League hero Greg Inglis visits Orange, shares his mental health story with Canobolas High students

Inglis, open and candid, was working with students at Canobolas Rural Technology High School through his Goanna Foundation, which he founded to tackle mental health issues, believing prevention is the best cure.

"It's about me sharing my story, the preventative stages of it," Inglis, who has been visiting Canobolas since mid-July, said.

"I'd like to be the middle link, between getting it early before they go on to the services that surround [mental health]. Get as much, as early as I can, working through the Goanna Academy, working it in schools and business, anything we can do to help out."

Inglis was diagnosed with Bipolar II in 2019, after finishing a stellar league career which included the 2009 Golden Boot (best player in the world), the 2007 Clive Churchill Medal (man of the match for the grand final, won by the Melbourne Storm), 39 Kangaroos caps, 32 State of Origin matches for Queensland and another premiership in 2014 with Souths.

He doesn't miss playing the game, "No, no-way, body's done", but is open to opportunities it is providing form him to combat the insidious spread of poor mental health.

He acknowledges he doesn't have the tertiary qualifications but believes his link with not only young indigenous people, but the wider community, and his own journey through bipolar minefields, has him equipped to to help others.

"Yeah, I'm no psychologist you know, but I just know the tools that help out in the preventative stages of it," he said.

"With me being open and honest, which I do, it allows the kids to be as well. Even though they might not do it for the first session, as you can see here (Canobolas High), by the third one they're having a good chat and engaging which is what we like to see.

"It's like anything, when I first went to see my psychologist, I didn't open up for a lot of sessions. I guess for me to tell my story and be so open and vulnerable, it just allows them to say, if Greg's a person I look up to and he's having the same struggles as me, it just relaxes them and levels the field."

The the Goanna Foundation's webpage says 75 per cent of mental health problems occur before 25 years of age.

Inglis said he's not surprised by the growing number of kids he sees struggling.

"But we'd want to see less numbers going on to ...," he said, momentarily stumbling.

"We'd like to get that number down to the other end of the scale. That's the reason why Goanna Academy, working as the middle person.

"I just try and re-enforce that it's about them, or it's about them having the tools to help someone else that they might see is struggling."

Inglis admits he hasn't totally exorcised his demons and placing himself in the listening position does enable them to bubble back.

"It does get to me from time to time, you hear some confronting stories but anybody who works in this space hears the stories.

"The most important thing that I've done is get support for myself when I leave these areas...I can reach out and say, hey, I'm not doing okay from today's sessions... learning how to deal with it there, and then come out and deliver what I deliver.

"I believe in what I'm doing. I trust in what I'm doing and I'm getting the right reactions.

"We are here, especially in schools to help our youth coming through. Because we were brought up saying toughen up, get on with it, nothing wrong with you - it's getting them to understand its ok [to not be ok]."

Principal Brett Blaker said Canobolas High said the students who had worked with Inglis had responded positively and his visits, of which Tuesday's was the last this year, were part of the school's well-being structure which includes working with the local branch of headspace.

"We have a direct link [to headspace] so our students feel comfortable and we need to ensure there is support networks in place for all students to access mental health support given the current statistics around youth mental health around rural and regional areas," Mr Blaker said.

CRTH has a student body of 700, about 40 per cent of which is Indigenous.

"The students obviously know who Greg Inglis is and seeing him authentically talk about his own journey with mental health, it ensures that our students are able to seek reassurance and understand that if they are experiencing difficulty, they can reach out for help and it's okay to do so," Mr Blaker said.

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