I Am Hope Tour comes to Taupō schools for kids' mental health

Last week a police officer from Tokoroa (left) supported I Am Hope ambassadors Tai Topou and Hailey Smith (right) who are bringing a message of hope to students at Taupō schools this week.

Stand up if you are in a good head space right now.

This was the question posed by I Am Hope ambassadors to students at Onewhero Area School near Port Waikato on Monday last week. Twelve students stood up.

I Am Hope youth programme development manager Tai Topou, 33, says the ones that stand up are usually shocked most of their friends are still sitting.

"The incredible thing is the amount of love they show almost immediately to those around them."

Touring 100 schools in 10 weeks, I Am Hope started its Waikato leg this week, and this week is speaking to intermediate age children at Taupō Intermediate School, Waipahihi School, and Hilltop School. Last year it toured 100 schools and spoke to 250,000 students aged 11 to 18.

I Am Hope ambassadors say for each school they visit, every single student resonates with hearing about their inner critic, explaining that this is the voice that beats you up on a daily basis, sometimes about the smallest things. Over time, the thoughts and feelings can build up to be very distressing.

The ambassadors encourage young people to speak up by making themselves vulnerable and sharing their emotions.

"This also helps break the stigma of mental health."

Tai says anxiety is a rising issue for kids, with many youngsters over thinking in order to try to fit in. At every school they visit, kids ask Tai how he deals with his own anxiety and he says he uses the tools he learned in his own journey with anxiety.

"The kids look at me and think I am bullet proof. I share the tools that helped me and this offers the kids different ways to manage moving forward in life," said Tai.

Although anxiety is more talked about now, it wasn't until he was in his 20s that Tai found out anxiety was a known mental health condition.

"Kids that don't know about anxiety can think they are the only ones with voices in their heads."

Tai was just 10 years old when he was told to go and see a counsellor to deal with his mental health issues. At the time he refused, as he felt there was a stigma around acknowledging his mental health issues. Years later he looks back on how he felt as a child and can see that some people need to actively work on their wellbeing.

"If you think about a sportsperson training, they can train all the muscles in their body but the muscle that is the most important to train is the one in their head."

Mental health advocate and comedian Mike King founded The Key To Life charity, bringing the I Am Hope ambassadors to speak to Taupō students this week. Photo / File

I am Hope is the youth and community-focused support group run by The Key to Life charitable trust, started by Mike King. Research undertaken by The Key To Life charitable trust shows that 80 per cent of students will go through a major life crisis at some point while they are at school.

"The worrying statistic is that 40 per cent of these kids will never ask for help."

Mike says the ambassadors communicate directly with kids at each school they visit.

"We are unconventional, grassroots, provocative and anti-establishment simply because we know that our approach is effective at engaging with Kiwis."

For the last three years, The Key To Life charitable trust has been promoting positive attitudinal societal change in schools and communities up and down the country and funding private care and counselling for young people stuck-in-the-mud on waiting lists.

I Am Hope also provides a service for children who need to talk to or text with a trained counsellor immediately, completely free of charge.

For more than eight years the I Am Hope ambassador tour has visited schools around New Zealand, sharing its own mental health experiences with young people.

​"We speak to kids from Years 7 to 13, no school is too big or too small."

Mike says I Am Hope has received some incredible testimonies from schools that have seen the value of teaching students to be vulnerable.