Legends of the Nepean EmiLy Smith

By Noel Rowsell

EMIlY Smith is a young woman who is overcoming her own mental health challenges to teach, inspire and encourage other young people through their own personal challenges.

Initially a Friend of lions, Emily is now a member of the Emu Plains lions Club, following in the footsteps of her Great-grandmother, who was also a lions member.

Emily has been exemplary in her ability to overcome the challenges of her own journey and subsequently make a difference in the lives of others.

Recently employed full-time by ReachOut, Emily is a senior peer worker and trains and mentors other Peer Workers.

Born locally and living in Penrith for her 22 years, Emily attended Cambridge Gardens PS, Caroline Chisholm College and McCarthy Trade Training Centre, graduating with a Certificate in Business & Certificate in Accounts and Administration.

She first started experiencing mental health issues in primary school, where she experienced bullying and anxiety. Following her move from primary to high school, she found the transition tough, where the difference between knowing everyone at the school (primary school) and feeling lost among a much larger gathering of students (high school) proved a tough challenge.

In her late teens, Emily experienced severe anxiety and struggled with her body image and disordered eating but with the help of her family, a coach (Damien Adams from Comp Edge Performance), professional supports and the love and companionship of her English Staffie ‘Jack’, Emily has been able to both understand and be more in control of her environment and health.

“Mental Health needs are as important as other needs at school” said Emily. “I was fortunate enough to be surrounded by supportive teachers at McCarthy Training Centre, where I felt students were treated more as adults.”

She volunteered to work in the mental health environment with headspace, who were after someone who had experienced their own mental health journey, and subsequently worked on their Youth Advisory Committee.

In 2018, Emily was hired by headspace on a part-time basis, advocating for the needs of young people, and in 2019, became a peer worker.

In 2020, she became a Coordinator and first met ReachOut, becoming involved with the Mental Health Commission of New South Wales and the ReachOut Team.

In 2022, Emily was employed full-time by ReachOut, as a Senior Peer Worker, training and mentoring other Peer Workers.

Emily has since been back to McCarthy on one visit to speak to students and has also organised other speakers to address the students.

Emily had the privilege of speaking at the launch of ‘PeerChat’ at Parliament House and said “I was very nervous.”

The event was to showcase the service and consisted of multiple speakers. Emily’s part was a Q & A session which commenced at 7am and went for about 10 minutes, advocating for the needs of Mental Health and building up the service, and Emily even improvised a joke or two.

“In November, I was privileged enough to be able to give a speech at Parliament house advocating for the needs of young people’s mental health and presenting our new service at ReachOut, alongside our CEO, Youth ambassadors and Ian Thorpe,” said Emily.

“I was given the opportunity to speak about my lived experience of mental health, present our new one-on-one peer support service PeerChat, that I have been apart of since it’s beginning, and advocate for the importance of services like ours for young people.

“I also was fortunate enough to be able to meet with different members of Parliament following the event to continue spreading more awareness around the importance of youth mental health support.

“As many will know, I have a stutter and this is something that has often made me super nervous and hesitant to speak. But I am so glad that I finally worked up the courage to use my voice to advocate for something I am super passionate about. I must say I was super shocked following the event, when people started asking to take a picture with me and now seeing posts about me circling around on social media is so surreal. Seeing the members of Parliament’s reaction to my speech and having them come up to me afterwards telling me the impact my story had for them was something I will remember for ever.

“If anyone who is reading this feels like there is something they have been putting off because they feel like they won’t be able to do it, I encourage you to face your fears and it give a go.

“I am so happy I finally found my voice and will now never let anything else stop me from advocating for the Youth Mental Health space.

“I have included a link to ReachOut’s new service if you wanna check it out! If anyone is going through a rough time right now I encourage you to seek support, whether this be through family, friends or mental health services. https://au.reachout.com/ peerchat”

Emily won the ‘Australian Defence Force Long Tan Leadership and Teamwork award 2018’, the James and Mary McCarthy Award- (McCarthy Trade Training Centre) 2018, was a Regional

Finalist in VET in schools student of the year 2018, Semi-Finalist for the Channel 7 Young Achiever’s Freemasons of NSW/ACT Community Service Award 2020, Lions Club Young Citizen of the Year 2018.

“I hope for more opportunities to speak about Mental Health,” said Emily. “It helps having the confidence of everyone at work. I have a voice, I’m in a good role and I didn’t want my mental health issues to hold me back.”

Emily’s support group include parents Mandy and Will, sister Malinda and partner Tom, who has been her sweetheart since high school.

Emily Smith was nominated as a Legend of the Nepean by Jim Devine. If you know a local legend, send us a nomination at nepeannews@aol.com