- Three years ago, Hong Kong mother Ann Pearce’s 15-year-old son Jamie, a talented student, committed suicide. She did not even know he was unhappy
- As the third anniversary of Jamie’s death approaches, Pearce is launching a campaign to raise awareness of youth mental health issues
Ann Pearce is a courageous woman. Three years ago, she faced every parent's worst nightmare. Her teenage son, Jamie Bruno, a popular student at a Hong Kong international school and passionate street artist, took his own life. He was 15 years old. Pearce did not even know her son was unhappy.
No parent can fully come to terms or move on from a tragedy of such terrible proportions, yet Pearce launched an anti-stigma campaign called Weez Week to mark the third anniversary of Jamie's death on February 17.
Weez Week aims to raise awareness and understanding about youth mental health issues and to promote youth suicide prevention. The core theme is what Pearce calls "Weez TLC " talk, listen and care". Her aim is only to reduce the chances of a young person's suicide devastating any more families. Three years after her son's untimely death, she admits life is still tough.
"I'm still sad every day," she says. "Sad for what happened, sad for all the potential that Jamie had, sad for him. It's constant pain that will never go away."
Pearce speaks softly and with deliberation. She appears fragile and struggles to contain her emotions, but insists she is not seeking public sympathy or attention for herself.
"I have been to hell and back, but the only reason I talk about these things is I don't want more young people to lose their lives like this," she says.
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The campaign was initiated by the Weez Project, which Pearce and her husband, Tony Bruno, founded soon after Jamie died, naming it after Jamie's street art tag. Jamie was a prominent member of an online community dedicated to street art and his tag can still be seen around Hong Kong.
Pearce believes the whole issue of youth mental health and suicide in Hong Kong is blanketed in stigma, which acts as a potentially dangerous barrier to young people talking openly about their feelings. She says there are two common types of stigma.
"Firstly, there is the stigma of a young person speaking openly about feeling vulnerable, weak or uncertain, and secondly there is the stigma in many families where subjects like mental health are just not discussed," she says.
Pearce adds that young people are under increasing pressure to meet such huge expectations imposed on them by schools, parents and themselves. Many are overthinking things within what she calls the "pressure cooker life" in Hong Kong.
"It's OK not to be OK," she insists, adding it's important for young people to feel listened to and taken seriously.
"Talk, listen, care … is so important, youngsters must let it out and not let those negative feelings fester," she says, because there are also the normal challenges of just being a teenager.
Instead, mental health is brushed under the carpet in many families, and suicide remains a taboo. Pearce admits that before Jamie's death, she was not sensitive to youth mental health issues.
"I was very keen on physical health and the need for vaccinations. I knew if the children were feeling unwell and made doctor's appointments," she says. But like for most parents, the issue of suicide remained something tragic and remote, and only happened to other people.
The Bruno family enjoyed a comfortable home life in the Pok Fu Lam residential area of Hong Kong. In addition to his passion for street art, Jamie loved playing football for his school and local clubs, and was an accomplished skier who eagerly anticipated the family skiing holidays to Whistler in the US.
Then on February 17, 2017, the unthinkable happened to Jamie and their lives fell apart.
"The family has accepted that we have suffered a huge tragedy, but it's important for Jamie we continue to look forward and try to lead a regular life," Pearce says.
In May last year, the Hong Kong government's Child Fatality Review Panel published an investigation on the 166 recorded deaths of youngsters under the age of 18 from 2014 to 2015. While 64.5 per cent died of natural causes, the biggest single cause of unnatural child death in Hong Kong was suicide.
There were 18 recorded child suicides, of which all but one victim was a teenager. Thirteen had shown no suicidal tendencies before the incident. The investigation also reported that mental health problems, family and romantic relationships were all factors in the suicides.
Experts fear that anxiety and depression linked to the recent protests and social unrest in Hong Kong could also exacerbate the problem of young people taking their lives.
I'm not a psychiatrist but I think often the terrible thing the young person is running away from might even be something that only exists inside their headAnn Pearce on youth mental health issues
"During a lifetime, one in four people will suffer some sort of mental health issue, so it will be in every family and every friendship group," Pearce says.
According to mental health charity Mind HK, which supported the Weez Week campaign along with the KELY Support Group, Hong Kong is seeing an increasing number of children and adolescents diagnosed with mental health problems.
The Hospital Authority saw an increase of more than 50 per cent in children and adolescent psychiatric team caseloads from 2011/12 to 2015/16 alone. Mind HK says mental health problems start early, and a joint survey in 2016 by Caritas and the City University of Hong Kong showed that 40 per cent of students in Form 1 (Year 7) continue to be at risk of committing suicide.
Despite the scale of the problem, Pearce says there is no support group formed by parents who have lost their children, or other loved ones, to suicide.
"It's impossible to meet other families who have suffered the same tragedy. I guess no one wants to talk about it," she says.
In a 2019 survey of public attitudes towards mental health conducted by Mind HK in conjunction with the University of Hong Kong and King's College, London, nearly 75 per cent of Hongkongers agreed that those who experience mental health problems should be better included in society. However, 40 per cent would be unwilling to live near someone with mental health issues.
Of those surveyed, 60 per cent agreed that there is "something about people with mental illness that makes it easy to tell them apart", and 40 per cent believed one of the main causes of mental illness was a lack of self-discipline and willpower.
Pearce says experts generally agree that the causes of suicide and the factors driving a young person to take their own life are extremely complex and may include biological, psychological, environmental and experiential factors. She also says it is not so much the wish to end a life that provokes thoughts of suicide, but the need to escape something.
"I'm not a psychiatrist but I think often the terrible thing the young person is running away from might even be something that only exists inside their head," she says.
The Weez Project calls for education about mental health and suicide to be placed high on every school's agenda, so young people can learn about mental illness and recognise the warning signs in themselves and their peers, and know what to do about it.
Pearce is critical of government action on the issue and says while many reports and investigations have been commissioned and recommendations made, it is not clear whether any of these recommendations are being implemented or followed up on.
Though she is reluctant to draw comparisons between Jamie's death and recent suicides thought to be connected with the pro-democracy protests, she says it's clear there is a problem of youth mental health that urgently needs addressing.
"Our government has a responsibility for our young people," she says, but admits there is no magic solution for teenage suicide. "If it was easy to stop, it would never happen."
There is a Weez Wall of Hope on the project website for people to post messages of positivity, comfort and support.
Pearce discloses that in addition to receiving professional support to deal with the psychological impact of Jamie's death, she has also been battling a life-threatening illness (she requests details not be disclosed). Despite her own physical and emotional pain, she remains determined to help stop teenage suicide and to create a positive legacy for Jamie.
"Whatever we do, he's with us," she says.
If you, or someone you know, are having suicidal thoughts, help is available. For Hong Kong, dial +852 2896 0000 for The Samaritans or +852 2382 0000 for Suicide Prevention Services. In the US, call The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline on +1 800 273 8255.
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