The ‘Right care, first time, where you live’ Program held its 2024 Annual Symposium at the end of last year. We’d like to thank the participants on the day for making it such an engaging and impactful day. The youth mental health system in Australia requires reform.
The system is fragmented and mental health policy overall is disjointed. Young people fall through the cracks at an alarming rate. In the ‘Right care, first time, where you live’ Program we have learned that it is critically important to engage with the community, to collaborate with them to tease out the issues they are facing, to help them by gathering the data and evidence required to support their decision-making process.
It is especially important to engage with young people with lived experience of mental health concerns in the process. We can't understand the nature of the problems they face if we don't actively listen and speak to them about their experiences. Change happens when we are open, when we work together, and we learn from one another. Everyone has skills to bring to the table and we will need all of those skills to reform the youth mental health system.
It was great to see at the 2024 Annual Symposium, people from all of the sites and regions that our Brain and Mind Centre team have worked with, networking, discussing the challenges and learning from one another. Building a community of practice that can collaborate and make these systems modelling tools that we have been developing sustainable in the long term.
Thank you to the presenters and the Brain and Mind Centre team for making the day run so smoothly.
This program is proudly supported by the BHP Foundation.