It's ok to talkThursday, May 7, 2015 - 1:58 PM - by Georgia Raven

This weekend all WA footballers, coaches, runners and volunteers from Year Eight and onwards will wear blue armbands to promote the importance of mental health and wellbeing and raise awareness about suicide prevention.

Every year suicide accounts for 32 percent of deaths among males aged between 15 and 24.

The main message of the One Life Round is that it's ok to talk; to your coaches, parents, team mates or to a counsellor, if something is wrong.

The round was initiated by the President of the Coolbinia Bombers JFC Luke McNiece and the East Perth Junior Football District in memory of the club's Year 12 captain who took his own life in 2012.

"It drove me to do something because if a kid who had outwardly all the things that he had going for him still made that decision, then any other kid in the team who gets into a situation where they're not feeling great has the potential to do it as well."

In partnership with the WA Football Commission and the Mental Health Commission all football matches will embrace the One Life Round across the state for the first time this weekend.

"It's given us the license to have this discussion on a larger scale and it's getting people to acknowledge the issue and talk about it."

Figures show close to 45 percent of people in WA struggle with some sort of mental illness throughout their lifetime.

Football clubs foster a strong sense of belonging, build self-esteem and have the ability to unify and support a group of people during times of need.

Luke said the relationship players have with their coaches is crucial.

"It's very close and supportive and for some kids it's the only role model they have," Luke said. "A coach has an incredibly powerful ability to influence the views of the kids they're coaching."

The conversation around mental illness and suicide is often a difficult one to raise or discuss and the initiative offers a Live Life Ambassador program that empowers coaches and other football leaders to know what to say in these situations.

Luke said it's about trying to find opportunities to have the conversation and to have people who are trained to provide the right message when someone is not feeling good and be able to get them to the right place where they can get support.

The rate of suicide amongst Aboriginal people has reached crisis levels and is twice as high, particularly amongst youth, than non-Indigenous males and females.

24-year-old Fremantle Dockers forward and young Noongar role model Michael Walters is driving the initiative as the One Life Ambassador.

Michael knows just how important it is for young people to speak up and get the negative thoughts off their chest after having lost a close friend to suicide a few years ago.

With goals set high, the initiative's ambassadors hope to have an AFL round dedicated to reducing the stigma around mental health and suicide and to spread the message that it's ok to talk and ask for help.

For more information click here. 

Lifeline 13 11 14.

Photo: One Life Ambassador Michael Walters with Minister for Mental Health Helen Morton.