Nichole Hussey The 2013 Young Victorian of the Year Interview

Nichole Hussey The 2013 Young Victorian of the Year Interview

The 2013 Victorian of the Year was announced along with four other awards for outstanding public and community services, during the Victoria Day Council Awards ceremony at the Melbourne Town Hall. Victoria Day 2013 marks the 162nd anniversary of the official separation of Victoria from New South Wales and the formal proclamation as an independent State by Governor La Trobe.

This momentous occasion was re-enacted outside the Melbourne Town Hall today; giving award winners, dignitaries and passers-by a unique experience of Governor La Trobe's Proclamation of Separation and a traditional flag-raising ceremony to mark the occasion. Later, at a formal awards ceremony in Swanston Hall, the Victorian of the Year and other award recipients were presented their awards by the Right Honorable, The Lord Mayor Melbourne, Robert Doyle.

Awards were presented to the following individuals and groups in the following categories:
Victorian of the Year: Jeannie Pratt
Young Victorian of the Year: Nichole Hussey
Organisation: Amaze (Autism Victoria)
Good Corporate Citizen: Linfox
Victoria Day Award for the Arts: Dr Gerard Vaughan

The selection of the award recipients was made by the Trustees of the Victorian Day Council after carefully deliberation of many worthy nominations, all of whom have made significant and valuable contributions to the Victorian community. The Trustees of the Victoria Day Council is made up of previous Victorian of the Year Award recipients.

Victoria Day Council Chairman Mr Duncan Buchanan was delighted with the selection of the award recipients, stating that, 'I am honoured to introduce this year's winners. The Victoria Day Council each year recognises people in the community that have gone above and beyond their contribution to the community within Victoria. On behalf of the Victoria Day Council, I thank them and congratulate them on their truly outstanding achievements and the great work they have done, I am thrilled they have been recognised in this way."

Victoria Day celebrates Victoria's independence and the rich history it has enjoyed since separation from New South Wales on 1st July 1851, 162 years later; Victorians are still enjoying the benefits of this occasion.

Victoria Day awards those individuals and groups who have made significant and valuable contributions to Victorian communities. The Victoria Day Council has the acknowledgement and encouragement of the Victorian Government and the Governor of Victoria.

Interview with Nichole Hussey

Trustee's Selection of 2012 Award Winners: Victoria Day Award for Public and Community Service by a Younger Victorian
The 2013 Young Victorian of the Year: Nichole Hussey

22 year old Nichole is a founding member of a national youth suicide initiative which runs in Victoria, the largest youth suicide prevention program using social media called 'IN 2 LIFE". It currently has 22,000 members. They also run the Here For Life program. Nichole serves on the management committee, moderates the programmes and supports young people personally. She is an absolute inspiration. Her work has literally saved dozens of young people's lives from suicide.

IN 2 LIFE is a significant peer-to-peer youth suicide prevention programme that was launched in June last year by a group of young people in eastern Melbourne. This preventative programme currently uses Facebook as a platform to provide a safe, supportive and non-judgemental environment where young people can speak openly.

Nichole works tirelessly on the group moderating day and night. Contacting and supporting young people, organising hospital visits promoting the site to recruit volunteers and promoting for young people to join.

Nichole assisted in forming an Advisory Board, comprised of mental health professionals and academics who acknowledge that young people are connecting and forming communities via social media and recognises the importance of engaging with youth where they are most comfortable. Melbourne University Associate Professor Alasdair Vance noted of his own practice, 'Most of our counselling is now done online. Our clients will tell us things that they would never say face-to-face or on the telephone. I support this initiative 100%."

In the three months from October to December 2012, over 1,000 young people were referred on to helplines and other counselling or psychological services, 12 reports were made to police for immediate intervention to prevent suicide and six mandated notifications were made to Community Services in support of children suffering abuse.

Without Nichole's involvement this project that is helping thousands of young people in Victoria would not have happened.

Nichole grew up in Casey, an outer Melbourne suburb with an extremely high suicide rate.
Because so many of her friends were touched by suicide she decided to start this initiative.


Question: How does it feel to be announced as The 2013 Young Victorian of the Year?

Nichole Hussey: It's pretty amazing however it still hasn't sunk in, yet. It was very unexpected. I need to sit down and recap.


Question: What does this title mean, to you?

Nichole Hussey: It means a lot of our group and that we can hopefully prevent more suicides, in the future.


Question: How do you hope to use the title of The 2013 Young Victorian of the Year to help with IN 2 LIFE?

Nichole Hussey: Hopefully I can use the title of The 2013 Young Victorian of the Year to connect with other companies or charities that can help us get ourselves out there. Mainly I'd like to ensure that we continue to promote IN 2 LIFE so we can connect with other youth, across Australia and be recognised so that they can come talk to us, if need be.
The IN 2 LIFE Facebook page is a peer-to-peer support page; it's good for the youth to know they can come online and speak with other people who may be experiencing the same or other issues.


Question: What inspired you to begin the youth suicide initiative, IN 2 LIFE?

Nichole Hussey: A close friend of mine created the IN 2 LIFE Facebook page and I am an origination member. I lost a very close friend in 2011 to suicide and it was burning inside of me that I had to do something, to make a change. When my friend created the IN 2 LIFE Facebook page, I joined in the first 24 hours and watching it grow inspired me more to make sure it was successful.

Our team together with everyone on the page (22,000 members) have helped lower the suicide rate, especially in Casey by openly speaking about what's going on and seeing that happen is making me very proud especially to see that it is lowering the suicide rate. If you're aware of statistic in the area of Casey then it has definitely dropped in the past thirteen months.


Question: What is IN 2 LIFE?

Nichole Hussey: The IN 2 LIFE Facebook page is mainly a peer-to-peer support page; youth use the page to see that many other uses are sharing their stories whether it is a day-to-day struggle, bullying in school, family issues or mental health issues. The members share their stories and then when new people join they can recognise that other people are going through the same thing that they're going through which creates a network of peer-to-peer support allowing them to speak about their troubles with other people.

If anything triggering does happen then we jump on, at that time however it is mostly peer-to-peer support.


Question: Can you talk us through the work you do for IN 2 LIFE?

Nichole Hussey: I am a volunteer community support worker which includes world recognised training in suicide prevention which allows us to see triggering posts as well as look for judging and bullying on the page and then we remove the post and ensure the victimised member is safe. The main part of what I do, along with the team, is making sure everyone is safe on the IN 2 LIFE page along with communicating with each other in an appropriate matter.

I am also involved in the marketing side of IN 2 LIFE as well as mentoring new volunteers. The group currently has 20 volunteers and we're always looking for more. Australians can become volunteers by applying at http://in2life.org.au/ or jumping on Facebook and searching for Preventing Youth Suicide and in the file section there are documents that explain how you can go about volunteering. There is a volunteer process that includes a reference check, a Police check, a Working with Children check and an interview. The volunteer program includes training.

Question: Have you had a chance to chat with, The 2013 Victorian of the Year: Jeanne Pratt?

Nichole Hussey: Yes, we didn't have a chance to have an in-depth conversation however we did share a few words and hopefully I'll have another chance to speak, more in-depth, with her about what we are doing and what she is doing.


Question: Could you share a success story from, IN 2 LIFE with us?

Nichole Hussey: There is one success story involving a girl who was going through a hard time and was on the verge of overdosing, I made the call to 000 to have the Police attend. At the same time, whilst I was on the call, I had received notification that she had taken certain substances to overdose and I organised and ambulance, as well. A couple of weeks to a month later I received a message from her explaining that if I hadn't have called the ambulance that she wouldn't be here, right now and that I had saved her life. The message smacked me in the face, a little bit.


Question: How can those, not having as hard of a time, use the group to help combat youth suicide?

Nichole Hussey: We've identified that we have a lot of people who sit and watch on the Preventing Youth Suicide Facebook page and even those people are making a huge difference to not being on the page as they're recognising that there is an issue that we need to solve or find a resolution to. It comes down to removing the stigma and having the community talk about it.

The program is great and I encourage anyone who wants to jump on and join the group, do so regardless of if they are experiencing any issues or troubles. You don't have to jump on and speak straight away, you can down the track though and everyone on there is very supportive.


Question: What do you hope to achieve in the next twelve months with IN 2 LIFE?

Nichole Hussey: Our goal is to remove more of the stigma associated with youth suicide; I feel we've already removed part of it as we've got people talking about it which was my initial aim; now we're thirteen months down the track and people are talking about it, I feel that we need more people to be okay with talking about it and build more of a support to those who need to talk about it. My main goal for the next twelve months, along with the rest of the team, is to continue to remove the stigma.


Interview by Brooke Hunter