feeling today?

What I have learned from this experience is that life can be scary and somewhat cruel, and it is important for us all to have someone to talk to, someone on hand to share our worries. Sometimes that might be those closest to us and sometimes it might be a counsellor on the end of a phone line – and that’s ok! Talking is what matters.

In a world where #BeKind movements only resurface through tragedy, we can sometimes forget that ‘how are you feeling today?’ can be the most important question you can ask. Shining a light on days like this can be a reminder, to not only be aware of the wellbeing of those closest to us but also our own.

Thank you for taking the time to read

Aaron

#ForLiam?? #ForEveryChildhood??