Stay Kind.
It's a simple message. But, in a complicated world, the simple messages might be the more important.
![Stuart Kelly, younger brother of one-punch victim Thomas Kelly who died in 2012, took his own life last year.](http://web.archive.org./web/20170726044700im_/https://www.fairfaxstatic.com.au/content/dam/images/g/q/d/t/6/k/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gxga9m.png/1500802387121.jpg)
We can disagree about politics. We can disagree about taxes, or State of Origin selections, or bottle-shop opening hours, or rules that tell us where to keep pets on a leash.
But when we disagree, we should not slip into cruelty. This is particularly so when the opportunities for cruelty are more available than they have ever been.
We must, in a couple of words, Stay Kind.
At Sunday's NRL fixture between the Wests Tigers and Parramatta Eels, viewers and attendees will be presented with this message, in an initiative that has the support of The Sun-Herald.
The Stay Kind day is the work of the Thomas Kelly Youth Foundation. The Foundation was created in 2012 after 18-year-old Thomas was killed in Kings Cross. It has pushed to try and change Australia's occasionally destructive drinking culture.
More recently, the Foundation has turned its attention to the broader pressures facing the country's youth. After Thomas' younger brother, Stuart, took his own life last year, his parents Ralph and Kathy said the abuse he suffered in the wake of his brothers' death had taken a toll on him.
The Foundation has established the Stay Kind initiative which aims to help young people and their families through what can be a difficult and dangerous stretch.
The initiative will promote the prevention of self-harm and suicide through promoting awareness of the importance of communication, listening with intent, youth vulnerability and respect.
It will run campaigns publicising better behaviour and communication strategies that encourage the creation of empathetic and caring environments; environments that enable young people to feel supported and have hope for the future.
On Sunday, 50 per cent of donations received will be directed to Lifeline, while 50 per cent will fund the Foundation's work.
The Stay Kind initiative is worthy of support for a number of reasons. Discussion of mental health â and how it can be both nurtured and undermined at home, in school, and at sport â is a social good.
But discussion is also useful in that it might help to advance policies and programs that can grapple with their harmful effects.
The National Centre of Excellence in Youth Mental Health has identified gaps in evidence-based and age-appropriate services to help young people. These gaps are unfortunate. In a world of scarce resources, it is important that funding is directed to programs that have the greatest chance of working.
Increased funding can help determine where future funding should be spent. That this occurs is, quite literally, a matter of life and death.
The suicide rate among teenagers rose in the mid-1980s and has remained all too high. In the past decade, the rate has started to increase. More young people aged 15-24 died through suicide in 2015 than from any other cause. Government statistics also show that incidence of self-harm has started to spike.
On Sunday and on other days, Stay Kind.