Persuasive Speech

By beyondblue Chair Julia Gillard

 

Setting: public inauguration event.

Medium: ABC News, beyondblue website.

 

Reason to choose Julia: she receives a burning passion in mental health from her dad.

 

Message: to provide the audiences with detailed information about the issues regarding mental health (especially anxiety and depression), the Beyondblue Bedtime Stories collection and the Bus Tours. In addition, to highlight the important dates of the campaign.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(Photo credit: adapted from theconversation.com)

 

Good afternoon. Thank you so much for being here and sharing this moment with us. There are few things that make me as proud as the tireless effort of all the professionals, business partners and volunteers who regularly team up to help bring beyondblue’s projects to the community, and it is with great delight that today we launch the Beyondblue Bedtime Stories initiative for young children. Mental health is important at all ages, and I truly believe in the ideal of creating a more open and understanding society in which nobody has to hide out of fear and suffer in silence because of a mental illness.

 

Not too long ago, mental health simply wasn’t talked about: people were being treated behind closed doors and no one wanted to even think about it. In fact, hadn’t it been because of my father and his dedication to his work as a psychiatric nurse, [3] I probably would not have gotten the chance to develop an opinion about mental illness and those who are affected by it that was not based on fear; our experiences, however, taught me that the only things to truly fear were the ignorance and prejudice that surround this topic which, far from helping anyone, act as a destructive force that can exponentially worsen a person’s outlook on life.

 

When my sister and I went to his workplace’s Christmas parties at Glenside Hospital we had an amazing time sharing those holidays with the children who were staying there [4] – they were, after all, just like us: kids who liked to draw, loved to watch Sunday morning cartoons, had a favourite ice cream flavour … And yet most if not all of them struggled with being accepted at their school and some even within their own families. They were meant to keep it all a secret, which is a very isolating way of living as it makes it terribly hard to have close relationships with others, effectively cutting off a major source of emotional support.

 

People deserve better than this. They deserve to be able to express freely what they are going through, they deserve to be heard, and, above all, they deserve the freedom to do so without being dismissed right away just because they have or might have a mental disorder. The effort it takes to deal with a mental illness becomes twice as large when the pain and shame of stigma and discrimination are added to the mix. Thanks to countless brave advocates, those taboos are finally being broken, but there is still a lot of work to do for society to heal.

 

At beyondblue we want to help raise a generation that not only will not hold those hurtful views but that is also able to cope with their emotions in constructive ways, that will value the importance of maintaining their mental health, and that will not be afraid to ask for help if or when they need it. This is why we want to address this topic early on, through bedtime stories for pre-schoolers.

 

Children as young as 4 years old can develop anxiety and depression, with almost 7% of school-aged children showing symptoms of one of the existing anxiety disorders, and over 1% showing signs of major depressive disorder. Worryingly, these numbers increase in adolescence as well.[1]

 

While the reasons these disorders appear are often beyond our control, it is well within our control to recognize that they impact negatively almost all aspects of children’s lives and that if this is the case they should have the support of a professional; it is not something that will go away if it’s ignored – on the contrary, kids whose issues are invalidated and who do not receive the help they need generally develop more severe problems later on.

 

This is why it is so important to make sure that children feel safe enough to identify their emotions and to talk openly with their parents if something is distressing them. They can learn how to manage the thoughts and beliefs that bother them, and the coping skills they put into practise will be handy throughout the rest of their lives.

 

With this in mind, the beyondblue team has crafted a collection of ten story books for bedtime reading, as it is one of the best moments of the day to have some quality bonding time without stressful distractions. [11]

 

The stories showcase different challenging situations with interactive dialogues and characters, which ease into basic topics related to the healthy management of emotions without becoming a lecture, as they also include guidelines to ensure both parents and kids benefit fully from it.  

 

By the end of May you will be able to find the collection in kindergartens and bookstores all over the country, and the storybooks will be on sale at certain bookstores at only one AUD per book.

 

Also, since we want families to get the most out of the program, beyondblue will tour around the country in its Bus Tour, which is scheduled to visit each major suburb for three days at a time, stopping by the three largest kindergartens in the area (one each day) to offer a free discussion event open to everyone, where our ambassador and experts will tell you their story and inspire you to make bedtime a playful and nurturing setting to become closer as a family.

 

On June 15th the tour will begin its trip in Brisbane; I would like to invite all of you to check our website to find the date of the events that are near you and come by to share with us. After all, it is the families who are at the heart of our work. Thank you.