15-year-old Sarah – this is not her real name – has been through things no girl her age should have to go through.
Born into a dysfunctional, drug-using family, Sarah grew up surrounded by drugs, fights and violence, learning how to take care of herself from a very young age.
“We had outlaw bikie gangs and stuff coming over because my brother owed too much money,” she said.
“It was really tough because there was an absent father.”
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The life of young Sarah started spiraling out of control after her brother became violent towards her, prompting her family to leave her with a relative.
While under the care of her family member she was sexually assaulted, an experience which left her severely scarred.
“Then I started getting into drugs and alcohol and stuff like that, I found that I didn’t have a purpose in life,” she said.
She also started having suicidal thoughts.
Sarah ended up dropping out of school and going into foster care, living in 12 different homes over a span of a year and falling deeper into the grip of depression.
“I didn’t want to go out anywhere and then because I was in such a bad state I started sabotaging stuff,” she said.
“I was hurting, no one cared, that’s what I thought anyway.”
A year ago, Sarah ended up in a foster home in the Peel region, where slowly but steadily she turned her life around through a youth at risk program.
“That’s when I found out that I was loved, people loved me, people cared, there was a purpose in life, there was hope,” she said.
“I have a family now, I have a big future ahead of me.”
- Sarah.
“I have a family now, I have a big future ahead of me.”
The teenager, who regularly volunteers at the organisation that helped her get back on her feet, has decided to use her personal experience to help others, designing her own suicide prevention program under the guidance of the organisation’s psychologist and councillors.
Through her “written by teens for teens” suicide prevention program, Sarah plans to share her inspirational story to bring hope to fellow teenagers.
The program will use a hands-on approach, assisting youth in dealing with their mental health struggles while doing fun activities such as creating an emotional regulation box or caring for support animals.
“I found that’s what works best, because when I was going through my mental health stage and I was going to camps I was sort of just sitting there not really engaging,” she said.
“And then as soon as I started getting into [caring] for the animals and the hands-on stuff that’s when I opened up and that’s where my recovery came from.”
The teenager plans to roll-out the program at youth support organisation Homestead for Youth once she graduates from high school.
However, while waiting to finish Year 12, Sarah has also developed the Choose Life initiative, a suicide prevention campaign for local schools.
The program hopes to talk about mental health and suicide awareness in a safe space that is also engaging for the students.
“Most kids sit there at a school assembly and you talk to them and they don’t engage, but if you were to make it a fun experience and give them something that they can have at the end they will be able to memorise it,” she said.
So far, Sarah has secured a grant from Mayday Op Shop to purchase Choose Life wristbands to give to the students following each session, and together with a group of teenagers, is getting in touch with local schools who might be interested in the program.
The teenager said she was ready to share her story of recovery and prove to other people that help is available and recovery is possible.
“I just feel like my story will just help other people,” she said.
“I feel like it was all done to help me help other people, other kids going through that stuff.
“So I can tell them my story and then they can go, ‘wow, she has been through it, it’s not only happening to me’, and we can help them.”
Help is available by calling Kids Helpline on 1800 55 1800, Lifeline on 131 114, or beyondblue on 1300 22 46 36.