'Reach out, speak up': Teens to post mental health support messages on local bridges

Three bridges will be peppered with messages of support and kindness this weekend, after two New Hamburg teens were inspired by a suicide-prevention effort in the United Kingdom.

Messages encouraging youth mental health awareness to appear on 3 Waterloo region bridges

CBC News · Posted: Oct 17, 2018 11:38 AM EDT | Last Updated: October 17, 2018

Gretta Dotzert and Olivia Miller have teamed up for Bridges of Hope and solicited messages of encouragement from people online as well as from students at local elementary schools. (Bridges of Hope Project)

Three bridges will be peppered with messages of support and kindness this weekend, after two New Hamburg teens were inspired by a suicide-prevention effort in the United Kingdom.

Gretta Dotzert and Olivia Miller teamed up to solicit messages of encouragement from people online as well as from students at local elementary schools.

Those messages have been printed and laminated, and they will be attached to Hartman Bridge in New Hamburg, Freeport Street Bridge in Kitchener and Waterloo Park Bridge in Waterloo.

The Grade 12 students also arranged for people to sign up online to place the messages on the bridges themselves.

"Back in August, I got a text from Gretta who had seen an article online about a teenager in Sunderland, U.K. who attached messages to a frequently travelled bridge, and it ended up preventing six suicides. We kind of took that idea and said, 'Can we do that here?'" Miller said.

The pair have planned small events all weekend with speakers on mental health, including social workers, educators and parents Sandra and Doug Ranton, who lost their son to suicide.

"I think there's still a lot of work to be done. Especially in our school, there's so many people who are struggling with anxiety, depression, things like that. I think it's important to reach out and let them know we want to have a conversation about this," Dotzert said.

She said their efforts are less focused on preventing suicide, and more on awareness about youth mental health.

"I think we know positive messages can only do so much, and mental health is still a really complex issue that needs to be approached from all angles, but we hope people come away with a sense of togetherness and a sense that as a community we can do something to help," Dotzert said.

Messages include things like "reach out, speak up" and "learning to balance mental health is a life-long process."

On Friday, an event is planned at the Hartman Bridge in New Hamburg at 6:30 p.m. The weekend will wrap with an event at 1 p.m. at the Waterloo Park Bridge.