By Melissa Meehan
HEALTH professionals are trying to use the internet for good in the fight against youth suicide.
Orygen’s Jo Robinson spoke at the weekend’s Summit on Youth Suicide and said while researchers were aware of the ways teens were negatively using the internet, they were hoping to turn that around with a range of actions.
“One in four deaths of young people is suicide,” Ms Robinson said.
“It’s not just a problem we are experiencing here, it’s happening all around the world.”
She said Orygen had recently launched an online forum called ReFrame it.
“This is specifically for kids who are experiencing depression and anxiety,” she said.
“This follows the stories of a number of young people who have depression, they are given a camera and are filmed talking about their thoughts.
“Whether we are talking about suicide or not, the kids are online.”
A young member of the Casey community, Mike Soccio said from his own experiences he had noticed young people wanted to talk about suicide and depression online.
“There is a facebook site ‘Coming together to prevent youth suicide’,” and I can already tell it’s making a difference,” he said.
“People are making friends, offering support I think it’s a good thing.”
He said he was glad to attend the forum, but thought it was cut too short considering too many people wanted to tell their stories.