Sophie Conlon
The City of Mount Gambier will advocate for increased youth health services in the region after hearing a presentation from Substance Misuse Limestone Coast (SMLC).
SMLC project officer Sophie Bourchier addressed councillors on June 11 and spoke about trends around youth alcohol and drug use in the region.
“I showed elected members Planet Youth data which was collected in our high schools here and in the District Council of Grant,” she said.
“The Planet Youth survey was undertaken in term three last year and that showed there is still high numbers of alcohol use and vaping also came up.
“Theses are Year 10s who are drinking to get drunk and that is concerning because of the adolescent brain and development that goes with adolescence and alcohol use during adolescent years interferes with brain development and can have long lasting outcomes in the negative for those kids.”
Completed by Limestone Coast students in Year 10, the survey showed 33 per cent of youth had been drunk in their lifetime, while 29 per cent of respondents had used a vape.
This is comparable to 2021 results, where 35 per cent of youth had been drunk in their lifetime, and 23 per cent of respondents had used a vape.
After this presentation councillor Paul Jenner put a motion forward at council’s July 16 meeting, which called for a letter be sent to Health and Wellbeing Chris Picton, state chief psychiatrist John Brayley and the head of Mental Health at Mount Gambier Hospital advocating for a youth drug and alcohol service and specialist youth psychologist support for the region in Mount Gambier/ Berrin.
“I do realise this is a big problem nationally, but there is so much help at a social worker level, but the gap between that to getting psychiatric help is huge and that is one of the needs,” he said.
“We’ve had the Planet Youth report come to us and I think we must try and help our youth a lot more.
“Maybe this is the start of waking up Adelaide to help the lower South East.”
Supporting the motion, councillor Sonya Mezinec said these services had to be accessible and affordable.
“Working in the area I do, we note that while there is certainly a shortage of psychologist and psychiatrists that specialise in assisting children, but also those that do exist are fee for services so that means it’s out of the price range of many families that need that service,” she said.
“So anchoring that within the health service means that perhaps once there are greater services are provided that it’s accessible to people that require the service.”
Ms Bourchier said she supported the council’s advocacy and work it was already doing, but thought ideally a youth specific service would be community based and able to travel the region.
“I fear that if it’s based in one spot in the region it may only service the City of Mount Gambier, when we know that service needs to be travelling regionally,” she said.
She said everyone had a part to play in supporting youth and council was doing that where they could.
“They put in more areas where kids and young people can congregate to do positive activities, so parks, gardens, sporting areas,” she said.
“Wulanda is a perfect example of a positive thing for our young people.”
