Barnsley College is raising awareness of mental health

Musician and Comedian Shaun Doane and Journalist Adam Oxley have visited Barnsley College to run a session encouraging students to speak up about mental health.

Shaun Doane, lead singer of the comedy band The Everly Pregnant Brothers, and Adam Oxley, BBC Radio Sheffield Sports Journalist, are both mental health advocates, speaking out and encouraging others to talk and share their experiences with mental health.

After losing some of his close friends and also experiencing the struggles that come with a career in the spotlight, Shaun shared his own experiences with depression and encouraged the College students to talk about their mental health. Stand-up Comedian Shaun made humour a part of his talk, along with advice around supporting others and showing the difference speaking up can make.

Adam spoke to the students about his experiences with anxiety that started in his early career. He spoke of the importance of listening to those around you who are telling you that something is wrong even when you can’t see it yourself. Adam impressed on the students the gravity of realising mental health can’t be fixed but instead you can learn to manage your emotions to be happy.

Shaun said: “It’s important to speak to students about mental health as these people are at the bottom end of a horrific statistic of young men and women committing suicide. It is so important to encourage young people to talk to each other and to give them reassurance that they’re not alone. If we can promote this message to the students and teach them this early, they can take that forward into their later lives and if it helps just one of them then we’ve done our job.”

Adam added: “For me, coming into the College has been a great opportunity to share what I’ve done in terms of my mental health story. Now that I’m in a role in the public eye and I talk on the radio regularly people don’t think that this sort of thing would affect me and I think it’s important to show that that’s just not true. If just one person in the room has listened and my talk has resonated with them and they take something away; some advice on how to look after themselves, then that’s the reason why I do it.”