Time for a Brought together by shared experiences of grief, the Cool Change Sisters are a raw and honest voice, sharing their stories in the hope of sparking a much-needed shift in New Zealand’s mental health space.
Grace
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race Curtis, Georgia Harris and Tori Wheelans are the founders of Cool Change, a movement to give the bereaved a voice and break the stigmas surrounding suicide. As three young women navigating the devastation of suicide in their own families, Cool Change was a way to connect with others who were going through a similar experience. “We started Cool Change with very little expectation, but had hopes of reaching others feeling similarly to us. It is a place for the bereaved to break their silence. We wanted others to understand their loved ones passing by suicide is in
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Georgia
no way at all shameful and that they can speak up about their hurt.” The silence around suicide is a catalyst for the mental health crisis New Zealand is currently experiencing, and Cool Change understands this is where the conversation needs to start. “Many of us feel shame about struggling with mental health, making it harder to reach out for help and get better. But people need to understand that there is nothing to be ashamed of. Mental health issues are still widely misunderstood but at Cool Change, we view them the same way we view physical health issues and
express that it should be treated with just as much importance to the individual and society as a whole.” And as far as combatting that shame and those stigmas? It starts by teaching people that it is okay to not be okay, and enabling them to understand that talking about suicide isn’t taboo at all. “The statistics show one in four Kiwi adults will battle with mental illness at some point in their life, which means in your places of work, sports teams, family, and amongst your friends, the likelihood of someone struggling is extremely high. This is why we feel so passionately about
