Inaugural Youth Health Forum
After having a hand in the Consumer’s Health Forum of Australia’s Youth Health Forum (YHF) steering committee for the last 8 months, I am so excited to have attended and presented at the inaugural YHF summit held over a sunny and invigorating two days in Old Parliament House in Canberra, ACT.
The summit drew together over fifty young advocates from all corners of Australia to spend two days learning from subject matter experts and experienced health advocates, and put our collective thinking together to identify key areas of government service, policy, and legislative reform to author a brief and recommendations to the Australian Government on how we can improve the lives and futures of young people. Our views highlighted key areas that will help shape the health of Australians in the future.
Long-term changes to the health system must begin with policies, laws, funding models, and research priorities that are determined by young people.
“Our health system is not keeping up with the needs of an increasingly sick and aging population. Rates of preventable disease are rising. Young people are increasingly time poor and face unprecedented living pressures. This is something that we, as future leaders and healthcare users, worry about.
We need the government to invest in keeping Australians healthy and to focus on making the health system more supportive and easier to navigate.“
Young people and health consumers should be involved in design and decision-making at all levels of government and health system governance to ensure that the services provided meet a genuine need and point of value in the community.
Key to that involvement are the principles of empowering and equipping young people to help themselves, and designing services for people not providers.
“We believe that health is a life-long investment. Good habits start early. Providing young people with knowledge, tools and resources to manage their health and well-being should be at the heart of any health strategy. Investment in education and preventative health is cost-effective and reduces the burden of ill health on society.“
It is the opinion of the YHF that
“… health services should be supportive and accessible for everyone regardless of financial need and personal circumstances. The focus should be on what the person needs, not what they can afford. People should receive respectful and effective healthcare regardless of their culture.”
After an incredible two days of personal and professional development, working alongside incredible rising stars in the advocacy space, the YHF makes the following recommendations:
Work with young people and their communities to refine health education conducting a longitudinal study surveying what Year 7 students want from health education and repeat the research at various points during their high school years.
Ease the transition to adult services by conducting national review of current local transition initiatives to identify areas that need support and funding to provide better transition services. A national consultation with consumers, Local Hospital Networks, community health services, General Practitioners, and Primary Health Networks.
Embrace lived experience and peer-support in youth mental health services by creating a formal opportunity for the Youth Health Forum to partner with headspace to develop mental health peer support guidelines.
Raise the base level of training and education for mergency services for mental health crises by securing a commitment from government to fund mental health first aid training for first responders (police, paramedics and emergency department workers) in providing a sensitive response and keeping people safe while connecting them to appropriately trained mental health professionals e.g. psychologist, mental health nurse.
It’s been humbling to have spent two days meeting, sharing, and bonding with other young people that share my passion for building a future tomorrow for Australian youth. As the only national forum of it’s kind, the YHF will come to play a crucial role in representing young people at the highest levels of government and public decision-making in health.
I encourage you to explore some of the work the Youth Health Forum has done to date by visiting https://chf.org.au/search/node?search=Youth+Health+Forum