All profits will be donated to the I Am Hope Foundation.

The auction aims to raise significant funds for the I Am Hope Foundation mental health charity which supports New Zealand's youth.

Auction to fund mental health services

The house is expected to fetch between $1.775 and $1.8 million at auction, with hopes that generous buyers will help maximise the donation.

McGirr hopes to see a strong turnout from potential buyers, particularly those who are in a position to contribute significantly.

"I'd really like a couple of well-heeled Aucklanders to come down and pay top value" McGirr told Stuff.

Mike King praised the efforts behind the initiative, calling the project "incredible".

"We are truly amazed by the generosity of Fowler Homes and their support for the work we do at I Am Hope, especially at a time when so many kids are struggling" King said.

"Our goal is to ensure that every young person knows that support is available and they don't have to face their challenges alone."

Generous support for I Am Hope

The house, built by Fowler Homes Queenstown, is the result of collaboration between more than 50 businesses providing materials and services.

The project began when Jason and Jen McGirr of Fowler Homes were inspired by Mike King, the founder of I Am Hope, during a radio segment discussing the charity's struggles with funding.

"He was sharing all the problems they had in raising enough funds to provide the incredible service they do to improve mental health in our young people.

"When you have a bloke crying on air, you know it's for real" McGirr said.

The McGirrs, who have children themselves, decided to act and enlisted businesses to support the project.

Business community rallies together

The McGirr's efforts resulted in more than 50 suppliers coming on board to help build the house. "Nobody said no when I asked" Jason McGirr stated.

"People have been so generous, although I did turn away some of the smaller trades who were the sole income earners for their families."

Prominent backers included Burton Partners which offered legal services pro bono, and Nexia accountants who joined immediately.

John Bolton of Squirrel [an investment and mortgage company] also contributed early on with funding, alleviating much of the financial stress associated with the project.

Source

• Stuff

It will increase the service's current contracted counsellor pool from 555 to about 855, which will help provide up to 160,000 free counselling sessions for people aged between 5 and 25 over the next four years.

King joined Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey and New Zealand First leader Winston Peters for the announcement at Parliament today.

It honoured the promise made in the coalition agreement between National and NZ First to fund Gumboot Friday by $6m per year.Mike King's Gumboot Friday counselling service for young people will receive $24 million over four years as part of the Government's upcoming Budget.

It will increase the service's current contracted counsellor pool from 555 to about 855, which will help provide up to 160,000 free counselling sessions for people aged between 5 and 25 over the next four years.

King joined Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey and New Zealand First leader Winston Peters for the announcement at Parliament today.

It honoured the promise made in the coalition agreement between National and NZ First to fund Gumboot Friday by $6m per year. Continue reading

Speaking to TVNZ's Sunday, King, known for his endeavours in the mental health area including the I Am Hope charity, said, "It's just another bureaucracy getting money, clipping the ticket, before they pass the money on to someone else.

"This is exactly the sort of bureaucracy we need to get rid of." Read more

On a recent Thursday morning, she opened the ‘For You' page on the app and lingered over the first video that popped up: a clip of a young woman joking about wanting to cut herself.

Dykes (pictured) swiped her thumb and watched another similarly gloomy post, and then another.

She kept scrolling, and the videos kept coming — a seemingly endless stream of depressed and distressed young women venting about how lonely and worthless they felt.

Dykes, a 20-year-old university student in Wellington, has watched so much of this kind of negative mental illness-related content on social media in the past decade that she is to some extent desensitised to its emotional impact.

But as she scrolled, she couldn't help despairing.

"I just feel angry," she says.

"A whole generation of kids is being raised on this content."

Dykes has a complicated history with social media.

A decade ago, as an adolescent in Auckland, she began experiencing what she describes as a mild case of depression.

In her recollection, Dykes was a slightly awkward child who didn't have a lot of friends and struggled to fit in at school.

She went online and found some "very intense" material relating to depression.

Dykes says her parents put few restrictions on her internet use and didn't realise what she was looking at.

Some of the material she found was very explicit, but she was drawn to it.

On Google Plus (an early competitor to Facebook that is now defunct), she first came across references to self-harm.

Within a year, Dykes says she was regularly self-harming and having suicidal thoughts.

It took Dykes years to get over these experiences; in some ways, she is still dealing with them.

Looking back now, she says her depression would not have become as bad or lasted as long as it did, or she may not have started self-harming, had she not fallen into those dark corners of the web.

"It was so much harder to get out of it after becoming stuck in that space," she says.

Rising rates of distress

In the past dozen or so years, rates of anxiety, depression, self-harm, and other mental health conditions have increased sharply among adolescents in New Zealand and other high-income countries.

At the same time, the amount of material dedicated to these problems on social media has exploded.

A generation of youngsters who have never known the world without smartphones or the internet turned to social platforms for information and advice about mental health conditions and treatments, to seek validation and support from others with similar experiences and to express their anguish.

In many ways this has been beneficial, raising awareness of the importance of mental wellbeing, encouraging people to seek help and inspiring recovery.

But there is also an astonishing amount of material on social platforms that users, researchers and clinicians say is potentially harmful to vulnerable adolescents — spreading misinformation about mental health conditions, encouraging self-destructive behaviour and trapping users in a spiral of hopelessness.

As part of a major investigation into the state of mental health in New Zealand, the Herald has spent months interviewing young people who have been immersed in this content, parents, clinicians, researchers, health officials, regulators, and others; reviewed dozens of academic studies on the subject; and examined thousands of posts on several platforms.

Last month, NZ Herald reported on a network of young women with severe mental illnesses who used private accounts on Instagram to share intimate details about self-harm episodes, hospital admissions and suicide attempts.

Three of those young women died by suspected suicide in 2019, prompting an ongoing inquiry by the Coroner's office.

But while concerns remain about Instagram, serious questions have also been raised about the impact of TikTok, its Chinese-owned competitor (TikTok is controlled by a company called ByteDance).

It commands a growing share of young people's attention and has become, for many teens, the primary platform for viewing and sharing information about mental health.

"I think TikTok has completely changed the game," Dykes says.

An internet juggernaut

It is hard to overstate the influence that TikTok, in just a few years, has had on how teens communicate and entertain themselves.

Based on a lively, easy-to-use app that showcases short, looping, often humorous videos made with catchy audio clips and visual effects, TikTok makes it possible for users to reach vast audiences with minimal effort.

Billions of homemade videos have been uploaded to the platform on a dizzying range of topics, spawning countless memes and a new generation of influencers.

Its most compelling feature is a powerful, algorithm-driven recommendation engine that quickly discerns a user's interests and uses this to populate a personalised stream of videos.

Without even looking for something to watch, a user can stay glued to the app for hours and see dozens, if not hundreds, of clips in that time. Continue reading

Where to find help and support:

• Anxiety New Zealand 0800 ANXIETY (0800 269 4389)
• Depression Helpline - 0800 111 757
• Lifeline - 0800 543 354 or (09) 5222 999 within Auckland
• Mental Health Foundation 09 623 4812
• Need to Talk? - Call or text 1737
• Rural Support Trust 0800 787 254
• Samaritans - 0800 726 666
• Shakti Community Council - 0800 742 584
• Shine (domestic violence) - 0508 744 633
• Suicide Crisis Helpline - 0508 828 865 (0508 TAUTOKO)
• thelowdown.co.nz Web chat, email chat or free text 5626
• What's Up - 0800 WHATS UP (0800 942 8787)
• Women's Refuge - 0800 733 843 (0800 REFUGE)
• Yellow Brick Road 0800 732 825
• Youthline - 0800 376 633, text 234, email talk@youthline.co.nz or online chat

The former comedian offered his advice when he joined host Simon Bridges on Stuff's Generally Famous podcast. He also spoke of his own battle with addiction, transition from stand-up, and cancel culture.

During the podcast, King, who aims to normalise conversations about mental health among young people through the I Am Hope foundation, posed the following question.

"What are we all doing to make it okay for... everybody to reach out and ask for help? We're not doing enough.

"I need people to take off their masks of invincibility and start talking about what is going wrong with them. By being stoic, it's having a devastating effect on our kids' lives."

Mental health tips for parents

The first piece of advice King, a former New Zealander of the Year for his mental health work, told Bridges:

• "Parents should allow children to see their vulnerabilities".

He said children have told him they stopped speaking to their parents about their mental health because of the way the parents had responded.

As an example, he spoke of a boy talking to his father about problems with his girlfriend. His father's response was:

"Don't worry son, happens to everybody - let Dad tell you the story about what happened to him.

"So what you think you're saying to your child is, ‘this is a universal-shared experience, we all go through it'.

"[But] what your son is hearing is, ‘so whenever I talk about me, you make it about you and how you got through it, so you're Captain Perfect and I can't talk to you about anything'".

King's second piece of advice for parents is to:

• "Stop telling their kids they just want them to be happy".

He explained "Your kids are hearing, ‘I can only talk to you when I'm happy, because if I'm not happy, I'm disappointing you'".

The mental health industry

King is scathing of what he calls the mental health "industry".

There are three key components, he says, with academics and clinicians, the "happily married people", telling the public ("the wayward child") what to do rather than listening to them.

Source

• Stuff

Where to find help and support:

• Anxiety New Zealand 0800 ANXIETY (0800 269 4389)
• Depression Helpline - 0800 111 757
• Lifeline - 0800 543 354 or (09) 5222 999 within Auckland
• Mental Health Foundation 09 623 4812
• Need to Talk? - Call or text 1737
• Rural Support Trust 0800 787 254
• Samaritans - 0800 726 666
• Shakti Community Council - 0800 742 584
• Shine (domestic violence) - 0508 744 633
• Suicide Crisis Helpline - 0508 828 865 (0508 TAUTOKO)
• thelowdown.co.nz Web chat, email chat or free text 5626
• What's Up - 0800 WHATS UP (0800 942 8787)
• Women's Refuge - 0800 733 843 (0800 REFUGE)
• Yellow Brick Road 0800 732 825
• Youthline - 0800 376 633, text 234, email talk@youthline.co.nz or online chat

The system is broken and needs to be fixed urgently, he says.

Although New Zealand's suicide rate has dropped for the third year, Maori continue to be disproportionately affected, statistics show.

The deputy-chief coroner released the figures to June 30, 2022. These showed 538 people died by suspected suicide, down from 607 in 2021 and 628 in 2020.

Despite the fall, King wants much more help. On The Rock's Morning Rumble, the "I Am Hope founder" was in tears, saying, "If you put your faith in the system, there is a better than evens chance that your child will die.

"Because no one is coming. Now we can either sit around and we can whinge about it, or we can do one of two things about it - we can invest in our own system, which is Gumboot Friday, and if you can't invest, stop being silent.

"You need to speak up about this.

"I am sick and tired of people coming up to me and saying, 'I love your post Mike'.

"What, you mean the post where I wrote about the mum whose child has died?

"These posts aren't meant to be for you to love.

"You're not meant to love these posts; you're meant to be hurt by these posts; you're meant to be scared by these posts; you are meant to be horrified. You're meant to be angry.

"Stop being silent and leaving it for other people to do it because other people are tired.

"I'm tired of all these ... virtue signallers on social media telling me what I should be doing... I can't do it...

"I hear parents talking all the time about kids leaving their socks on the floor ... there are hundreds of families out there who would give anything for their kids' socks to be on the floor ...

"The system is f***ed up, and no one is doing anything about it."

Clearly moved by his words, the Morning Rumble hosts rallied around King.

They stressed to him that he is making a difference with fundraising events for Gumboot Friday, a charity providing free counselling for young people in New Zealand.

Social media commenters sent supportive messages urging King not to give up on his work in the mental health sector.

Mike King has long been open about his frustrations over the funding of mental health services in New Zealand.

In June 2021, he returned the NZ Order of Merit medal he was awarded in 2019 for services to mental health awareness and suicide prevention. He cited a lack of progress in these areas as his reason for returning the medal.

It had repeatedly criticised both Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and the Ministry of Health over a lack of investment in mental health services.

It was also in June 2021, the Ministry of Health rejected funding for Gumboot Friday, saying it had applied "outside the planned procurement processes".

Gumboot Friday, nonetheless, continues to raise funds and it takes place today, November 4.

People can donate $3 by texting Boots to 469 or make a financial contribution by other ways.

Every cent goes to counselling for Kiwi kids and young people.

Source

• NewsHub

Where to find help and support:

• Shine (domestic violence) - 0508 744 633
• Women's Refuge - 0800 733 843 (0800 REFUGE)
• Need to Talk? - Call or text 1737
• What's Up - 0800 WHATS UP (0800 942 8787)
• Lifeline - 0800 543 354 or (09) 5222 999 within Auckland
• Youthline - 0800 376 633, text 234, email talk@youthline.co.nz or online chat
• Samaritans - 0800 726 666
• Depression Helpline - 0800 111 757
• Suicide Crisis Helpline - 0508 828 865 (0508 TAUTOKO)
• Shakti Community Council - 0800 742 584

If we want to prevent suicide and help our kids open up about mental health, there are a couple of things we need to get on to.

We need to do more to make those struggling more comfortable to speak up when they're considering suicide, King says.

Last week, King made his feelings crystal clear in a Facebook post after Olympic track cyclist Olivia Podmore's tragic death.

Schools all over the country have young people suffering from serious mental health issues, he says.

King notes when he was speaking at schools around New Zealand, he discovered about two in every five school kids will suffer a major crisis often associated with some sort of suicidal thinking. For some students, this is a one-off thought. For others, it's recurring.

King says when people hear that statistic, they panic. There's no need to panic though, he indicates. In his opinion suicidal thoughts are normal, despite some health professionals treating people who have suicidal thoughts as having a mental illness.

"Having a suicidal thought doesn't make you mentally ill, it makes you human," he says.

"If you haven't left your house at least once in your life thinking 'what's the point?' then you need to get out of the marshmallow you're living in."

King says the statistic New Zealanders should really be worrying about is that about 80 percent of young people who have recurring thoughts of suicide never ask for help.

"When you drill down and ask why, the reason they never ask for help is because they are worried about what other people will think, say and do with that information. In other words, they're worried about us," he says.

King says Kiwis need to start thinking about what we're doing to encourage others to speak up when they're struggling.

"Most of us have never had that conversation ever. My question is why?" he says.

Opening up to kids about your own vulnerability to mental health issues is important, King says. That way, he's found they feel safe to confide in him about themselves.

King says his sincere hope for other Kiwis is that they "stop pretending you have your shit together."

"If you take off your mask and be more vulnerable in front of your kids, maybe, just maybe, they'll be able to take off their mask and reach out and ask for help before something tragic happens."

Where to find help and support:

Shine (domestic violence) - 0508 744 633
Women's Refuge - 0800 733 843 (0800 REFUGE)
Need to Talk? - Call or text 1737
What's Up - 0800 WHATS UP (0800 942 8787)
Lifeline - 0800 543 354 or (09) 5222 999 within Auckland
Youthline - 0800 376 633, text 234, email talk@youthline.co.nz or online chat
Samaritans - 0800 726 666
Depression Helpline - 0800 111 757
Suicide Crisis Helpline - 0508 828 865 (0508 TAUTOKO)
Shakti Community Council - 0800 742 584

Source

• Newshub
• Image: Health Central

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern awarded him the honour at the 10th annual edition of the awards. Read more

King cares about mental health. He cares about saving lives. He cares about people. And he won't waste his time with buck-passing and, as he calls it, "butt-covering". Not when inaction means that people will die.

That's the harsh truth when it comes to mental health. When the Government doesn't step up, people die.

When struggling Kiwis follow the official advice and go to hospitals with suicidal thoughts only to be sent home a few hours later, people die.

When vulnerable kids are too ashamed to reach out and ask for help, people die. Families lose loved ones. Communities lose valuable members.

New Zealanders lose their futures because they fell through a net that was supposed to catch them before it was too late.

This week, King slammed the Ministry of Health over its new Suicide Prevention Strategy - a strategy that didn't actually name any clear target in suicide reduction.

It used lots of nice words about pathways and healthy futures, combined with a peppering of te reo proverbs and concepts and some pretty graphics in calming shades of blue and green, but the target the advisory board had apparently agreed upon - a 20 per cent reduction in suicides over the next 10 years - was nowhere to be seen.

It had somehow disappeared, taking with it the benchmark against which to measure the success of the plan. Read into that what you will.

I can understand why King is angry. When you've stared down the barrel of suicide, the word tends to stand out any time you see it.

When you hear stories about people who've taken their own lives, it can feel like an electric shock running through your core. When someone close to you makes that terrible decision it affects you deeply.

If only they could've just held on a little longer, you think. Then comes the guilty, melancholic, grief-stricken sense of gratitude - it could've been me. Continue reading

• Lizzie Marvelly is a musician, writer and activist, she writes columns for Weekend Herald. She was judged best general opinion writer at the Canon Media Awards last week.

For counselling and support

• Need to talk? Free call or text 1737 any time
• Lifeline - 0800 543 354
• Samaritans - 0800 726 666
• Chinese Lifeline - 0800 888 880
  (for people who speak Mandarin or Cantonese)
• Youthline - 0800 376 633, free text 234 or email talk@youthline.co.nz
  (for young people, and their parents, whanau and friends)
• What's Up - 0800 942 8787
  (for 5-18 year olds; 1 pm to 11 pm)
• The Lowdown - visit the website, email team@thelowdown.co.nz or free text 5626 (emails and text messages will be responded to between 12 noon and 12 midnight)
• SPARX - an online self-help tool that teaches young people the key skills needed to help combat depression and anxiety.