More than 2,200 students and teachers from 78 Western Australian schools attended zero2hero's "In Your Head" events in Perth and Kalgoorlie last month, according to the youth mental health charity, which said the sessions revealed young people are willing to discuss mental health when given a genuine platform to do so.
The two-day program comes as national data shows youth mental illness rates climbing sharply.
The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare's Australia's Health 2026 report found the prevalence of mental disorders among people aged 16-24 increased from 26% in 2007 to 39% in 2020-22, while the rate across the broader population remained relatively stable at about 22%. Mental illness accounts for around 15% of Australia's disease burden but receives just 7% of national health spending, the report noted.
Separately, Mission Australia's Youth Survey, which draws 17,000 to 19,500 responses from young Australians each year, found mental health ranked among the top issues facing the country last year, alongside cost of living, climate change, and housing.
Trust comes before honesty
zero2hero senior facilitator Stuart Hayward said student questions shifted in tone as the day progressed. Initial questions were broad, he said, but became more specific as students grew more comfortable, moving toward topics such as recognising when a friend needs help and starting difficult conversations.
"You could almost feel the point where a group realised, 'Okay, we are safe to actually talk about this here,'" Hayward said.
Once that shift occurred, he said, students began describing situations they were actually navigating rather than responses they believed adults wanted to hear.
Students want to participate, not just listen
Youth engagement and support worker Rose Dib-Milston, who attended with students from Armadale Senior High School, said breakout sessions generated stronger engagement than keynote presentations alone.
"I was really impressed by both the quantity and quality of questions coming from the students," Dib-Milston said.
She said she would have liked to see more time allocated to student-led question-and-answer sessions.
zero2hero CEO Ashlee Harrison said the events showed young people are willing to engage when they feel respected and safe, and that the resulting conversations move quickly toward substantive territory.
"When they feel safe, respected and like we genuinely care about what they think, they happily engage," Harrison said.
Harrison also said serious subject matter, including suicide prevention, does not require a heavy atmosphere to be taken seriously by students, and that combining humour and connection with difficult topics does not undermine their significance.
"Mental health is serious, but that doesn't mean every conversation we have about it has to feel sombre or clinical," Harrison said.
Harrison said sustained mental health education beyond single events remains necessary, pointing to ongoing conversations in classrooms and among peers as the setting where literacy and help-seeking skills are reinforced.
Zero2hero, a Western Australia-based charity, has run "In Your Head" events for schools for several years, with past iterations drawing between 700 and 1,500 attendees to venues including the Perth Convention and Exhibition Centre.