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Ollie's Echo: Pathways to Prevention Ltd, Brisbane (2026)

08/05/2026

At Ollie's Echo: Pathways to Prevention Ltd, we believe lived experience is not just a story. It is knowledge. It is insight. It is a responsibility to help shape safer, kinder and more compassionate pathways for others.

Our Founder, Mia Bannister MICDA, is currently undertaking specialist lived experience training with Roses in the Ocean, including foundational, essential and advanced su***de support courses, as well as peer mentoring, community of practice and group co-reflection opportunities. These programs are designed to build practical skills in safe, ethical and person-centred support, with a strong focus on emotional safety, autonomy, cultural responsiveness, trust-building, trauma-informed practice and self-care.

For Mia, this learning is deeply personal.

After losing Ollie, her only child, to su***de, Mia has continued to turn grief into purpose, ensuring that Ollie’s story is carried with care, and that the work of Ollie’s Echo is grounded not only in love, but in safe and responsible practice.

This training strengthens the way we show up in schools, communities, advocacy spaces and conversations with families. It helps ensure that our lived experience is used with intention, compassion and care.

Because prevention is not just about awareness.

It is about building capability. It is about listening deeply. It is about meeting people where they are. And it is about creating earlier pathways to support before young people and families reach crisis point.

For Ollie, and for every young person who deserves to feel seen, heard and supported.

Ollie was 14. His life mattered!

***dePrevention

06/05/2026

Today, our Founder Mia Bannister joined Kat Feeney on ABC Brisbane Radio to talk about the growing influence of looksmaxxing and what it means for boys and young men.

This is an important conversation. Behind the filters, algorithms and appearance-based content online are real issues around body image, self-worth, mental health, and the pressure many boys are feeling to look a certain way.

As Mia shared, “This isn't about blaming boys for what they're watching, it's about understanding why it resonates, and making sure we're offering something healthier, safer and more supportive in its place”.

At Ollie's Echo: Pathways to Prevention Ltd, we believe prevention starts with awareness, early conversations, and creating safer pathways for young people to seek support before harm takes hold.

We’re grateful to Kat Feeney and ABC Radio Brisbane for helping shine a light on this issue and for giving space to a conversation that needs to be happening more often.

🎧 Listen here from 1:48:22 https://www.abc.net.au/listen/programs/brisbane-afternoons/afternoons/106635356?utm_content=link&utm_medium=content_shared

30/04/2026

There are moments on this journey that truly stop you in your tracks… and this was one of them.

We want to extend our heartfelt thanks to Steve Laffey for his incredibly generous donation of $5,000 to Ollie's Echo: Pathways to Prevention Ltd.

Support like this is so much more than a number. It’s belief in what we’re building. It’s a commitment to changing the narrative for boys and young men. And it directly fuels the work happening on the ground every single day.

Because of contributions like Steve’s, we can continue to:

✨Deliver school presentations that open up conversations around body image, eating disorders, and the impact of social media

✨Equip educators and parents with the tools to recognise the early signs and intervene sooner

✨Reach more young people with messages of kindness, self-worth, and connection

✨Keep pushing for a future where prevention is prioritised, not just crisis response

In less than 12 months, we’ve reached thousands of students and started conversations that many young people have told us they’ve never had before.

That is the impact of generosity like this.

Steve, thank you for standing with us, for backing prevention, and for helping us honour Ollie’s legacy in a way that creates real and lasting change.

If you’d like to be part of this movement, whether through donating, a corporate partnership, or helping us open doors to more schools and communities, we would love to hear from you. Together, we can create earlier pathways to prevention for young people across Australia.

For Ollie Always 🩵

30/04/2026

The National Su***de Prevention Conference has wrapped up for 2026, and I just want to take a moment to say thank you.

Thank you to Su***de Prevention Australia. To the incredible speakers who shared their knowledge, their research and their lived experience so generously, thank you.

To the people working in this space every single day, often quietly and without recognition, thank you.

And to the connections, both old and new, that make this work feel a little less heavy and a lot more hopeful, thank you.

These past few days have been a powerful reminder that while there is still so much to do, there are also so many people deeply committed to doing the work.

We keep going.

Always for you Ollie 🩵

***dePrevention

29/04/2026

Last night I had the honour of attending the NSPC LiFE Awards Gala Dinner as part of the National Su***de Prevention Conference.

I attended alongside my dear friend Emma Mason — a fellow parent who has also lost a child to su***de. There’s a depth of understanding in these friendships that’s hard to put into words, grounded in love, loss, and a shared determination to create change.

Together, we’ve both been advocating for stronger protections for young people, particularly when it comes to the online world. The recent social media legislation is a step forward but there is still so much more to do to ensure platforms are safe by design, and that no family has to walk this path.

The dress theme last night celebrates United Voices, Brighter Futures, honouring culture, identity and diversity. Emma’s Irish heritage is clearly on show (you’ll spot it 😉), and I’ve embraced a little French elegance in my ball gown.

Last night was about recognising the people and organisations working tirelessly in prevention. But it’s also a quiet reminder of why this work matters.

Ollie was 14. Tilly was 15.
Their lives mattered.

Su***de Prevention Australia

***dePrevention

29/04/2026

Day 2 at the National Su***de Prevention Conference and another powerful morning.

We started with a plenary from Ian Hickie AO on regionally specific approaches to su***de prevention and what really stood out was the focus on making plans that actually work, in the communities they’re designed for.

Not one-size-fits-all, but grounded, practical, and responsive. Because if we’re serious about prevention, it has to meet people where they are.

I also had the pleasure of running into Dan Repacholi MP, Special Envoy for Men’s Health. We recently had a great conversation about the work of Ollie's Echo: Pathways to Prevention Ltd and the urgent need to better understand and respond to what’s happening for boys and young men, particularly when it comes to body image, eating disorders, and the influence of the online world.

These moments matter.

The conversations, the connections, the willingness to listen and learn are all part of how we move forward.

Still a long way to go, but days like this remind me that there are people right across the country committed to doing the work.

Su***de Prevention Australia

***dePrevention ***dePreventionConference

28/04/2026

It’s been a big and incredibly meaningful first couple of days at the National Su***de Prevention Conference here in Sydney.

I started with the pre-conference workshop on Su***de Prevention Policy, Research and Lived Experience and honestly, it was one of the most powerful sessions I’ve been part of. To have people from all three areas in the room, not just speaking about each other but with each other, felt like exactly what this space needs. Real conversations, shared perspectives, and a genuine commitment to doing better together.

Day 1 of the conference itself didn’t disappoint.

Hearing Ian Thorpe speak was incredibly moving. His honesty, vulnerability and strength in sharing his own journey was a powerful reminder of how important it is to keep creating spaces where these conversations can happen openly.

And then, stepping into my own moment presenting my poster during the lunch break on Addressing the Hidden Crisis of Eating Disorders and Su***de Risk in Boys and Young Men.

To be able to stand there, in a room full of people who care so deeply about prevention, and share Ollie’s story and the work of Ollie’s Echo… it’s hard to put into words. There’s a mix of pride, grief, purpose and determination that all sit side by side.

Because this is a hidden crisis.

And the more we can bring it into the light through research, through lived experience, through policy, the closer we get to real, meaningful change.

If you’re working in this space... in policy, education, health, research, or as a parent or advocate, let’s keep leaning into these conversations. Let’s keep asking better questions, pushing for accountability, and creating safer environments for our young people. Because prevention is everyone’s responsibility.

Grateful to be here. Grateful to be part of the conversation. And more committed than ever to changing the narrative.

Su***de Prevention Australia

***dePrevention

18/04/2026

This morning I spoke on Weekend TODAY about the rise of “looksmaxxing” and the impact it’s having on boys and young men.

But what I really want to share here is my message to parents.

Because this isn’t just a trend. It’s a window into what our boys are seeing, absorbing, and trying to make sense of.

My message is simple: stay curious, not critical.

If we shut it down too quickly, we risk shutting down the conversation altogether.

Instead, ask the questions:
What are you seeing?
What do you think about it?
How does it make you feel?

Create space for those conversations especially with boys, who so often aren’t included in discussions around body image, confidence, and self-worth. Because they are feeling it too. They just don’t always have the language for it.

It’s also important to help them understand that much of what they’re seeing online isn’t designed to support their wellbeing it’s designed to keep them engaged.

And finally, this isn’t just about parenting.

We need to keep holding platforms to account. Our kids deserve safer digital environments, not just the expectation that they’ll navigate this on their own.

At Ollie’s Echo, this is exactly why we do what we do.

To open up these conversations earlier.
To create safer spaces.

And to give young people and their parents the tools to navigate it together.

15/04/2026

A huge thank you to the Kedron-Wavell Bingo Club for your incredible support of Ollie's Echo: Pathways to Prevention Ltd.

We had such a great time and what a way to finish the day… with a WIN!

Moments like this are so special. Not just for the fun (and the win 😉), but because of the community that sits behind it. Your generosity and support truly helps us continue the work we’re doing to create safer, kinder environments for young people.

We’re so grateful to be part of it!

14/04/2026

The Birth of the Anxious Generation Targeted Children Even Before Smartphones. A documentary by Korean Broadcasting System (KBS), which our Founder Mia Bannisterand her dear friend Emma Mason feature in.

Two mums. Two children. One devastating truth we now can’t unsee.

We are now living through what many are calling the “great rewiring of childhood” — where social lives, identity, validation and self-worth have shifted into a digital world that was never designed with children in mind.

And we’re seeing the consequences. Anxiety. Comparison. Disconnection.
And for some families, like ours… the unthinkable.

This is why I speak and is why Ollie's Echo: Pathways to Prevention Ltd exists.

Not to scare but to wake us up.
Not to shame but to empower.

Because this is not about “bad parenting.”

This is about a system that is far bigger than any one of us… and a generation growing up inside it.

We can’t change what’s already happened to our children.
But we can change what happens next.

Please take the time to watch. Have the conversations. Ask the questions.
Because awareness is where prevention begins.

The link to the full documentary is in the comments.

13/04/2026

Looksmaxxing isn’t harmless, it’s a dangerous online movement teaching boys they are only valued for how they look, and pushing them toward extreme, sometimes harmful behaviours in the pursuit of “perfection.”

This is what happens when insecurity is amplified and monetised online. At Ollie’s Echo, we focus on prevention because this is about identity, not appearance. Start the conversation. Our boys are watching.

Ollie's Echo: Pathways to Prevention Ltd

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