The Kids Research Institute Australia welcomes the launch of Western Australia’s first policy on youth health – a significant document which will give young people a voice in the planning of health services that affect them.
The Institute is proud to have contributed to the development of the WA Youth Health Policy 2018-2023, launched at the Institute today by Minister for Health Roger Cook.
The Kids researchers including Dr Melissa O’Donnell, Heather Jones, and Professor Roz Walker were members of the Department of Health’s Child and Youth Health Network working group which began work on the policy in 2016, while Professor Walker and Dr Tracy Reibel were involved in the Commissioner for Children and Young People report which helped guide the policy. Dr O’Donnell, Professor Walker and Dr Ashleigh Lin also contributed to the companion document to the Youth Health Policy.
In addition, the Consumer and Community Health Research Network at the Institute facilitated a series of community conversations with 122 young people across WA to seek their views on what they need to achieve positive health and wellbeing, and how services can most effectively address their needs.
The Institute’s Youth Advisory Group, established in 2016 and made up of 23 young people aged 15-25, played a key role in developing the questions for the community conversations and giving feedback to the WA Department of Health on the draft policy. A report on the community conversations is a companion document to the policy.
Dr O’Donnell said the policy was a way to voice the unique health and wellbeing needs of young people aged 10-24 years and aimed to advise health services on how to best support young people to be the healthiest they can.
“The health and wellbeing of young people is essential as it is during this period of physical and emotional growth that young people develop the health-related behaviours that have consequences for their current and future health,” Dr O’Donnell said.
“Young people also have specific health needs that are often inadequately supported by the current system of health services.”
The policy aims to achieve its vision of optimising the health and wellbeing of young people in WA by pursuing three goals:
- Young people are equipped to be healthy, informed and resilient
- Young people have equitable access to health services that meet their needs
- Young people are provided with high quality health care through coordinated system-wide planning, delivery and evaluation.
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