Sir John Kirwan on mission for mental health change, starting with children

Tuesday, 5 July 2022

Sir John Kirwan's Mitey Drive is a 2100km journey to help over 11,000 kids.

Kids are where change begins.

Former All Black Sir John Kirwan’s son motivated him to start wearing a seatbelt when it wasn’t compulsory – and he believes the same approach needs to be applied to mental health.

“Some of us come from a generation where it’s difficult to talk about it, but if the kids started doing it, it will become more normal,” he said to children and parents at a Hamilton school on Monday.

Endeavour School in Flagstaff was a stop on Kirwan’s 2100km journey across the country to raise money and introduce the Mitey mental health education programme into 40 more schools.

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Jackson Hale, Charlie Wells and Rhys Wells, all 9, are pictured with Pippa Wilkinson, 6, who is high-fiving Sir John Kirwan. In the background are Jaguar Landrover chief executive Steve Kenchington and Endeavour School principal Geoff Booth.

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“We have some of the worst mental health statistics in the OECD, with particularly high youth suicide rates, and we believe it will take a generation to change this,” he said.

It wasn’t until his son burst into tears, telling him he would die in a crash without a seatbelt, that he realised how important it was.

If kids started talking about mental health, it would become more normal, says Sir John Kirwan.

Just like education about seatbelt safety, Kirwan believed children needed to be involved in the mental health conversation.

As part of Kirwan’s foundation’s Mitey programme, coaches visited schools over three to five years to teach mental health – enabling children to learn it like literacy and maths.

Developed over two years and provided free to New Zealand primary and intermediate schools, Mitey had already impacted more than 12,000 children.

“It’s not about judging. Everyone has a different approach to their life,” Kirwan said.

“It’s just about giving our youngsters those tools, basic mental health techniques, to make sure they can deal with the world in front of them.”

Endeavour School principal Geoff Booth said it was important children have tools to deal with the ever-changing environment they were growing up in.

“We talk about resilience, but I don’t think people know what that actually means.”

He said it wasn’t about being tough, it was about having a set of skills to deal with life and the things thrown at you.

“If this programme could support that from the ground up, we are on a far more positive pathway.”

“What I see is, we go for these big learning moments, but it’s the small, regular learnings over time that help create people.”

This programme would do that, he said.

People can support Kirwan’s drive by buying raffle tickets, with a Land Rover Defender 90 as the possible prize. Single tickets cost $20, or you can buy a block of ten for $180.

Kirwan had raised more than $200,000 of his $1 million goal and sold 3500 raffle tickets as of Monday morning.

More information at www.themiteydrive.org.