Youngsters Urged To Spot Signs Of Depression

A Beverley dad whose teenage son committed suicide is urging young people to help spot signs of depression in their friends.

Dennis Graham's 17-year-old son, Matthew, took his own life back in 2010 shortly after revealing to a friend that he was feeling depressed.

He now wants more young people to speak out if they suspect a classmate is in need of help and recently started going into schools to educate kids about the issue.

He told Viking FM:

"Seeing other young adults ending their lives, I couldn't just sit back and constantly look at the newspaper and think there's another life lost.

"There are so many young people who end their lives and their friends say things like, I thought that was a bit strange or that they thought something wasn't quite right, but they never shared that information with pastoral care at their school or college. Generally a parent is one of the last people that the child would speak to.

"A young person will not always want to speak to their parents and say that they're depressed or that they're thinking of ending their life but they may well just discuss it with a friend and it's at that point where that friend then has to pass on that information to pastoral care at school, college.

"Pass on the information, that's what I'm trying to say to people. Yes, your friend might not speak to you for a while but if that person is in need of help then they'll thank you for forever and a day because you might just possibly save that person's life."

He says an increasing number of schools are now wanting to offer this support:

"It appears that the majority of the schools and colleges that we have wrote to want to do something, they've found that there is a need so quite possibly I am filling a hole that is in their curriculum that is desperately needed. It's fifteen minutes of my life that might just prevent this happening again.

"We only had a four-month window from knowing that Matthew was not happy to him ending his life. It's devastating, my whole family and friends just find it so difficult. Matt was a very popular young man and it is just a massive waste."