Starting SmackTalk
Wayne’s wish
It deeply disturbs Wayne Holdsworth that there were more than 3200 people who took their own lives in Australia last year. There were 801 suicides in Victoria alone in 2023 and the numbers in Victoria have already increased by 17% for the same period of time in 2024.
“This is the biggest epidemic we are facing. In fact, more people have died from suicide than Covid in the whole of Australia since Covid began.
These alarming statistics are what is driving Wayne to travel the country giving his ‘SmackTalk’ presentation to groups about the warning signs of suicide and tips for helping people.
“It’s a scourge, and I also need to ensure that people understand the reasons some young people are taking their lives, and that’s because of sexual extortion”.
Following the devastating death of his 17-year-old son Mac following a harrowing sextortion incident, Wayne’s wish is that suicide is reduced to zero.
“Overall, my aim is to get it to zero, so there’s no suicide. That’s quite fanciful, but that’s my aim. To do that we have to educate the community. That’s what we’re in control of.
“We can go out and educate the community as best we can, but we need support. We need support from Local Government, State Government and Federal Government. We need them to provide financial support to provide profile to the cause. We also need them to provide practical solutions, including having the right people available to be there for people who are struggling – at the time they need it.
“At the moment there’s a five-week waiting list at Headspace in my local area, and we need to reduce that to no wait. We need to get more trained people and pay them accordingly, to make it attractive for those people to provide the help that so many people desperately need”.
Around three months after his son Mac took his own life, Wayne Holdsworth decided he had a responsibility to ensure other families didn’t go through the pain his family was suffering. It led to the creation of a registered charity, SmackTalk.
“I think it’s important to note that starting SmackTalk wasn’t done on a whim. And while it was only formed some three months after Mac passed away, which many would say was too soon, it was done with the support of weekly grief counselling.
I’ve had counselling most weeks from Support after Suicide, to give me the strength to get through the funeral and then Christmas. And then I decided I wanted to leave Mac a legacy because at 17, he hadn’t really left one.
I also wanted to use his death as a catalyst to do more around suicide prevention and also assist people with seeing the signs that kids and people show – before it’s too late.
I formed SmackTalk at the start of January 2024 with the purpose to educate as many people as possible, from the age of 16 all the way through to retired people.
I want for them to have the skill sets to be able to identify people who are struggling, then to have the skill set to be able to ask the right questions of those people, friends, family.
We need people to be able to know what steps to take if they identify a person who is in trouble and who has suicidal thoughts – and that all leads to saving more lives.
And that’s the purpose of SmackTalk and Mac’s legacy. It is to firstly ensure that no one has to go through what I’ve gone through, and secondly, that people are educated around suicide prevention.
We need to return it back to the community because there’s just not enough money to go around, obviously at federal and state level budgets to be able to support the high level and the rising level of mental health.
I strongly believe it shouldn’t be referred to as mental health because there’s a significant stigma attached to that.
It should be mental fitness, so people normalise it and it’s not considered to be weird or strange. It’s just like a broken leg. But you can’t see it, very much like cancer.
Sometimes you can’t see an illness, but you still help people. You can ask people about how they’re feeling and if they’re struggling. If they are, learn the actual questions that we are now trained to ask, that can save lives.
Had I known what I know now, I’m convinced Mac would be here with me now.”
It only takes a microsecond for someone to make a snap decision that could have lasting consequences for their life – or even devastatingly end it.
Wayne’s Wish
It deeply disturbs Wayne Holdsworth that there were more than 3200 people who took their own lives in Australia last year.
There were 801 suicides in Victoria alone in 2023 and the numbers in Victoria have already increased by 17% for the same period of time in 2024.
“This is the biggest epidemic we are facing. In fact, more people have died from suicide than Covid in the whole of Australia and Victoria since Covid began.
These alarming statistics are what is driving Wayne to travel the country giving his ‘SmackTalk’ presentation to groups about the warning signs of suicide and tips for helping people.
“It’s a scourge, and I also need to ensure that people understand the reasons some young people are taking their lives, and that’s because of sexual extortion”.
Following the devastating death of his 17-year-old son Mac following a harrowing sextortion incident, Wayne’s wish is that suicide is reduced to zero.
“Overall, my aim is to get it to zero, so there’s no suicide. That’s quite fanciful, but that’s my aim. To do that we have to educate the community. That’s what we’re in control of.
“We can go out and educate the community as best we can, but we need support. We need support from Local Government, State Government and Federal Government. We need them to provide financial support to provide profile to the cause. We also need them to provide practical solutions, including having the right people available to be there for people who are struggling – at the time they need it.
“At the moment there’s a five-week waiting list at Headspace in my local area, and we need to reduce that to no wait. We need to get more trained people and pay them accordingly, to make it attractive for those people to provide the help that so many people desperately need”.