Foundation aims to fund mental health programs for Upper Hunter schools

More than a dozen primary and high schools across the district have hailed the emergence of the Where There’s A Will Foundation – a fundraiser set up by Scone woman Pauline Carrigan to boost the uptake of emotional resilience programs in the classroom.

Mrs Carrigan’s son Will died on Christmas Day, aged 24.

Where There’s a Will was set up in his name. The Foundation has since united local schools worried their children are missing lessons in perseverance, optimism, problem-solving, and hope.

Mrs Carrigan said while several government-sponsored mental and emotional wellbeing programs were available to schools, those in the regions often lacked the time, funding, and support to implement them in a lasting and effective way.  

Speaking to the crowd at Friday’s fundraising Manali Bull Sale at ‘Yarramac’, she said there was no time to waste.

“The World Health Organisation predicts that depression will be the leading health burden globally by the year 2030,” she said.

“That is just 14 years from now. So what future are we going to offer our children?”

A spokesman for NSW education minister Adrian Piccoli said government worked closely with a variety of mental health partners and agencies – including beyondblue and Headspace – to help deliver wellbeing programs to schools.

Mrs Carrigan said not enough was being done.

“They are relying on schools to choose to implement them, and to train staff to deliver them and fund them,” she said.

St Joseph's Primary Merriwa principal Helen Whale said pressures on local families had laid bare the need for help.

“Particularly in the Upper Hunter – we’ve had drought, unemployment . . . and the pressure on the parents flows down to the kids,” Mrs Whale said.

Mrs Whale said fundraising meetings were bringing more and more teachers and parents together.

“It was a tragedy that started all of this, but it is starting to bring so much good,” she said.

Friday’s MacCallum Livestock Manali sale raised $17,000 for Where There’s a Will – the foundation’s first major funding injection.

As a result, the program will fund the initial stages of Bounce Back! initiative in local primary schools.

It will also allow six teachers from Muswellbrook High School to develop a mental health program, and four teachers from Scone High School to complete mental health first aid training.