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The original was posted on /r/newzealand by /u/scoutriver on 2024-10-31 00:21:12+00:00.

Kia ora koutou. There’s been great discussion about Mike King and I Am Hope for a wee while now and there is growing understanding that his model isn’t what is needed, and he isn’t exactly the rolemodel that’s needed either.

However, tomorrow is Gumboot Friday itself, and you and your kids may be feeling pressure to join in but a conflict about what the charity is doing and what it’s founder stands for.

Lets pull together some names of charities round the country who are providing counselling to our kids and youth but aren’t getting millions of dollars of funding exclusively based on vibes and sleek marketing.

Personally I’ve made a donation to Youthline, printed the receipt, and my kid will still wear her gumboots tomorrow so she doesn’t get left out. But instead of a gold coin she’ll bring the receipt for our donation.

Remember: Evidence shows prevention is the best support. We need to keep working on socio-economic determinants of health and wellbeing, on access to good perinatal mental health care, on learning about wellbeing and caring about others at school (ideally not by raving alcoholism advocates), and on making sure we always have access to timely, appropriate and qualified mental health support services. None of this will be fixed in a single electoral term, this is probably a 20-30+ year project that will span generations. But we can set the direction now.

Look for your local youth wellness trusts, your low cost health centres with a youth focus, the trusts set up to support the neurodivergent kids, and importantly the trusts and charities providing low to no cost counselling for kids and youth.

(Disclaimer: I am a qualified mental health and addictions support worker, a health researcher, and a policy nerd. I pull evidence together from experts but I am not the expert obtaining the evidence in the first place. I just really want better for our kids.)