Pauline and Hilton Carrigan got a phone call on Christmas morning to tell them that their 24-year-old son Will was missing.

A search revealed he had taken his life.

Happy, healthy, and successful — his death rocked the small New South Wales town of Scone.

In an attempt to make sense of what happened, the family began the search for answers.

Ms Carrigan said the statistics she turned up were alarming.

"Last year in Australia, 334 boys between the ages of 15 and 24 took their own lives," she said.

"That's more than one a week — one family a week is going through this and then, if you stretch that out over all age groups, suicide has become an epidemic.

"If you take in depression, anxiety, self-harm, eating disorders, post-natal depression — we're looking at something here that's got so big.

"I don't think we as parents, and the whole community, are aware of the problem it has become."

It prompted the couple to spearhead a campaign to establish the Upper Hunter as the first community in Australia to introduce mental health education into all schools in the region.

"The Where There's a Will campaign aims to raise money to implement effective support programs, as well as lobby the government to raise awareness about the shortages of counsellors across Australia," Ms Carrigan said.

"Currently, there is one counsellor per 1,030 students."

The community response has been overwhelming.

Close to 100 teachers and parents attended a recent information session, and 16 Upper Hunter schools have since agreed to form a think-tank.

Ms Carrigan said mental health education needed to start at the primary school level.

"We have to work on children from a very early age to help them become resilient, face their problems head on, and know there's always a good reason to get out of bed and be happy again tomorrow," Will's mother, Pauline Carrigan, said.

"The journey from kindergarten through to high school in the Upper Hunter, if they all come aboard ,will mean that every child, regardless of what their journey is, by the time they finish they will all have had the educational health programs."

Ms Carrigan said the family hoped the campaign would become a whole school philosophy.

"We're dragging every school in the Upper Hunter with us, and we're talking about not just one school standing alone, but schools coming together and supporting one another," she said.

"The only way it can work is if the whole community comes on board and says, 'This is what we want for the future'."

National mental health experts support campaign

Professor Toni Noble from the Australian Catholic University's Institute for Positive Psychology spoke at the program's initial information session, and said the approach was unique.

"One of the strengths of the initiative, Where There's a Will, is that they're actually throwing it back to the schools to say, 'How can we best support you?'

"Different schools may access support in very different ways, and I think that's important, because then the school will own the initiatives that they think will suit their school population best," Professor Noble said.

"What we've learned along the way is that a one-hit, one-term fix program is not going to work — it has to be a whole school initiative so that the kids revisit the key messages and practise the skills again and again."

Professor Noble said the program's launch could not come at a more critical time.

"We're seeing an increase in anxiety at younger and younger ages, we're seeing the same levels of anxiety at the primary as in the secondary schools," she said.

"The idea of the program is that, from the first years of schooling, children learn the skills that help them to cope better with setbacks and to sustain happiness over time.

"If they learn the skills from early on, hopefully they become good habits of thinking and coping."

Initiative earns praise from police

In a profession that sees first hand the devastating impacts of mental illness, Hunter Valley police officers have been quick to throw their support behind the program.

Duty officer at Newcastle Local Area Command, Chief Inspector Gerard Lawson said it was a courageous step, and had the full encouragement of local police.

"I think this family is very brave, turning such a tragic thing into something positive for other people, and I tip my hat to them and recognise their pain and anguish," he said.

"When you think about it, suicide is one of the most traumatic things police are ever invited to investigate.

"We look at the families that have suffered such a tragedy, and we look at our own families who have similarities."

Inspector Lawson said the rising prevalence of mental illness was a major concern, and anything that could help reduce youth suicide rates was welcome.

"I've been doing this job for 29 years, and I don't think there's anything more tragic in my experience than seeing people who are aggrieved through suicide, particularly when it's a young person's life and their future's been cut short so dramatically," he said.

"A significant amount of our work is mental health, and that is increasing as it increases out in society.

"Most people in the community and professionally are only too keen to help."