The discovery of a message at the scene of the death of a child who was 10 years old has shaken the community.
An unresponsive child was found in the Illawarra region of New South Wales (NSW), south of Wollongong. The school where the child was located was immediately contacted by emergency personnel.
However, despite everyone’s best efforts, the 10-year-old student in Year 5 could not be brought back to life.
The emergency service workers reportedly had a difficult time processing what they had witnessed, as reported by The Daily Telegraph.
According to a note that was discovered at the scene, the event is not being investigated as suspicious at this time.
Following the death, the school and the Catholic Education Office have been and will continue to provide comprehensive support to the school community. This support includes counseling for the school’s faculty and students. The statement was released by a spokesman for the Catholic Education Diocese of Wollongong.
Professor Ian Hickie, the Executive Director of the Brain and Mind Research Institute at the University of Sydney, made the following statement: “It is the extent to which these communities, the school community, and surrounding communities pull together and don’t blame each other, that will help us get through it.”
‘Pre-Covid, we were detecting greater rates of psychological distress and self-harming behaviour in younger persons and younger ages of onset,’ Professor Hickie noted.
“Then we had Covid come along, and that has been incredibly terrible for young people, particularly those who are still in school or in the early years after school,”
“The benefit is that the community is aware, parents are aware, schools are aware, and our overall understanding of the level to which young people are struggling has gone up,” he added. “The downside is that the community is aware, parents are aware, and schools are aware.”
According to Professor Hickie, Australians need to devise a strategy that will enable them to connect their families and friends with children living in the community.
Please contact Lifeline
if you need help!