Overview

When Suzanne Alderson's 14 year old daughter became depressed in 2015, she and her family were thrown into a dark and difficult world. Isolated from her peers, uncertain about the future, and overwhelmed by the severity of the illness, Suzanne found little support to help her help her daughter. One night on suicide watch, she decided she could not be the only person feeling so alone and scared, and decided if she got through, she would ensure no other parent faced their child's mental illness alone. Initially through a Facebook group, which has over 40,000 members all over the world, Suzanne founded Parenting Mental Health - an organisation that supports parents through peer mentorship, connection with experts, education, and events. Suzanne and her team also work with businesses and organisations to reduce the impact of an employee's child's mental illness through one to one mentoring as well as to teams. Suzanne was recognised by Facebook as one of 115 global community leaders in 2018, when she was made a Fellow of the Facebook Community Leadership Program.