Keira Plozza

Keira is taking on the 20-hour challenge to support youth mental health and raise awareness about the importance of prevention.

My Why

On December 5th, I'll be confined to a 2x2m square for 20 hours of complete silence. I'll have nothing with me except the essentials—food, water, a place to sit, a place to sleep, and a journal.

I'm a neurodivergent woman with lived experience of mental health challenges. I am participating in 20Talk's 20Hours challenge to raise awareness about the isolation and separation that young autistic girls experience throughout adolescence. I was late-diagnosed with autism and ADHD in my early twenties. Autistic and ADHD women have significant delays in diagnosis compared to men due to the differences in presentation between genders. These delays can impact women in ways that might take decades to uncover or understand, as well as putting autistic women at a risk of suicide 5x higher than neurotypical women.

In my work as the Language Support Coordinator at a public school in Melbourne's west, I provide literacy intervention to disabled and neurodivergent middle-schoolers who have reading and writing delays. This work puts me in close contact with young people who are often experiencing mental health difficulties of their own. These kids might come from diverse and often disadvantaged backgrounds. It is a privilege to be a trusted adult for them—someone who these kids know has their back and will always come to bat for them. To be able to utilise my lived experience to provide kids with the kind of support I never had access to as a teenager is a gift beyond words.

I hope that you can join me in fundraising for 20Talk, a Perth-based mental health charity which will aim to provide over 4000 scholarships for young people to complete Mental Health Maintenance training. In Australia, 98% of mental health funding goes toward crisis intervention, and only 2% to prevention. It is my hope that my contribution to this event is the reason that a young autistic girl gains access to strategies that may one day save her life.

20 Hours of Silence for Youth Mental Health.

I’m taking on the 20 Hours for 20Talk Challenge which will see me sitting in a 2×2 metre square in a warehouse, alongside 400 other participants, with no talking and no technology for 20 hours. All I’ll have are the essentials I bring with me: a chair, sleeping mat, journal, water, and food. No distractions.

This challenge is a small glimpse into the isolation and struggle that someone with mental health challenges might feel every day. I know it will be tough - physically, mentally, and emotionally - but it’s a challenge I’m taking on to stand in solidarity with those navigating these experiences.

So why am I doing this?
We have all been touched in some way by the reality of mental health. It can be dark, lonely, and confronting.

Structurally, the statistics are still alarming:
- Suicide remains the leading cause of death for young people aged 15-44.
- Only 2% of mental health funding goes towards prevention (Mental Health Commission 2022).

I’m completing the 20 Hours for 20Talk Challenge to help turn these statistics around. Your contribution goes towards 20Talk’s relatable prevention campaigns. They are a mental health charity that makes education cool and accessible, for young people by young people. Your generous donations go towards:

- Every $120 puts a young person through a one-day Mental Health Maintenance course
- Expanding 20Talk’s online resources and 60,000+ social media community
- Running large-scale interactive mental health events'

What is Mental Health Maintenance?
Mental Health Maintence (MHM) is a free, one-day workshop designed with industry experts to help individuals better understand and engage with different areas of their wellbeing, as well as learn effective ways to monitor them. MHM is designed to support people by equippig them with the knowledge and tools to maintai their mental wellbeing before reaching crisis point. By improving mental health literacy, removing harmful stigma, and encouraging professional help-seeking, this workshop hopes to prevent people from reaching crisis in the first place. To learn more, please visit www.20talk.com.au.

Thank you so much for taking the time to read this and for donating to the cause. Hopefully this small challenge can help change someone’s life.