Latest news with #SwanseaHigh
The Advertiser
3 days ago
- Health
- The Advertiser
'Reducing the damage': bullied at school, Nick was angry and anxious
When Swansea's Nick McMurrugh was being bullied at school, he got help from a psychologist. That helped a lot, but he was also living with anxiety and too much anger. He joined the Top Blokes program, which helps young males openly discuss their mental health with mentors. A key benefit of the program was "not being talked down to by an authority figure", he said. "It's like we're having a conversation with a mate. It made it so much easier to talk." The NSW government has announced a $50,000 grant for the Top Blokes program to help at-risk young men aged 10 to 24. Nick, now 18, went through depression as a youngster and was later diagnosed with generalised anxiety disorder. "Top Blokes gave me the perspective that I'm not the only one," he said. The program included anger management, which focused on "reducing the damage it can cause". "I'd get angry at things very easily. Ever since then, I feel like it's subsided. "The tips given were to pull yourself away from the situation to try to calm down, breathe and think about it so you're not harming anyone else or yourself." Top Blokes is among a range of programs given a total of $1.4 million in state grants to improve men's mental health and prevent suicide. NSW Minister for Mental Health Rose Jackson said "men account for more than three quarters of suicide deaths in NSW". "This is deeply concerning," Ms Jackson said. "We are continuing to engage with men and mental health experts to see how we can bring these rates down. "We know some men can be reluctant to engage with traditional mental health services." A year advisor at Swansea High recommended Nick for the Top Blokes program. "She knew my situation, being in a single-parent household," he said. Will O'Keefe, a Top Blokes co-ordinator, mentored Nick. "We got to know Nick well. He was quite reserved and didn't have much confidence. He was in year 10 at the time," Will said. "As we got to know him, like all the boys in the program, we built good connections and rapport. "They start to open up about their own journey and we have deep conversations about what it means to be a top bloke and the challenges they face." He said it was "great to see Nick's progress". "A lot of the young men we work with don't have a male role model in their life. "Our program is so unique because we're with the boys for six months. We have an hour each week with the fellas. "We get to know these young fellas on a personal level. They start to embed the stuff we've talked about." Nick is now a Top Blokes youth ambassador and studying psychological science at university. As for his approach to mental health now, he said "I try not to overcomplicate things in my head and take things step by step". He's been seeing the same psychologist for seven years and being tested for ADHD. "Knowing I have that will maybe make my life a bit easier." When Swansea's Nick McMurrugh was being bullied at school, he got help from a psychologist. That helped a lot, but he was also living with anxiety and too much anger. He joined the Top Blokes program, which helps young males openly discuss their mental health with mentors. A key benefit of the program was "not being talked down to by an authority figure", he said. "It's like we're having a conversation with a mate. It made it so much easier to talk." The NSW government has announced a $50,000 grant for the Top Blokes program to help at-risk young men aged 10 to 24. Nick, now 18, went through depression as a youngster and was later diagnosed with generalised anxiety disorder. "Top Blokes gave me the perspective that I'm not the only one," he said. The program included anger management, which focused on "reducing the damage it can cause". "I'd get angry at things very easily. Ever since then, I feel like it's subsided. "The tips given were to pull yourself away from the situation to try to calm down, breathe and think about it so you're not harming anyone else or yourself." Top Blokes is among a range of programs given a total of $1.4 million in state grants to improve men's mental health and prevent suicide. NSW Minister for Mental Health Rose Jackson said "men account for more than three quarters of suicide deaths in NSW". "This is deeply concerning," Ms Jackson said. "We are continuing to engage with men and mental health experts to see how we can bring these rates down. "We know some men can be reluctant to engage with traditional mental health services." A year advisor at Swansea High recommended Nick for the Top Blokes program. "She knew my situation, being in a single-parent household," he said. Will O'Keefe, a Top Blokes co-ordinator, mentored Nick. "We got to know Nick well. He was quite reserved and didn't have much confidence. He was in year 10 at the time," Will said. "As we got to know him, like all the boys in the program, we built good connections and rapport. "They start to open up about their own journey and we have deep conversations about what it means to be a top bloke and the challenges they face." He said it was "great to see Nick's progress". "A lot of the young men we work with don't have a male role model in their life. "Our program is so unique because we're with the boys for six months. We have an hour each week with the fellas. "We get to know these young fellas on a personal level. They start to embed the stuff we've talked about." Nick is now a Top Blokes youth ambassador and studying psychological science at university. As for his approach to mental health now, he said "I try not to overcomplicate things in my head and take things step by step". He's been seeing the same psychologist for seven years and being tested for ADHD. "Knowing I have that will maybe make my life a bit easier." When Swansea's Nick McMurrugh was being bullied at school, he got help from a psychologist. That helped a lot, but he was also living with anxiety and too much anger. He joined the Top Blokes program, which helps young males openly discuss their mental health with mentors. A key benefit of the program was "not being talked down to by an authority figure", he said. "It's like we're having a conversation with a mate. It made it so much easier to talk." The NSW government has announced a $50,000 grant for the Top Blokes program to help at-risk young men aged 10 to 24. Nick, now 18, went through depression as a youngster and was later diagnosed with generalised anxiety disorder. "Top Blokes gave me the perspective that I'm not the only one," he said. The program included anger management, which focused on "reducing the damage it can cause". "I'd get angry at things very easily. Ever since then, I feel like it's subsided. "The tips given were to pull yourself away from the situation to try to calm down, breathe and think about it so you're not harming anyone else or yourself." Top Blokes is among a range of programs given a total of $1.4 million in state grants to improve men's mental health and prevent suicide. NSW Minister for Mental Health Rose Jackson said "men account for more than three quarters of suicide deaths in NSW". "This is deeply concerning," Ms Jackson said. "We are continuing to engage with men and mental health experts to see how we can bring these rates down. "We know some men can be reluctant to engage with traditional mental health services." A year advisor at Swansea High recommended Nick for the Top Blokes program. "She knew my situation, being in a single-parent household," he said. Will O'Keefe, a Top Blokes co-ordinator, mentored Nick. "We got to know Nick well. He was quite reserved and didn't have much confidence. He was in year 10 at the time," Will said. "As we got to know him, like all the boys in the program, we built good connections and rapport. "They start to open up about their own journey and we have deep conversations about what it means to be a top bloke and the challenges they face." He said it was "great to see Nick's progress". "A lot of the young men we work with don't have a male role model in their life. "Our program is so unique because we're with the boys for six months. We have an hour each week with the fellas. "We get to know these young fellas on a personal level. They start to embed the stuff we've talked about." Nick is now a Top Blokes youth ambassador and studying psychological science at university. As for his approach to mental health now, he said "I try not to overcomplicate things in my head and take things step by step". He's been seeing the same psychologist for seven years and being tested for ADHD. "Knowing I have that will maybe make my life a bit easier." When Swansea's Nick McMurrugh was being bullied at school, he got help from a psychologist. That helped a lot, but he was also living with anxiety and too much anger. He joined the Top Blokes program, which helps young males openly discuss their mental health with mentors. A key benefit of the program was "not being talked down to by an authority figure", he said. "It's like we're having a conversation with a mate. It made it so much easier to talk." The NSW government has announced a $50,000 grant for the Top Blokes program to help at-risk young men aged 10 to 24. Nick, now 18, went through depression as a youngster and was later diagnosed with generalised anxiety disorder. "Top Blokes gave me the perspective that I'm not the only one," he said. The program included anger management, which focused on "reducing the damage it can cause". "I'd get angry at things very easily. Ever since then, I feel like it's subsided. "The tips given were to pull yourself away from the situation to try to calm down, breathe and think about it so you're not harming anyone else or yourself." Top Blokes is among a range of programs given a total of $1.4 million in state grants to improve men's mental health and prevent suicide. NSW Minister for Mental Health Rose Jackson said "men account for more than three quarters of suicide deaths in NSW". "This is deeply concerning," Ms Jackson said. "We are continuing to engage with men and mental health experts to see how we can bring these rates down. "We know some men can be reluctant to engage with traditional mental health services." A year advisor at Swansea High recommended Nick for the Top Blokes program. "She knew my situation, being in a single-parent household," he said. Will O'Keefe, a Top Blokes co-ordinator, mentored Nick. "We got to know Nick well. He was quite reserved and didn't have much confidence. He was in year 10 at the time," Will said. "As we got to know him, like all the boys in the program, we built good connections and rapport. "They start to open up about their own journey and we have deep conversations about what it means to be a top bloke and the challenges they face." He said it was "great to see Nick's progress". "A lot of the young men we work with don't have a male role model in their life. "Our program is so unique because we're with the boys for six months. We have an hour each week with the fellas. "We get to know these young fellas on a personal level. They start to embed the stuff we've talked about." Nick is now a Top Blokes youth ambassador and studying psychological science at university. As for his approach to mental health now, he said "I try not to overcomplicate things in my head and take things step by step". He's been seeing the same psychologist for seven years and being tested for ADHD. "Knowing I have that will maybe make my life a bit easier."
The Guardian
26-03-2025
- Business
- The Guardian
The Lake Macquarie small businessman: ‘They pretend they are just like the man on the street'
'Bream, flathead, on the right day, the fishing's great here.' Todd Boorer feels a world away from Canberra. 'It's beautiful here, isn't it? The water, the beach, the view and all that. Just magic.' The second-youngest of 15 kids – '10 girls and five boys. Come on, make the joke … nothing on TV?' – family is the golden thread that runs through Boorer's life. He is a known quantity in these parts, on the shores of Lake Macquarie: in a half-hour discussion at least four people (none of them siblings) stop to say hello as they walk past. On the eastern bank is the electorate of Shortland; the green hills across the water are those of Hunter. Somewhere in the middle lies the dividing line but both have been long-time Labor strongholds. I run a mowing and yardcare business. It's busy now. I'm working six days a week and they are big days. When it's hot and then it rains, everything just grows and grows. You can't keep it down. We are flat out. My partner runs the Alfresco outdoor furniture factory down at Warners Bay and also does the night fill-up here at Woolies of a night. So we're flat out. I'm sore today, that's why I'm sitting here in the shade. I worked all weekend. We've just been busting out. If you get out and knuckle in, you just don't get much time for anything else. But I'm a surfer by nature. The best is my local, Frenchmans, at the back of Swansea Heads where I grew up. It goes unreal, I shouldn't be telling you, I'm breaking the code. The cost of living stuff and all that. Yeah, we've noticed the prices at the supermarket and all that go up. But you just have to adjust for it. Takeaway food, that's hitting everyone hard, especially for the people that live on that sort of thing. It must be costing them a fortune. We stay away from those fast-food joints because it's getting really pricey and it's crap. It's no good. We want to go overseas in the next year or two – Indonesia – so we're saving every penny we can. Dad was … stern at everything he believed in. Everyone had to chip in, everyone had to work, everyone had to do this and that. So I followed that my whole life. [All our family] see the world pretty similar I reckon, it was something that was ingrained in all of us from a very young age: you'll survive if you work. You've got to make your own way in the world. If everyone puts in and does their bit then everyone benefits from it, but it starts with you doing your bit. The kids are running round but I reckon they get that, they understand. Sometimes they need a bomb under 'em, but I reckon they're more switched on than I was. I wish I had thought it out a bit more, what I was going to do, that I had a bit more of a plan of attack. I walked out of Swansea High with my certificate in my hand and said, 'you beauty!' I think … one of the things that bugs people a lot [is] when politicians try to kind of be one of us, pretend they are just like the man on the street, because they're not. They've spent their life hidden away from us. So don't try to pretend to know what's going on at our level. They lie a lot. I never understood how they can promise to do something, say this is their policy, and then don't follow through. How are they allowed to do that? That frustrates a lot of people. We can't do that. If I've told Mrs Jones I'm going to come round and work on her yard, then that's what I'm going to do, and I'll do a good job. How can they say they'll give this much to schools or to nurses but then never do it? [But] Dad was a Labor man through and through, I've been on to that my whole life, because that's what he was into. Albo. What do you reckon? Is he going to get back in? Let's give him another go. Let's give him another go because he's not a bully. That's one thing about him that I don't mind, that he's not a bully.
