Wairarapa’s locally owned community newspaper
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 17, 2018
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Tune in for mental health Erin Kavanagh-Hall
Makoura College student Seni-Isaia Iasona. PHOTO/SUPPLIED
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A Masterton teenager is taking to the airwaves to continue a pressing, and sometimes uncomfortable conversation – youth mental health. Seni-Isaia Iasona, an aspiring broadcaster and Year 12 student at Makoura College, will be hosting a 24-hour radio marathon, to be broadcast live on the college’s own station, East FM, from this Friday morning. On air, Seni, 17, will use his time in the disc jockey’s chair to raise awareness of mental health difficulties and their impact on New Zealand youth. He will be hosting discussions with fellow students, sharing their thoughts and experiences of mental health struggles, and has organised a line-up of guest speakers, from Wairarapa and beyond. For the past few years, the subject of mental illness has been up close and personal for Wairarapa – particularly so when the region boasted the unhappy honour of having the second highest suicide rate in the country, per head of population, in 2016/17. The Makoura College community itself was shaken last
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How can young people like us get help, if we’re scared of being judged and getting negative feedback? July, when a former student took her own life. Seni said he wanted to use the radio marathon as an opportunity to “open the door” and have an honest dialogue about mental health – and to lead by example to remove the stigma from the struggle. “We know Masterton has a high suicide rate, and the mental health system in New Zealand is under-funded,” Seni said. “But we can’t wait for the government and money to fix the problem. “Change comes from us young people as well – we have to be the ones to carry on the conversation and normalise things like anxiety and depression. “How can young people like us get help, if we’re scared of being judged and getting negative feedback?” Seni said he became more aware of mental illness this year, after taking dance as a subject for NCEA. For an assessment, his class
choreographed and performed contemporary dance routines with a mental health theme – with Seni dancing in a duet representing bipolar disorder, and in a group piece portraying Alzheimer’s. He and his classmates performed the latter routine at the recent DanceNZ Made Interschool Competition, representing Makoura, which he said was well received. This, along with 24-hour radio shows he had listened to on ZM, inspired Seni to host a radio show for Mental Health Awareness Week. With support from Makoura Media Studies teacher Andrew Hutchby and principal Paul Green, he began organising the programme for East FM, contacting guest hosts and arranging sponsors. So far, he has invited a range of famous voices to appear on the show, including Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, Wairarapa List MPs Kieran McAnulty and Ron Mark, and the Green Party’s Chloe Swarbrick, as well as various community mental health workers. Continued on page 3
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