ROdown Blog
Sharing our views at the big table!
On Thursday June 17, we held an Infobus session asking you to tell us about what the Government could do towards Youth Suicide Prevention in Australia, and what is it like accessing services in your community.
This was amazing discussion with 200 responses within 2 hours, and again we thank those who made such honest, frank and strong solutions. Accessibility to services (financial, georgraphical) Then came Wednesday June 30, the day we spoke to the House of Representatives Inquiry into Youth Suicide Prevention.
It was an early morning, having breakfast with the Inspire crew, who were fantastic in supporting us throughout the whole experience. At the table with us were a 4 other young people representing other organisations there was certainly diversity in regards to our stories and also a great geographical spread! There were two members of the Committee present who were incredibly thankful for us attending, and were really receptive in hearing the good stuff and the bad.
Some of the key discussion points were:
• Access to services, flexibility with service delivery - not all young people want to/feel ready to talk.
• Importance of creating some sort of central source of information about available help that could be available to YP, teachers and professionals - for example an online database/resource.
• Importance of services clearly indicating that no problem is too big or small and encouraging help-seeking before reaching crisis • Practical issues which need to be considered such as barriers faced in rural areas, transitions between services at age 18, waiting lists, and financial barriers.
• The role of teachers and education in regards to help seeking - to be trained to know the signs, facilitate or encourage a young person to seek help.
The Committee members were incredibly thankful for us sharing our stories, and a lot of what we said was even direct quotes from our community here. They explained the next steps in the process for a report to be written in the next month, and then would be tabled in Parliament for the Minister to respond to. If there is an election within the next month then the report would be postponed until after all the election business is over and done with. One thing the Committee did recommend to us is if we have negative or challenging experiences with services or want to tell someone what we believe needs to happen or works really well is to write to our elected representatives, if they keep hearing from us what the issues are and how to fix them the more likely they are to listen and act.
As young people who vote or are soon to vote, we encourage you to do this also! If you are unsure of which electorate you are check out the links below this post and if you are unsure leave a comment and we'll help you out! The Roundtable was a great opportunity for our community to have a voice in Government decision making.
Once again, thank you if you made a contribution and for supporting us in our experience. Thanks must go to the Inspire Foundation for giving us this opportunity and the fantastic support they provided. Check out the video, and if you have any questions about the day leave a comment below and we’ll get back to you as soon as we can!
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3 Comments
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Antria
over 1 year ago
Reply ReportI have my fingers crossed that this gets through before an election is called!
Bella.
over 1 year ago
Reply ReportSo glad it went well for you all.
HailsB
over 1 year ago
Reply ReportSo as I said... young people who vote or are soon to vote, we encourage you to do this also! If you are unsure of which electorate you are in you can go to The Australian Electoral Commission website and search by the name of your suburb. You can then find the contact details for your member of the House of Representatives here. To write to your State’s Senators you can find their details here. Are you confused? Then leave a comment below and someone can point you in the right direction.
x H