On the last day of the conference my group spent the day learning a lot about mental health. In the morning we heard from Jonny Benjamin, such an inspirational man who told us his story. Jonny Benjamin is a mental health campaigner and educator who launched a campaign called “Find Mike” in order to find the man who comforted him in such a difficult time in his life. By the end of the campaign Jonny found the man who stopped him jumping off a bridge (even though 37 other people came forward claiming to be him).
Jonny spoke about how this man managed to help him in his time of need and how these techniques could be used to help other young people. Jonny and his campaign/charity go to schools encouraging young people and adults to talk about their mental health. He also claimed “I know the system and it is quite hopeless”, this is one of the reasons he is out trying to change the system of help for people struggling with mental illnesses.
We were so inspired by Jonny that we interviewed him after his talk and even asked him to come and talk to other pupils at our school. He talked so much about recovery and how much we need to get young people talking in schools and everyone else as well in order to tackle stigma against mental illness and I could not have agreed more.
After the interview, we attended the round table discussions and got involved in discussions about tackling the rising number of young people suffering from mental illnesses. Overall it was an inspiring and informative day.
