Matt Runnalls was just 12 when he lost his first friend to suicide.

"I probably didn't even know how to spell the word 'suicide' back then," says the 28-year-old, who grew up in the rural city of Warragul, Victoria.

He could not say the same today.

Matt lost his second friend to suicide when he was 16.

Later that same year, his favourite teacher died by suicide.

By the time he was 20, he had lost his fourth friend.

Over the course of the next six years, four more of his friends died by suicide.

Matt started fearing he would be next

It was in these six years that Matt started to worry he might become "the next statistic".

And so he started therapy and was diagnosed with clinical depression, anxiety and severe insomnia.

Matt (far right) says when he was younger he suppressed his feelings. Now he works to help others deal with theirs. ( Supplied: Matthew Runnalls )

But engaging in therapy did not stop him from attempting suicide four times in the same time period.

Matt says he now understands why.

He describes his teenage self as bubbly, cocky and energetic, and says he had a strong support system and safe childhood.

Support services for people affected by suicide: MOSH Australia on (08) 8443 8369

MOSH Australia on (08) 8443 8369 Anglicare — Living Beyond Suicide on 1300 761 193

Anglicare — Living Beyond Suicide on 1300 761 193 StandBy on 0429 147 491

This is important, he explains, because his personality and stable upbringing influenced the way he dealt with the emotions he was experiencing over the loss of his friends, and later over what he describes as an abusive work environment.

"I was experiencing all these things, but I believed I didn't have any reason to be going through them," he explains.

"So I suppressed all my feelings until it became too much."

By "too much", Matt means his clinical depression prompted suicidal ideation.

Matt started talking about his experiences with this Facebook post. ( Supplied: Matt Runnalls )

One day, he started talking about it

Matt does not remember what made him start typing a status about his experiences on Facebook on R U OK? Day in about 2013.

But he did, and the reaction to his post was overwhelmingly positive.

It was enough to make him want to keep talking about it all, and to start advocating for people struggling with mental health like him.

So, he started spending time with other mental health advocates, and eventually found his own voice. In January 2016 he started a Facebook page dedicated to speaking about mental health.

By September the same year, he was ready to take his then-fledgling charity, Mindfull Aus, offline.

Why Matt is focusing on rural mental health

Everything Matt does with his now well-and-truly-established organisation today aims to help address the rural mental health disparity.

The suicide rate is a lot higher outside Australia's major cities, Australian Institute of Health and Welfare figures show.

Between 2010 and 2014, the suicide incidence rate was 9.9 per 100,000 people in major cities, 13.1 in the inner regions, 14.4 in the outer regions, 19.6 in remote areas and 22.3 in very remote areas.

Matt had a stable upbringing in rural Victoria. ( Supplied: Matthew Runnalls )

And while people living in rural and remote Australia are no more likely to have poor mental health than those in the cities, they have fewer services available to them and are also less likely to access the ones that are available to them, according to the National Rural Health Alliance.

Matt believes people outside the cities are less likely to access mental health services because of long wait times, and due to the nature of the system.

"The queues in Gippsland, for example, are three to six months long," he says.

"But then, if an appointment comes up, you or your parents have got to drive three hours to make it and take a whole day off just to talk about what you're experiencing."

Matt says he saw about 20 psychologists and psychiatrists in the beginning because "the ones that were offered to me in regional areas were not suitable for what I was experiencing".

"Every time I had to go in and tell my story and live that trauma again by explaining what I was going through, only to be told I'd be better suited seeing someone else," he says.

"And then I'd spend another three months waiting to see someone else."

What Matt's doing to try and change things

This is where Healthier Hearts and Lighter Minds comes in.

The Mindfull Aus program sees Matt host early intervention workshops for primary school-age students as young as five across Gippsland.

It aims to teach children how to build emotional resilience by guiding them towards understanding and dealing with their emotions.

Matt also works with teachers and parents so they can provide support at school and at home.

Matt saw about 20 psychologists and psychiatrists before finding the right fit. ( Supplied: Matthew Runnalls )

"That way, they can wait the three to four months it takes to get a psychology appointment because in the meantime, they're working on other things like gratitude, exercise, nutrition, meditation, goal-setting," Matt says.

SANE Australia CEO Jack Heath says any program aimed at intervening early by providing support and ongoing care will "make a difference in young peoples' lives".

"When you have someone who's broadly in your age group and background, you've got a sense they're more connected to the reality you're dealing with," he adds.

Dr Remo Ostini agrees, saying programs like Matt's can help reduce the stigma surrounding mental health.

The senior research fellow at the University of Queensland's Rural Clinical School Research Centre explains: "These programs can help kids become aware that these problems exist, can happen, and it's OK, and show them how to engage with the system earlier."

What happened when one rural kid was shown how to understand his anger

One of the children Matt works with has lived in about 50 foster homes.

He is 12 years old.

"When we met him, he expressed his emotions through anger, sometimes by sucking up hot coals in the vacuum cleaner, smoking the room out, or by swearing at the top of his lungs," Matt says.

But after 18 months of continuously providing supportive environments for the young boy to articulate his feelings, Matt and his colleagues recognised the progress he had made.

"When the director of the program prompted him to describe what he was feeling, he said, 'Love'," Matt says.

"This little kid who, at one stage had never ever felt that in his life, now understood what it felt like to find love, belonging and connection.

"This is what happens when we create environments where kids can be who they really are, without judgment and bias and with support to [learn from] their mistakes and [how to] regulate their emotions."

The ABC's Trailblazers program provides a platform for individuals and groups of up to three working on projects to make regional Australia a better place.

Winners receive media support, networking and mentorship opportunities and an all-expenses-paid trip to Canberra.

If you would like to find out more about the next Trailblazers intake, go to the ABC Heywire website.