Prioritising the voices of young people in research

The Matilda Centre Youth Advisory Board (YAB) provides input into the research and governance priorities of the centre and contributes to specific youth-focused research projects. They are a diverse group of 11 members aged 16-25 from across Australia. They bring expertise and an interest in mental health and substance use issues via their own lived experience, that of their families or communities.

We sat down with our 2024 YAB and asked them about their interest in mental health and alcohol and other drug research, and what they think are the most important mental health and substance use issues affecting young people in their communities.

The YAB also recently completed a co-designed, multi-staged projected, co-led by YAB members, Smrithi Ravindra (NSW) and Tanya Dearle (WA). Called the Youth Priorities Project, it sought to understand the issues that young people want to see prioritised in mental health and substance use research in Australia.

The results of this study were presented by Smrithi Ravindra (YAB co-lead) and Kate Ross (Matilda Centre lead), at the 34^th Annual Mental Health Services (TheMHS) Conference in Canberra. TheMHS brings together over 1,000 delegates from across the mental health sector including clinicians, managers, consumers, carers, researchers, educators and policy makers.

The results will also be presented at the upcoming Youth Mental Health Conference in Brisbane in November and published in an academic journal.