Karen Stafford will write to the federal government recommending Headspace, offering help to youths aged between 12 and 25,  be opened here.

It was Coroner Stafford’s sole recommendation after an inquiry that covered the three years leading up to the 18-year-old’s death last year. 

“My son was on a rollercoaster and I had no way of helping him regain control,” Jannelle Brandley said.

She had asked for the inquest to try understand that rocky ride and how her eldest son “fell through the cracks”.

On October 6 at Armidale Local Court, Coroner Stafford delivered her recommendation and findings into the death of the Duval High schoolboy.

They will lend force to a six-month campaign, initiated by deputy Mayor and youth advocate Chris Halligan, for Headspace in Armidale. Ms Brandley said: “Suicide among young people in the district is the ‘elephant in the room’ which we must now address.”

Her own experience as the mother of a conflicted teenage son, adept at hiding a troubled soul to family and friends, has made her speak out and organise two annual walks on September 10, World Suicide Prevention Day.

“Jarrod was bullied a bit at school and struggled socially,” Ms Brandley said.

“He was quite shy and spent a lot of time in his room, playing with his X-box.

“He had started taking drugs, mainly cannabis, but he mainly hid that from family and friends.

“But those drugs started to impact on his ability to make the right decision.

“In the last three years of his life, we watched him spiral out of control but did not have the resources to help.”

The nearest Headspace is in Tamworth.

MS Brandley along with Cr Halligan and her colleagues at RichmondPRA, believe Jarrod’s death highlighted the need for the service here.

“Headspace will help stop deaths like my son’s,” Ms Brandley said.

Problems encountered by young people are perennial; peer pressure to try drugs, anxiety over relationships, depression and a plethora of the hormone rushes of adolescence.

“The experience of personal trauma is known to complicate these factors,” Cr Halligan said.

The growing availability of ice is compounding problems, with Armidale’s youth workers seeing a growing number of youths becoming hooked. “There are no drug or alcohol rehabilitation services in Armidale for people under the age of 18,” Cr Halligan said.

“The impact of ice use on families and the community is disastrous. Access to education, opportunity and assistance at early stages makes a big difference.”

Armidale has a well-resourced and effective PCYC,  CAMHS for emergency mental health, youth and family support as well as BackTrack.

Yet they can operate in isolation because each is competing for resources from the same funding pool. “An holistic service for the most vulnerable young people in our community remains a service gap,” Cr Halligan said. A hub such as Headspace would be a “one-stop shop” for such young people and make it easier for those such as Jarrod who continue to fall through the cracks.

Ms Brandley and Cr Halligan have a struggle on their hands to attract Headspace to Armidale.

A representative from the organisation indicated the city did not have the population to sustain a Headspace hub. 

But Ms Brandley’s colleagues, Aboriginal health worker Greg Strong and Glenyis Mulley, maintain a Headspace in Armidale would service areas as far afield as Tingha, which has a higher rate of suicide and depression among its youth.

“[Aboriginal youth] often find it very hard to ask for help,” Mr Strong said. 

“A Headspace hub would ‘speak’ to them and provide a place where they felt comfortable to talk about their problems and be influenced against some of the distressing trends emerging, such as taking ice.”

The team will take their campaign to the government, while Cr Halligan will seek the help of Armidale Dumaresq Council.

“We need a Headspace in Armidale, the sooner the better,” Ms Brandley said.