A former Kamloops Blazer and mental health advocate says removing the stigma surrounding suicide and depression needs to start early.

Appearing on the NL Morning News, Corey Hirsch said teen suicide is up 56 per cent in recent years and feels society needs to make it a word that isn’t taboo. To do that, he says schools need to make mental health part of the curriculum.

“We continue to not give them the information that they need and you know this should be taught in the schools. Mental health should be something that’s taught in schools,” Hirsch said.

“We teach the kids physical health, eat healthy, we give them the four food groups and all that good stuff but we don’t talk about their brains, like their brains are part of their bodies right? It’s just ridiculous to me and we need to give them the information.”

Hirsch says his own battle with depression would have been easier if he had learned about it while he was in school.

“I think back to my life and it’s because I was part of it. I remember the day that things went dark for me. If I’d have known and been taught in high school and all that about OCD and depression and anxiety, I didn’t know what was going on, like I had no idea because I had never experienced it or been taught about it,” he said.

“If I’d been educated about it, my life would have changed dramatically.”

He went on to say sheltering children from the topic will only make things worse in the long run.

“We should know that when something breaks in our brains, okay I need to go to the doctor, I need to go to the therapist,” Hirsch noted. “Instead we withhold this information from our children and you know it’s getting better but they’re still not being taught this in school and educated and it needs to change.”

“We need to educate them so we can help them help themselves.”

And while Hirsch tells his story in schools, he says he sometimes faces opposition from parents.

“They say they don’t want their child to hear my talk because they think it might trigger something which is most ridiculous thing because talking about suicide does not create more suicide,” he added.

“In actual fact when you don’t talk about it and you make people feel shameful for having those thoughts, that buries them even further into the ground so, what we need to do is we need to talk about it and not make it a taboo word and get people to open up.”