Transcript

Professor Philippa Collin [00:00:16] Well, good afternoon, everyone, and it's my pleasure to welcome you all to the very first webinar for 2024, hosted by the Wellbeing, Health and Youth NHMRC Centre of Research Excellence in Adolescent Health. My name is Philippa Collin and I am the Co-director of the Young and Resilient Research Centre at Western Sydney University and a research stream lead for the Wellbeing, Health and Youth Centre of Research Excellence. 

Professor Philippa Collin [00:00:46] We would like to firstly acknowledge that this work is enabled by funding from the NHMRC, and the contributions of our research partners from universities across Australia. We would also like to begin by acknowledging the traditional owners of country throughout Australia, and recognise the continuing connection to land, waters and culture. I'm joining today from Bendigo lands of the Dark Nation, and I extend my respects to the elders, past and present, and thank them for their custodianship and care of country over tens of thousands of years. I also want to acknowledge any Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who are joining us today, and young people whose health we all work towards. 

Professor Philippa Collin [00:01:41] Just a little bit of housekeeping to get us started. Around this webinar, before we introduce, our fantastic speaker. During the webinar, you'll be muted and your video will be switched off. So if you have anything to say or you want to ask a question to the presenter, please use the chat panel on the side of your screen. We have a Q&A session at the end of the presentation, and today we'll be winding up the webinar at 1:45pm. So don't hold on to questions for too long. 

Professor Philippa Collin [00:02:14] It is, however, my great pleasure to introduce, Gavin Choong. So Gavin is the 2024 Australian Youth Representative to the United Nations. He's currently in the final year of his Bachelor of Laws (Honours) and Biomedical Science at Monash University. As a multicultural advisor and ambassador, Gavin aims to work with diverse communities during his term as the Youth Representative, as well as empower these young people to tell their stories. We're very, very excited at the Wellbeing, Health and Youth Centre of Research Excellence to have our very first webinar speaker be a young person. Gavin, thank you so much for joining us. Over to you. 

Gavin Choong [00:03:04] Thank you for that. Perfect. So before I began today, I wanted to just acknowledge as well that I'm calling in the land of the Ngunawal and Ngambri people, and I want to pay my respects to elders, past and present, as well as indigenous people on this call today. 

Gavin Choong [00:03:25] The topic for today is Mental Health and Australian Youth. As introduced earlier, my name is Gavin and I'm the 2024 Australian Youth Representative to the United Nations. I have a background in youth and human rights advocacy, as well as working in First Nations affairs, climate justice, refugee rights and international development. But today, it's not so much about the work that I do, but actually my predecessor, Imogen Kane. And as you can see, that's a photo of Imogen at New York talking about her results of what she did. I want to talk you through what I'm going to be talking about today. And that's going to be three key areas. 

Gavin Choong [00:04:04] Firstly, I'm going to be talking a bit more about the youth Rep program to get you a bit more familiar about what I do and what Imogen did last year. Secondly, I want to tell you about the mental health findings Imogen found last year. And finally, I want to talk to you about lessons and learnings and introduce this idea of youth co-design, which some of you may be familiar with. 

Gavin Choong [00:04:26] So to begin, I want to tell you a bit more about the Youth Representative program. This is actually the 25th anniversary of the program being run in collaboration with UN Youth and the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. We begin with this listening tour, and this takes part all throughout Australia, from 6 to 7 months, where the youth representative travels throughout the country to listen to used voices. We listen to the experiences and perspectives of a diverse set of young Australians to understand what they love about Australia, as well as what concerns they have in their day to day life. In September/October, we bring all of these findings to New York at the UN General Assembly. And for five minutes, we give a speech on our findings throughout the year. Finally, the last component of the program is the report back. And that's where we basically take our report that we write using these findings and share it with government, civil society, as well as leaders in business and whoever else is willing to listen to me. 

Gavin Choong [00:05:34] Now I just want to put a bit of emphasis on 'listening to'. This is a 6 to 7 month process which is completely youth-led, youth-coordinated, youth-designed and youth-funded. This is a national tour of Australia, full of young people aged between 12 and 25, and our aim is to discover the top issues identified by young people in Australia. Imogen conducted a listening tour last year throughout 2023 and she found five key issues highlighted. 

Gavin Choong [00:06:07] Of the 1200 young Australians she spoke to. She found via her work that mental health was the fourth most popular issue throughout year. As you can see, with 10% of young people saying that that was an area of concern for them. But it's also really important to note that with climate change, economics, discrimination and violence, all were mentioned and explained in the capacity of negatively impacting wellbeing and when discussed, actually exhibit distress on young people's mental health. Now, as you can see, these were the top overall issues identified in the Listening Tour and Imagen's Listening Tour in 2023, with mental health being one of them. 

Gavin Choong [00:06:56] What's really interesting is that all of these issues across the board also affect the mental health of young people. Imogen's final report will also be released in the next week or two, so I encourage all of you to head to the website, the UN Youth website, which we will share the end of this presentation, to check it out and have a read as well as follow along on my journey. 

Gavin Choong [00:07:17] Now, digging a bit deeper into Imogen's findings, you can see some of the statistics that she found, and these reveal that some of the contributing factors towards mental health being a core issue, painting an overall picture about how young people feel in Australia. I just want to point out a couple of statistics, which, I highlighted over here. 39% of young Australians say that they've been discriminated against in the last month. 45% of youth find support services youth friendly, with 55% not in that category. 55% of youth feel optimistic about the future and 56% of youth know where to find the support services they need. There's even a huge gap in the services we provide as well as how do you feel about them? And we can see as well that stuff like discrimination, optimism about the future and climate anxiety plays huge roles in how you feel about and the mental wellbeing of young Australians. 

Gavin Choong [00:08:21] I want to go into more detail about Imogen's findings now and in particular tell some stories. As you can see, mental health remains a consistent issue affecting young people across the nation. The effects of the pandemic and the growing generational divide between young people and their caregivers or adults in their lives are significantly impacting the current state of youth mental health in Australia. 

Gavin Choong [00:08:47] Conversations about mental health are happening, but young people continue to prefer to talk exclusively to friends and peers about their mental health because they do not feel safe or vulnerable with their caregivers and teachers, as you can see on the far left. As a result, young people are burdened with helping their friends to navigate complex issues despite not being trained or equipped to help, and often times experiencing mental health issues of their own. 

Gavin Choong [00:09:18] Concurrently, as you can see in the blue box, young people are also expressing a lack of quality friendships and connections, expressing that they didn't have anyone to turn to when they were in distress, and this was coupled with a lack of youth friendly spaces to develop deep friendships. 

Gavin Choong [00:09:37] Finally, on the far right, you can see that it became apparent that youth felt like a lot of effort was being spent trying to shield them from content that what they were inevitably exposed to. Instead, young people, Imogen found, wish that they had a place to go to, to have open and free discussions about the content they were seeing online, instead of feeling guilt and shame that they'd even seen it in the first place. 

Gavin Choong [00:10:03] Young people Imogen spoke to also expressed a desire for less awareness raising when it came to mental health, but instead having the same amount of enthusiasm and resources directed towards creating accessible services for diverse young Australians, not just a specific group of young Australians. Ultimately, young Australians, who Imogine spoke to, wanted and needed an open dialogue with common language and trust to navigate mental health issues as well as difficult topics. 

Gavin Choong [00:10:40] Now these are some of the quotes from young people, which Imogen found, that young people spoke to her about throughout her time as the Youth Representative. They were captured directly on Imogen's listening tour. I just want to give you a few moments to read through what young people themselves have to say. 

Gavin Choong [00:11:00] I want to share two quotes. As you read through, I want to share two quotes which resonate particularly with me. Firstly, as shared by a young person in Victoria, aged 20. "Mental health is undervalued in comparison to physical health, for example to a number of culturally and diverse people and communities. Mental health is immediately perceived as an illness rather than another dimension of health that should be taken care of." As a person who is a migrant to Australia, I can relate to this experience. 

Gavin Choong [00:11:35] Another person, aged 14, from Western Australia, says that "I feel mental health is neglected, especially for males. And of course, this is a gap which we're currently trying to patch." I'll give everyone just one more minute to read through this slide, because some of the stuff that's being said is quite impactful, in my opinion. 

Gavin Choong [00:11:58] I might also take this opportunity to say that if you do have any questions, please feel free to use the chat function to leave them and I'll get around to answering them at the end of the presentation today. And these slides will also be shared with you as well as the recording of the presentation. If you'd like to review anything I've said or any of the slides that we shared. 

Gavin Choong [00:12:34] Now I'm going to power on and talk about what young people want. And young people have consistently demonstrated that they want to have agency in their mental health, including the ability to access support, and not only as a support, but access support on their own terms. But what Imogen found was that current solutions and support services haven't really been co-designed with young people, and they're either overwhelmed with need or remain inaccessible, either due to financial, geographical, cultural reasons. 

Gavin Choong [00:13:05] So we talk about co-design, but I want to give you a couple examples about what this actually looks like, and I want to frame them in the sense that what the problem looks like, what we can be doing better. Before I do that, just quickly, I want to address the quotes which Imogen has shown at the bottom, and I'll share just this one, from a 21 year old from Western Australia, who says: "The mental health care system is inadequate, inadequately equipped to meet youth demand." This is something that we've heard about in the news and talked about. 

Gavin Choong [00:13:40] Now, more interestingly, we talk about co-design, as I said, but I want to give you two tangible examples which really highlight the problem at hand. Now, on the left in the reddish colour, one young person explained to Imogen how they tried to access an online counsellor but required parental permission as they were under 18 years of age. The help of mental health support stopped because there was actually the tense relationship with their parent that they need help with. So the same person that could allow them support was also the same person the young person had a vulnerable and untrusting relationship with. This young person who spoke to Imogen, said that they hadn't tried to access mental health support services again after that experience because they felt like they were being turned away because of their age, which made them feel helpless. 

Gavin Choong [00:14:31] I want to also draw your attention to the examples on the right. Another young person explained that the availability of a service didn't really equal to access in this young people, in this young person's school. They actually had a counsellor, but their office was actually located at the back of the school. And this created a kind of 'walk of shame'. So for other students who had students who had to walk past every other classroom and building to access it, all the other students could look and stare at them. They wanted to access the counsellor, but stigma and the support set up just completely prevented them from doing so. This is a common experience for a lot of young people. 

Gavin Choong [00:15:14] For Imogen, she reported finding that many young people explain how when they try to use mental health services or youth hotlines or online chat rooms, they were met with long queues, messages that the services were unavailable. And many gave up after trying to access support, after a couple knock-backs. 

Gavin Choong [00:15:35] What do we actually need? Well, the solution to creating better service, accessibility and experience, as you can see in this slide. Genuine youth co-design and inclusive lived experience. I want to break down co-design a bit more after giving you that example and tell you exactly what co-design means, but also what it doesn't mean. 

Gavin Choong [00:16:01] Co-design means you acknowledge that there is privilege in advocacy, and often a specific type of voice and perspective is heard because they have the financial or emotional support to engage. And in a similar way with mental health services. You often see some groups are more prone to be able to access mental health services, while others aren't. 

Gavin Choong [00:16:29] I also want to draw your attention to this concept of individual exceptionalism. That is treating a few eloquent young people as the exception and not the rule. All young people have value. All ideas have equal value. What a young person may say, perhaps less eloquently or in slang, is just as valuable as someone who knows how to speak in corporate tongue or in government place. The way that I've put it in my vision statement for the year is that most often the stories which are heard the least and brushed aside are often the most worth hearing, actually. 

Gavin Choong [00:17:09] Another point is that consultation needs to be youth-led to ensure no unbalanced paradigm dynamics exist, skewing inputs. In addition to that, that meaning isn't lost in generational slang. For my generation, we use means to communicate and we use social media, and we need to be able to translate that so that these thoughts and perspectives still filter into our policy and decision making. 

Gavin Choong [00:17:37] It's also really important that young people have civic literacy, allowing them to fully participate. And I've been in my role as the 2024 Youth Rep for about 2 to 3 weeks, and this has been a huge thing that has been raised: civic education in school, beyond primary school, going through high school as well as at the university level. 

Gavin Choong [00:17:57] I want to draw your attention to what not genuine co-design is:  a) passively ticking a youth box or quota, b) youth advisory groups with no tangible outcomes and advising for the sake of advising, and c) only incorporating youth voices if it fits into a predetermined policy agenda. And I think that's the trap, right? Not that we see a lot of youth advisory groups too, which may be coming with genuine intention and trying to hear from youth voices, but which fall, unfortunately, under one of these three traps. So it's important to recognise that this is an issue and that, you know, as good as intentions  may be, we have to try and break free from the following, exceptions. 

Gavin Choong [00:18:46] Note the final quote in the bottom of the slide. 18 year old, young person from South Australia says that "not everyone has the same opportunities or knows what steps to take to help themselves, or are even able to help themselves." Now, I recognised that quite early, but I want to open up a space for a bit of a conversation and a Q&A. This is an opportunity to ask me about any of the findings of Imogen's report, or as well as ask me about any of my vision for this year and in terms of how I'll tackle mental health. 

Gavin Choong [00:19:24] I was saying earlier, but mental health has been an issue, which has popped up quite a fair bit already this year. With a lot of young people approaching me and telling me about their experiences in the mental health system and what changes they would like to see. I really look forward to writing my report at the end of this year, as well as building upon the great work that Imogen has done to highlight what young people care about and what they're saying about mental health services in Australia at the moment, as well as their experiences as young Australians navigating through climate anxiety, cost of living pressure and and all of the above as well. Thank you very much for listening. And I'll open the space for you. 

Professor Philippa Collin [00:20:05] Thanks so much, Gavin. It's, you know, we really appreciate the time that you've taken to to help share, I guess, a little bit more about your role and especially to convey some of those important insights from the work that Imogen has done. I think as a researcher, I particularly appreciate all of the work that goes into doing a piece of research of this scale that the UN Representative needs to take on board. And also the ways in which you use this to really advocate for change. 

Professor Philippa Collin [00:20:42] And certainly one of the things that stood out for me, that's really important for us to get our heads around is the ways in which young people articulate how different issues, like climate change or discrimination, or intergenerational inequality really, contribute to one particular issue that they face and are concerned about, like mental health. 

Professor Philippa Collin [00:21:08] So, we've got quite a few questions coming through. And so I'll just pull up some of those. The first one is from Emma, and she's asking "are there any programs or training that you would recommend to build capacity for young people to support and respond to their peers?"

Gavin Choong [00:21:33] Well, I'm not too sure about the answer to this question. I think that there are a lot of programs which exist for young people at the moment. I think the thing that I would mention is that when supporting and responding to peers, it's also really important to look after your mental health. And I think, unfortunately, it's about sometimes putting yourself first and making sure that, you know, as I said, when you talk to peers who may be suffering from mental health, illnesses like, that could have, significant toll on yourself as well. So I think it's really important, to look after your own mental health, before you help anyone else. 

Gavin Choong [00:22:12] Personally speaking, I find that, in terms of accessing mental health support at the university level, there is there is support, not only from a therapist perspective, but also to become an ally as well. I know that universities, though, used to lead, in terms of student unions and whatnot, and I know that that might not be the case, broadly speaking, but I do know that, there are initiatives to help become a better ally for friends who might be suffering from mental health illness, at the university level, at the very least. 

Professor Philippa Collin [00:22:47] Okay. Thanks for the question. There's a another question that's asking about the role of allied health professionals and health professionals in general. But I wondered before you answer that specific question, which I'll flick up on the screen in a minute, can you just talk a little bit about the process of consultation? So where, I guess,  Imogen,  how she met with young people around the country and perhaps what your plans are for being able to meet with young people around Australia in the next couple of months? 

Gavin Choong [00:23:24] Yeah. Of course. And, Tania, I also take this opportunity to answer your question about the annual Mission Australia youth survey and whatnot. So, basically the listening tour, we try and cover as much of Australia as possible. And what we do is a mixture of in-person consultations. So, currently I'm on Ngunawal and Ngambri land, as I said, I'm actually usually back in Wurundjeri land down in Melbourne. So I'm actually up here for some consultations with some local community groups, young people and schools and whatnot. And we try and capture by two metrics, as many young people as possible, but also as diverse young people as possible. And to do so, we work with community leaders. 

Gavin Choong [00:24:09] To me, as a migrant to Australia and and someone who is, new to this country. I think it's also important to prioritise, as I said, the voices, which aren't usually able to be heard or don't usually have the platform to be heard. So in that sense, I canvass everything from schools to local Indigenous groups led completely by elders, to international students, who have their own sets of struggles and difficulties, by the way, particularly mental health difficulties with, them being particularly impacted by high school fees, high cost of living, visa issues. And it stacks up a lot, particularly within the international student community, I found that that mental health has been one of the biggest priorities, as well as a lack of access, because some of them don't speak English that well. And, unfortunately, a lot of the mental health services provided, which are free, provided in English. 

Gavin Choong [00:25:05] So, basically I try and canvas these perspectives and I also hold, online consultations, either sporadically or once a month. So I kind of do a bit of both. But these online consultations, acknowledging the fact that I can't be everywhere in Australia. Australia's a big, big country. And I try and capture the voices, which may be in regional and rural, Australia, which I don't have the capacity or time to visit. So by holding these online consultations, I give young people living in remote areas the chance to have their voices heard as well. 

Gavin Choong [00:25:40] Now, just coming back to Tanya's question, and this is similar to what Imogen did, by the way, as well. But I bring, I guess, a different perspective as a migrant to Australia. And I know Imogen, and myself as well, have also had, mental health struggles in the past. So we do understand, to some extent, the issues that are being faced by the community. 

Gavin Choong [00:26:02] In terms of, Tanya's question about the Mission Australia Youth Survey, as well as other national resources that talk about mental health. This year, my mission is to make sure that, my work is basically not in isolation. I know there's a lot of consultation happening as well. The unique thing about our consultation is, of course, that this is completely youth-led. And right now, we are actually discussions with Mission Australia as well as organisations around the country, to see how we can streamline our work and how we can combine our findings to make something that is impactful, something that is broad, and something that, a lot of organisations can use as a benchmark for youth advocacy going forward in 2025. I hope that answers your question. 

Professor Philippa Collin [00:26:47] Thanks. Thanks, Gavin. And, given, I guess, what previous UN youth reports have found and also studies like Mission Australia, what are you seeing in terms of the trajectory around mental health as a primary concern for young people? 

Gavin Choong [00:27:05] Yeah. Look, I think with mental health, it's tricky because, It's always been a ubiquitous thing for youth rep reports for quite a while. Mental health has formed one of the top five issues, but I think it comes in different forms. And we saw with the rise of Tick Tock, Instagram and Facebook, which is relatively recent, we also saw new mental health challenges developing. The same goes for climate anxiety and perhaps with the bushfires, with the floods, with all happening on the East coast, particularly in the past four years, we've seen young people express more and more often that they feel anxious about climate change, they feel that climate change is at the doorstep. 

Gavin Choong [00:27:48] So new challenges are presenting themselves while we tackle old challenges. And it's a hard issue to deal with because, at the very frontier of stuff like Meta, stuff like Twitter, I think that there's policy that needs to be enacted, which we're kind of on the back foot of unfortunately. At the moment I categorise it as new technology, and I feel like a bit of a boomer, to be honest. I recently just started the TikTok account for the Youth Rep page, but, I think that it's something that we're still catching up to and playing a bit of a catch up to, but it is work that is slowly and surely being done. And young people are being, becoming more and more aware. 

Gavin Choong [00:28:28] As I said earlier in the presentation, there was, of course, that one young person which was saying, look, we can't shy away from these issues. Like, the fact of the matter is that on online platforms, young people will inherently and unfortunately be exposed to content which is malicious. The proper way to deal with it is not to sweep it under the table and say, you shouldn't be on your iPhone or you shouldn't have a Facebook account. In my opinion, and in that young person's opinion, it was to say, let's open up spaces to actually have healthy discussion about this. Let's not stigmatise this and make you just afraid to bring this up to your guardian or your parent or or your loved one. Let's open up spaces for you to discuss this so that we can figure out what's right, what's wrong, and make you feel better about it. And I think that that's a healthy way to go forward. 

Gavin Choong [00:29:15] But more broadly speaking, we need to look forward to the future challenges. I don't know what's going to happen in the next 10, 15, 20 years, but we need to be, I guess, predictive in the way that we work about mental health because there's always new challenges emerging. And as I said, I also really want to bring this attention to to international students, because every week there's a new issue that's being faced. It was visas, when they were trying to come to Australia to begin studying. Then the next week could be the fact that they don't have enough shifts. The next week could be perhaps, that they feel isolated or alone. We need to look at these as opportunities to intervene and help, CALD communities particularly, with with accessing mental health services because these diverse challenges pop up like every single week and they change every single week. So a lot more attention needs to be, in my opinion, invested into these issues. 

Professor Philippa Collin [00:30:14] Yeah. You raised some really important points there. One of the, one of the things I wanted to pick up on and then connect with the question that Anna has asked about, youth health nurses as part of that, I guess, ecosystem of support, is around, where in the, either the consultations and the report that Imogen has put together or in the work that you've done so far. We're also hearing about what young people say they need more of, and that would work well. So, one of the points that you made is that young people, still and I say still because I think we've known this for at least 20 years, that young people are more likely to go to a friend, or another trusted adult  when they're going through a tough time or have a problem. But are there other insights about, this is kind of a strength based approach, I guess, like what young people say is working and where we should do more of those things. And then perhaps if you could comment on whether or not youth health nurses or other supports in schools have been raised. 

Gavin Choong [00:31:31] Yes, I'll give that a shot. I think that because I haven't conducted the consultations myself, as extensively as Imogen. Because I'm new to the role, I wouldn't be able to tell you that much, but I think positive role models, really does help, particularly in the school setting or even out of school and sport communities and whatnot. Having positive, for me as a man, I think having a positive, male role model, helped a lot during the high school phase. But this is stuff that I've also heard from students I've consulted with. People that are, again, willing to have the difficult conversations, but also, able to have the empathy to understand that the challenges faced in this generation are going to be very different to the one before and the one before. And the ability to listen but not listen in a shallow way, like truly listen. And I think that in sum  that all helps a lot in terms of  know what we can do and what what helps young people. 

Gavin Choong [00:32:32] In terms of the question which was asked were school-based youth health nurses included as part of support in schools, or was it support in general? I am not too sure. I think that's a specific question to Imogen's yeat. And unfortunately I can't really comment too much on that. But if you leave me with this question, I'm happy to relay it to Imogen and hopefully she can get a written answer back to you, Anna. I'm sorry I couldn't answer in more detail. 

Professor Philippa Collin [00:33:05] Thanks, Gavin. That's fair enough, and again, we just encourage everyone to read the full report, which they'll be able to access online. But I want to, sort of point you to this important question, I think, from Madeline, which, does speak, I guess, to the work that you're going to be doing this year, Gavin. And and that's how you might capture the voice of young people who are persistently absent from school, or not accessing services. I guess those voices that you mentioned who are really often most absent from research, consultation, co-design processes. 

Gavin Choong [00:33:44] That's a really good question. And that was a really tough question to answer, because, it's really easy to come to the schools and talk to students there because you just have to send an email to the principal and then you can consult with them. But the students who are out of school or students that that don't attend school regularly, it becomes a lot more of a challenge. Our approach that we took this year was to try and reach out to young people accessing housing services, particularly homeless shelters. And what we did, we've done a lot of outreach and a lot of organisations have showed some interest in us coming along and speaking to the young people living in these houses from 8 to 10 of them. These are more intimate settings, and we, I guess, approach it quite differently in terms of the questions that we ask. But that's kind of one of the strategies that we've tried to take to access, and talk to these communities as well. 

Gavin Choong [00:34:41] Another strategy that we've adopted is to reach out to community centres, youth-based community centres where young people can get together, play a board game, I don't know, like make food together, stuff like that. I know a lot of them exist in Canberra and I've actually teed up a couple meetings with them, as well as, like, just hopping in and spending time with the youth accessing these community centres in the week ahead. So these are the two main approaches that we've taken to try and access and speak to, as well as hear from students or non-students who may not be attending school due to poor mental health. 

Professor Philippa Collin [00:35:25] Right. Thank you for that answe Gavin. Now, Zoe wonders if you have heard from or planned to hear from young people with regard to mental health concerns related to healthy relationships and sexual and reproductive health education, especially for LGBTQIA+ youth. 

Gavin Choong [00:35:47] Thank you for asking this question, because that this can highlight some of the work that I've been doing. So I'm actually planning to come and visit the, so it's the Belconnen, in Canberra, the Belconnen Community Centre, and every Thursday, and this is a bit of fun for them, but every Thursday they have a 'Bit bent' session for LGBTQIA+ children ages ranging from 10 to 25. I'm planning to pay them a visit, either this trip to Canberra or my next trip to Canberra so I can hear about, the mental health concerns of LGBTQIA+ young people. 

Gavin Choong [00:36:21] In particular, I find that, what I've heard is that there's actually a big turnout in the in the 10 to 16 year old age range. So young LGBTQIA+ Australians who are still finding their footing and still, you know, have concerns and whatnot in terms of sexual and reproductive health education. Unfortunately, I can't talk too much about that at the moment in terms of our strategy. But this is definitely a community that we are intending on hearing from. And I'm sure Imogen also has a lot of stories that she has to tell. Unfortunately, she can't be here. 

Professor Philippa Collin [00:37:01] That sounds like a great start. And certainly as you embark on those consultations, I wanted to just share with you that the Wellbeing, Health and Youth, the WH&Y Commission, for Wellbeing, Health and Centre Research Excellence, which is a platform and network of young people who've been guiding and collaborating in and then helping us to, really advocate for youth health in the broader health system. They, as one of their key projects, have put together resources around how to conduct research and consultations respectfully with young people who are LGBTQIA+ identifying. So that's on our website. And yeah, we would love you to check that out and let us know whether or not it's any help as you go forward in your work. 

Professor Philippa Collin [00:37:53] We've got a really great question here, from, Jennifer, which, is more about you, I guess, in this role. And Jennifer, asks firstly, is thanks very much for, for speaking to us, but it's wondering, you know, given how, full on this role is, and the busy life that you also lead as a student and as a person, you know, with, other things going on, in your life, how are you looking after yourself? And, have you got any key strategies that you might be able to share with this around, protecting yourself from burnout? 

Gavin Choong [00:38:35] I have to I have to give Jennifer a big thank you for asking this. I think a lot of people ask me to do this, do that, but they never ask, how are you? And I think that's how it is sometimes, especially when you're in a position where, like, you know, people think that you have the power to make policy change and that it is important, and it is true that, we do have an avenue to government and the UN. Sometimes you just want to hear, like, how are you going? And I thank you and I appreciate you asking that. 

Gavin Choong [00:39:06] Look, I think that setting boundaries is something that I'm learning to do. And I come from a background as a human rights activist, activist burnout is a huge thing. We're learning, we're trying to deal with it, and it is still a big issue. I work with activists, human activists throughout Australia, but also Asia and the Pacific, and in particular throughout the Asia-Pacific you can see that that's a huge issue as well, because not only in comparison outside Australia uphold civil liberties, but in countries in Southeast Asia it's not the same. And, it's a big issue as well. 

Gavin Choong [00:39:46] I think it's important to find time for yourself and make time for yourself. That's the number one thing. Being able to set aside work and play time and being able to demarcate that very clearly. For myself, it is a learning journey because I tend to blur those lines together too often. And I have a huge, hugely supportive, network of people who, basically there to tell me, Gavin, you need to take a break today. And because of that, I kind of am able to say, okay, yes, you're right and and listen. But I think that it's hard because as a young person, you want to change the world. And you, when you have the tools to do so, you put the pressure on yourself. So in this role, I've taken a mindset where it's basically I've tried the best that I can do, I'll try my best. And that is what I will offer to the role. And I think that people will appreciate that. And if people don't, well, sucks to be you, right? That's the that's the approach that I've taken. 

Gavin Choong [00:40:41] So I find that like it's just about setting boundaries. And yes, I have to juggle university as well. It's about good time management. And that's something that I managed to pick up in my five years of university, sixth year now. So a long time to learn that. But it's also about spending time with the people that you love and, as a Chinese-Australian, family is a huge value for me. I really want to spend time with my mum and dad, my two brothers, my grandma, as well as my two dogs, who I miss dearly with all this travelling I'm doing. So I really try and find the time to spend meaningful dinners, have conversations with them, even going to the groceries, for example, like being able to cherish those moments and kind of like, you know, use them as a break from the hectic work schedule that I have. 

Professor Philippa Collin [00:41:36] So, yeah, it sounds like you've got some good strategies you're going to be drawing on, Gavin. And I just wanted to ask one really final question, because I know that we're coming to the end of our time with you, and that is, because there are a lot of people in this webinar who are researches, maybe they work in services or in policy. How can we be good allies in the work that you're doing? And how can we support you and the young people that you are going to be speaking with over this year? In what way can we be a resource to you? 

Gavin Choong [00:42:11] Reach out to me. Reach out to me with your ideas, with collaborations that you have in mind. This year we're planning  to build upon emergence work and make the listening tour even better and broader than it was before. And that includes capturing more voices of more diverse young people. If you're part of an organisation which speaks a lot to young people, please, please, please, we'd love to work with you in any way possible and hear from the perspectives of the young people that you, that you work with. In terms of and new angles that you have climate, cost of living, whatever it may be. As the youth rep as well, you know, we work closely with government and that that gives you kind of an avenue to advocate for the issues that we care about as young people. So I'd say just reach out to me if you can. 

Gavin Choong [00:43:03] Remember that young people are not a homogenous group. And that's the one thing that I would say, speaking to a lot of the non-youth audience that I speak to. Young people are very diverse. And we all come with different backgrounds, different perspectives. And that's okay because that's how Australia is, it's a very diverse country. But I think that that needs to filter to the way that we treat and we speak to young people as well. We can imagine that, okay, this young person says this, so that's what all young people think, for example. We need to be very cautious about that and understand that, as Imogen said, and as I emphasise and echo, young people who don't have the opportunity to have their voices heard, often tell the stories which are most worth hearing about, the most important. I think that's the final thought I'll leave with, but please check out my website, read my vision for the year. And keep in touch through Instagram, Facebook and everything and TikTok, as I said. I'd be happy to have a chat with anyone on this call if you have any ideas. 

Professor Philippa Collin [00:44:08] Thanks so much, Gavin. And on behalf of the Wellbeing, Health and Youth Centre of Research Excellence, thanks for being a seminar presenter today. All the best with your work and everybody who has joined this webinar. You can find more resources and a recording of the webinar and links to the report that Gavin has spoken about today on our website. Bye everyone. Thank you. 

Gavin Choong [00:44:32] Thank you everyone. See ya. 

Professor Philippa Collin [00:44:33] Bye.