Educator Christian Foley, who has just released his debut album, Ex-Communication, uses spoken word, poetry and hip-hop as educational tools and believes education has a key role to play in helping those struggling with mental health.
His album deals with his own struggles, and Mr Foley hopes it might encourage a more open discussion about the topic.
A recent Scrutiny report said the Island’s mental-health service was still failing users and staff four years after a strategy was put in place to improve the system.
UK statistics show suicide to be the biggest killer of men under 45.
Mr Foley, who works with young offenders in London, has become known for viral videos of him rapping in classrooms.
He has been featured on Radio 1 and made several appearances on national television.
Communication is a key theme for Mr Foley throughout his album. The lead single, ‘Talk’, has been endorsed by the Samaritans for its message.
Mr Foley, a former Victoria College student, said: ‘Over the last year and a half I have had the worst time. I have had lots of mental-health problems without knowing what they were.
‘I didn’t have the ability to look for help or speak about it. I ended up having therapy in hospitals and being off work.
‘People who know me see me as a confident guy – it is part of the image I have projected. People have seen the news or the television or the online clips and think that is what it’s like all the time.
‘That is just a mask. I think lots of men wear that mask.
‘I think my album is about telling the story of everything that happened to me in that time. I wanted that story to help other people.’
He added that the UK and Jersey governments needed to put more emphasis on mental health.
‘It is not seen as being as much of a priority as physical health,’ he said. ‘But, when you look at suicide rates, it is the biggest killer of young men.
‘I would say the education in schools has to be involved as well. We have to teach children that it is important to talk about how you feel and increase education about the importance of communication. Schools should be preparing young people for the world.
‘We have to change the psychology of what it means to be strong. Strength is admitting weakness. The strongest thing I probably ever did was getting checked in for help and admitting that I couldn’t deal with what I was going through on my own.’
As part of his work in Hackney, Mr Foley has also been working with young people involved in knife crime. He said that both mental health and knife crime were often linked to poverty.
‘There are so many misconceptions about knife crime. Two years ago, from my class of nine, seven went to prison for these kinds of offences. For them it was like a school reunion. Tougher sentences are not necessarily a deterrent,’ he said.
‘A lot of it is to do with poverty. Mental health and poverty are linked. How much is a therapist? If you can’t afford it, then what do you do?’
Mr Foley is due to return to the Island at the end of the month to run workshops in schools.
