Shae Ronald: Youthline CEO on the concerns impacting young people in the Youthline ASB State of the Generation survey

Mental health organisations are struggling to get the attention of young people in need.

The latest Youthline ASB State of the Generation report finds mental health is the largest issue, followed by lack of job opportunities and bullying. 

The survey of 12-24-year-olds also suggests 41 percent don't know they can get help from support organisations. 

Youthline chief executive Shae Ronald says there's an uptick in recent university grads that can't find any work, and it's concerning. 

"I think we've got to support young people, to understand managing their mental health through applying for jobs is as important as polishing your CV... that we make sure there's opportunities." 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Young people say devices and mental health are the most
important issue that they are facing right now. The latest
youth Line ASB State of the Generation report has looked
at young people who are aged between the ages of
twelve and twenty four and has found that the most
important issues the top three are phone addiction, social media,
and mental health. Youth Line's chief executive Shay Ronald is
with us Now, Hi, Shae, Hi, have you surprised that

(00:21):
phones came in so high sixty six percent?

Speaker 2 (00:24):
It's interesting because when you look at the survey, if
you look at the most important issues for young people,
it was actually mental health followed by bullying, sorry, lack
of job opportunities. They're bullying. But when you ask them
what were the most common issues facing young people, that's
when we saw screen addiction, phone addiction.

Speaker 1 (00:41):
Well, how do we split those? Like, why do they
answer them differently?

Speaker 2 (00:45):
I think if you think about the numbers of young
people who are experiencing the issues versus how important they're ranking, Yeah,
that's the difference there.

Speaker 1 (00:52):
Okay, So the most common issues then are the phones
in the social media and then the mental health. Did
that surprise you because I think a lot of parents
like given the way the kids talk about their phones,
a lot of parents would think they actually love them.

Speaker 2 (01:04):
Yeah, I thought it was great that young people are
noticing that, you know, screen addiction, phone addiction is an
issue for them and as we know, is an issue
for many adults in our communities, and that they are
looking at how they can bring about some solutions.

Speaker 1 (01:19):
Did you go under the hood and ask them many
questions about what that practically means, Like it's one thing
to say my phone addiction or my social media is
an issue, but what does that mean in your life?
Did you ask on that? Yeah, we didn't.

Speaker 2 (01:30):
We didn't ask We didn't even know, you know, the
definition of phone addiction and screen addiction. It was up
to young people to sort of self select whether they
thought that that might be an issue for them. So
I think that's something that, you know, for the research
could be done around that.

Speaker 1 (01:43):
It's not really surprising that jobs came up a because
yesterday we had the unemployment figures and it's massive, especially
for young women.

Speaker 2 (01:49):
It's huge. It's huge, and we're seeing so many young people,
especially coming out of university graduates, who just can't see
any access to job opportunities.

Speaker 1 (01:57):
What do we do about them.

Speaker 2 (01:59):
I think we've got a support young people to understand,
like managing their mental health through you know, applying for
jobs as as important as polishing your CV, that we
make sure these opportunities, like volunteer opportunities, they might be
courses they can do. It's also them understanding that rejection
will be part of this current situation. It's not a
personal reflection on them or their abilities.

Speaker 1 (02:21):
Okay, I mean here because unfortunately, there's not a lot
you can do if the jobs aren't available, is it.
Do you think? I'm just thinking about about what you
just said about mental health and about them having the resilience.
There seems to be a problem there though they don't
actually know that these services are available.

Speaker 2 (02:39):
If you read the data, Yeah, and that was that
worry you, Yes, hugely. That's very concerning that forty one
percent couldn't name one mental health organization, especially since we're
facing a youth mental health crisis in news.

Speaker 1 (02:50):
There is that a problem, though, shee in. If you
think about modern day, you might not know a mental
health organization off the top of your head, but you
are able to google it and find it within about
five seconds. So is it a problem? They can't name them.

Speaker 2 (03:02):
I think so, because you know, how do you know
where you can turn to or knowing that there's even
one organization I think about our twenty four seven helpline
that's available throughout the country, just to know. We want
every young person to know that they can always turn
to that if they've got no other support, and there's
other services in the community who can also support them.

(03:22):
I think a lot of young people seem to be
going to AI and it says that in the survey
and too social media, and sometimes that's not the best
in terms of getting safe, robust support. So it's really
important they know some of the more formal channels of support.
So I think that is really important.

Speaker 1 (03:38):
We talk a lot about young people on the show,
obviously because they're such a big part of our community,
and the theme that we constantly get and we've got
it a couple of times this week even is young
people nowadays are not as resilient as they used to
be because they're being molly coddled by millennial parents who
are just a bunch of soft touches. Do you have
any kind of, like over a period of time evidence
of that being the case?

Speaker 2 (03:58):
I do think we need to do more work around
building resilience in young people. I think over time there
have been changes in parenting practices and things like that
that may have impacted on resilience levels. You're being so nice,
your gentle parenting is not good for your kids, right.
I think boundaries are super important. Accountability is really important.

(04:19):
But also young people under pressures these days that we
weren't under. Like there's a lot coming at them that
we never ever had to, you.

Speaker 1 (04:27):
Know, issues we did. Did you think about it? Like
my mum was raised and my father were raised by
the war generation, you know, which had its own issues. Yes,
we don't have now. Yes, So I mean, can we
really say it's harder for them? It's just different.

Speaker 2 (04:43):
I think if you look at it, I think there
is a lot more pressure on young people these days
and thinking about uncertainty of the future. Like we didn't
ever think about the geopolitical Wow, I didn't the geopolitical issues.
I didn't think about climate.

Speaker 1 (04:56):
Your children are not, you know what I mean? Like
my granny was angry the whole time. There's different things
that we stress out about. What do you think.

Speaker 2 (05:03):
I also think we talk more about mental health, which
is great, whereas that our generation and the previous didn't
quite write.

Speaker 1 (05:10):
I mean, we won't even talk to use that. Where
as were we Shaye listen, thanks very much. I really
appreciate its Shay Ronald, who is a youth Line chief executive.
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