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Speaker 1: Job mission with joon Z and Amanda Well.

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Speaker 2: It seems kids' mental health is increasingly declining. Every day,

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Speaker 2: thousands of Australian children are in the mental health system,

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Speaker 2: struggling to see a way out with families and care

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Speaker 2: is exhausted and losing hope. I've seen this firsthand with

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Speaker 2: my friend Sophie, who's had the horror of watching her

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Speaker 2: daughter India descend into a nightmare. I can say that

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Speaker 2: things are great with India now, but because of all

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Speaker 2: the hard work that Sophie and other people have put

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Speaker 2: into her story. Sophie has started a foundation called Please Stay,

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Speaker 2: and she joins us. Now, Hey, Sophie, Hi guy, how

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Speaker 2: are you very well? Imagine Sophie, you just in my

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Speaker 2: place having a cup of tea. This is as simple

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Speaker 2: as this.

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Speaker 3: And the cakes are out.

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Speaker 2: We're doing flower. So tell us the story before we

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Speaker 2: get to what your foundation does. Tell us why you

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Speaker 2: set this up. Tell us India's story.

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Speaker 1: Okay, So India is great now. She's nearly seventeen, and

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Speaker 1: she's the younger sister Violet who is for ely fifteen.

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Speaker 1: But we were it was three years of three to

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Speaker 1: four years of hell. Basically, Kindy started to feel anxious

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Speaker 1: and you know, signs of depression and withdrawing when she

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Speaker 1: was probably about eleven or twelve. But you know, at

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Speaker 1: that age they don't you know, they we don't want

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Speaker 1: to diagnose them with anything, and we just want to

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Speaker 1: keep forcing them to do things for the systems is

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Speaker 1: you need to go to dancing, you need to go

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Speaker 1: to school, you need to you know, go to parties

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Speaker 1: and all those you know, regular things. But it just

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Speaker 1: wasn't working anyway, so it escalated. We tried few different

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Speaker 1: We tried three different schools. I tried homeschooling, but Andy

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Speaker 1: just didn't fit in. Although she was bright, right, you know,

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Speaker 1: nap plan out of the park, just super bright, that

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Speaker 1: just didn't A social anxiety was crippling and unfortunately, we

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Speaker 1: went through about seven suicide attempts, yeah, which was you know, scarce,

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Speaker 1: frightening obviously for everyone, for myself and you know the

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Speaker 1: rest of the family in India as well. So I

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Speaker 1: just luckily I had an opportunity to get her out

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Speaker 1: of Sydney and up to Armadale to a program up

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Speaker 1: there which saved her life.

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Speaker 2: What changed for her? What did save her?

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Speaker 1: What did save her? I think it was a break,

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Speaker 1: just a circuit break on something to take her out

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Speaker 1: of the fight and flight that she was in. In Sydney.

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Speaker 1: You know, there was there was no option to go

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Speaker 1: to school or go to school basically, and the threats

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Speaker 1: that we would get for her not going to school

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Speaker 1: for longer than two days where we would go to

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Speaker 1: court and you know, we'd be in trump that out's

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Speaker 1: parents would be. So it's two days you can have

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Speaker 1: without with a medical certificate away from school. Even I

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Speaker 1: had to you know, letters from psychologists, psychiatrists, you know, docs,

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Speaker 1: you name it. But there's no other way until they're sixteen,

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Speaker 1: they have to go to school. And Indie unfortunately, would

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Speaker 1: rather have died than go to school, as simple as that.

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Speaker 1: And I know it sounds scary and harsh and very

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Speaker 1: you know, blunt, but I think that's a lot of

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Speaker 1: what's happening is we need to break the cycle. We

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Speaker 1: needed to go on a holiday or just to get

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Speaker 1: out without you know for a month or a week

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Speaker 1: or something. I couldn't work. I was on so I watch,

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Speaker 1: so you know, I couldn't afford to take us on

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Speaker 1: a holiday or you know, a new car or anything.

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Speaker 1: If you've going to the theater or you know, taking

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Speaker 1: her to the hair sellon or something. But we're always

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Speaker 1: on guard because the police came to the door if

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Speaker 1: we didn't take it to school.

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Speaker 3: So she was not going to school a lot. Obviously

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Speaker 3: it wasn't just like two days, and then this would

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Speaker 3: have been over a period.

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Speaker 1: Of time, absolutely, yeah, And it came to a point

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Speaker 1: where we were considered a high risk the school. So

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Speaker 1: then if she wasn't there for more than two days,

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Speaker 1: then that's when they need to flick the switch and

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Speaker 1: alert the authorities, which is you know, it's fantastic that

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Speaker 1: they are so receptive to that, but there can be

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Speaker 1: other ways.

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Speaker 3: But they've missed the actual thing of someone with anxiety,

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Speaker 3: which we a lot of people don't understand anxiety unless

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Speaker 3: you have people in your life that have anxiety and

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Speaker 3: then you kind of get it.

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Speaker 2: And I saw my sister law on the weekend. She's

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Speaker 2: a school aid and primary school. She said she's never

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Speaker 2: seen so many children with anxiety and that's primary school.

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Speaker 2: But it's just not being recognized that it can start

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Speaker 2: that young Sophie. Tell me what happened that you saw

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Speaker 2: the need for kids like Indie to have a circuit

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Speaker 2: break at it. And that's what your foundation Please Stay

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Speaker 2: is about exactly.

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Speaker 1: Yeah. So I just know that when I was in

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Speaker 1: the thick of it with my kids that I like

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Speaker 1: a holiday somewhere, get on a plane and go. And

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Speaker 1: for some reason it's okay to go on a holiday

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Speaker 1: the school. You know, schools generally are fine to sign

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Speaker 1: you off. So I think it's up to six weeks

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Speaker 1: or correct me if I'm wrong, but you can go

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Speaker 1: on a family holiday as long as you check in

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Speaker 1: with the school. But if I could have got on

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Speaker 1: a plane and gone, you know, obviously not overseas in

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Speaker 1: this current climate, but somewhere to airs Rock or Hamilton,

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Speaker 1: the Gold Coast, anywhere, just to have one on one

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Speaker 1: time away from all the pressures of the system and

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Speaker 1: the calls and the you know, the therapy and the hospital.

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Speaker 1: Of course that serves a purpose and it's necessary, but yeah,

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Speaker 1: we just needed to go get out of there.

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Speaker 2: So holidays are one thing, but there's also the work

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Speaker 2: you're doing with kids and scars.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, so self harming, unfortunately is becoming more and more common.

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Speaker 1: But when the kids are starting to feel better and

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Speaker 1: wanted to get back into you know, their normal lives

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Speaker 1: and they're probably a little bit older, but they've got

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Speaker 1: the scars on their arms or legs or wherever they

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Speaker 1: may have harmed themselves and they're quite visible. Sometimes they've

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Speaker 1: got the keloid scarring. So there is you can have

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Speaker 1: a treatment a fractal laser treatment six three to six sessions,

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Speaker 1: but is quite expensive. So we've actually got our first

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Speaker 1: first girl into their treatments for the scar reduction treatment,

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Speaker 1: so which is a great thing for her. She's going

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Speaker 1: to start UNI next year. But it's still very conscious

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Speaker 1: with wearing long sleeves.

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Speaker 3: Of course, those decisions that they make when they're young,

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Speaker 3: if they can just hold on, and that's why the

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Speaker 3: Police Stay Foundation is such an app name well, Sophie,

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Speaker 3: thank you so much for joining us. To make a

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Speaker 3: donation head to please stayfoundation dot com.

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Speaker 2: And so it's making foundations. Making a donation is one thing,

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Speaker 2: but also if you know someone who can benefit from

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Speaker 2: from the these from the help that this foundation can give,

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Speaker 2: you get in touch there as well. Is that right?

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Speaker 1: So yeah, that's it, thank you. Yeah, just through the website, Thank.

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Speaker 3: You, Sophie. Say there was no cake, Amanda could have

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Speaker 3: made his cake.

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Speaker 2: I know next Next time, so Jonesy and Amanda's nation