Ananya tried everything to heal. The answer came from helping others

Ananya Banerjee had tried just about everything to improve her mental health and was on the brink, but a conversation with a teenager gave her the strength to keep going.

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Ananya Banerjee at Smiths Alternative, where she has performed a handful of times. Picture by Keegan Carroll

"I was volunteering at Fearless Women as a mentor," Ms Banerjee said. "My mentee said at one point 'I want to share something with you that I haven't even shared with my mum'.

"She said she had suicidal ideation.

"I thought 'there are reasons I can continue to live - to share hope with people I was seeking and to have purpose bigger than myself'."

Ms Banerjee is one of Canberra's leading youth mental health advocates, with a 2025 VolunteeringACT award recognising the hundreds of hours she has put into helping others.

She struggled to get treatment for her own mental health when she moved to Canberra from Karnal, India in 2022.

"I was adjusting as a university student in a new city, and I saw myself shrinking, I didn't feel like I belonged," Ms Banerjee said

"I booked a counselling service, but the wait time was super long - it took about two and a half months.

"The arts have really helped me to express myself, at first through poetry, through writing." Picture by Keegan Carroll

"There was a cultural barrier with the therapist they gave me; I would spend 30 or 40 minutes each time explaining how my family thinks.

"With that experience, I realised that I needed to choose a different pathway to get help."

Ms Banerjee had a track record in volunteering when she arrived in Canberra.

She founded a community organisation with her sister as a 17-year-old to provide free education in mobile schools, that eventually grew to 600 volunteers.

Her experience points to the barriers between young people from diverse backgrounds and better mental health, and the power of helping others.

In 2023, an ACT government survey found 48.6 per cent of people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds found it hard to access psychologists.

Cultural differences are among the barriers constantly appearing in the research alongside costs, language and fear of stigma.

Melbourne-based Centre for Multicultural Youth chief executive Carmel Guerra is a leading advocate for more culturally responsive mental health services.

Ms Guerra said that mandating culturally responsive training across publicly funded health and mental health services could go a long way to making multicultural young people feel more safe, welcomed and supported in these spaces.

"With more understanding and better integrated, responsive systems, we can support multicultural young people to thrive, and build fulfilling lives as positive contributors to our society," she said.

Ms Banerjee said her reasons for helping others in Canberra were selfish.

"I wanted to connect with people and the community," Ms Banerjee said. "Other people might connect at a networking session or a party.

"I wanted to get involved with people doing good work.

"To get out of the black hole, to get out of depression - it was my way of getting out of my room."

That led her to art as well as volunteering.

"Depression is not the opposite of happiness, it's the opposite of expression," Ms Banerjee said. "The arts have really helped me to express myself, at first through poetry, through writing.

"I didn't have the courage to perform at the beginning, but later on, I performed at open mics and did my own shows.

"I've cried in front of the audience. And I've gotten so many hugs from people who want to share their stories and tell me what they're going through.

"The human connection it's given me - I'm incredibly grateful for that."

• Support is available: Lifeline 13 11 14, Suicide callback service: 1300 659 467.

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