Guest youth blogger Katherine Ngo is a Youth Ambassador for
Reach Out. Katherine is also a medical student and former National
Representative of the Australian Red Cross. She hopes to link
people of all ages with opportunities for personal and community
development.
Join her discussion...
Once there was a man who complained his house was too small and
noisy. He went to seek the advice of an old sage. The
sage seemed to know the answer but first asked the man to promise
that he would follow the instructions precisely. The man
hesitated but then agreed. The sage said, "The solution is to
find yourself a chicken, some sheep, a horse and a cow, and keep
them in your house." The man was taken aback by the
instructions but as he had made his promise, he went out to find
the animals and brought them home. Shortly thereafter, he
returned to the old sage. "I need more room! The animals are so
noisy I can't think!" The sage replied, "Now remove the
animals from your house." The folktale ends with the man
returning to his house (now sans animals) and realising that the
house was indeed very large and quiet. Problem solved!
Now, if only we (as young people) could have such clear-cut
problems, creative therapies and treatment adherence could be so
easy. Or do we already?
Do young people have clear-cut problems? It is
pretty simple, everyone wants to be loved. Wherever we are,
we want to be loved. Are we loved at home, at school/uni, at
work, at our online space and in our relationship? If we are
not, then there is bound to be a feeling of dissatisfaction.
These days, we do not just have a physical presence, we have an
online presence too. And this leaves us vulnerable to more
ways of feeling loved (even by people we have never met) as well as
feeling insulted (by people we have never met). One insult
might cause no effect, but combine that with a broken family, poor
body image and hence poor school friendships and you have a recipe
for a mental health issue. Importantly, do we love ourselves
- do we eat well, sleep well and think well.
How can this be determined by healthcare
professionals? Call it the HEADSS model or call it taking
a psychosocial history. If healthcare professionals don't ask
the questions, then the true cause of the healthcare visit may
never be found. Everyone can do something because mental
health issues can impacts on every part of our lives. The
person that comes in with a fractured jaw could be due to a drunk
night which could be due to a relationship problem. Is it
part of the job description? Well, it is part of helping the
person today and preventing future recurrence of the same problem.
Do we have creative therapies? The answer is yes. When
it seems like there are a 100 people in the waiting room and only
99 magazines, it is easy to feel pushed for time. But this is
when online resources can be of service. It is easy to google
"cancer" but what about "friend is addicted, what do I do" or "I
feel vague". I just did it and the few hits I get are on
Yahoo! Canada Answers or WikiAnswers. But the topics that
Reach Out Pro and the Reach Out website covers are extensive,
ranging from schizophrenia to setting goals. Young people
just need to know that such help exists and we can recommend it to
others too. And once we are introduced to the website, there's no
going back. It will be like realizing that Ctrl+C is shortcut
for "copy". And what is the best way to ask the
question or provide the information to a young person? A Chinese
saying goes: even the one hand has fingers of different
lengths. People have different personalities, healthcare
professionals have different personalities too. The way you
talk resonates better with certain people, so just do it your
way. But just remember, like my mum's blood pressure that
shoots up when she visits the medical centre for her well-woman
health check, we can become a bit speechless (or vague) when
questioned on the spot. Just be patient.
Finally, treatment adherence easy? To find the
answer to that question, we may have to first find ourselves a
chicken, some sheep, a horse and a cow.