Less judgment, more support
Comedian Mike King visited Palmerston North this week to talk about mental health in the hope people can live without judgment from others.
King was in the city on Thursday as part of Moana New Zealand’s roadshow to raise awareness about mental wellness.
He said it was just as important for people not suffering from mental trauma to learn about mental health.
Most messaging was crisis-based, but it was important to make everyone aware of mental health, he said.
‘‘What I’m hoping to achieve today is getting that message to those people whose life is pretty good. Often their judgmental attitude has an impact.’’
It should be OK for people who are struggling to talk about it, King said.
The need to talk about mental health was a national issue, he said.
‘‘It doesn’t matter if they are rich, poor, yellow, green, orange. We’ve got to take a national approach to it.’’
King also encourages older generations to talking about their feelings.
‘‘There’s definitely a change in young people. My generation are a bit slower on the uptake. Because of the culture that we grew up in, there’s a reluctance to express yourself.’’
Children learned off their parents, so if parents didn’t share their problems, their kids wouldn’t
either, he said.
‘‘If we want our kids to reach out and ask for help, that’s the behaviour we have to show them. It’s OK to ask for help.’’
Moana chief executive Carl Carrington said Moana New Zealand, the country’s largest iwi-owned seafood company, wanted to raise awareness about mental health to ensure people were better equipped to handle stress, depression and mental illness.
‘‘With one in six New Zealand adults diagnosed with a mental illness at some point in their lives, the fact that our young people and teens have the worst suicide rates in the world, and that Ma¯ ori and Pacific people are over represented in mental health statistics, we’ve got to do something.’’
King, who suffered from depression, spoke at the Hotel Coachman on Thursday as part of the roadshow that was also going to Auckland yesterday, and has been in Wellington, Ruakaka, Kaeo, and Coromandel.