The annual Telethon Family Festival is happening on Sunday 19 October and we look forward to the opportunity to celebrate and connect with the community. This event is always a highlight of the year for Youth Focus, a fun way to engage with the community and thank Western Australians for their ongoing support.
For many years, Telethon7 funding has helped us provide counselling and mental health services for young people in Perth Metro and the Peel and South West regions. Telethon7 funding provides a substantial part of the core funding for our teams based in Bunbury and Mandurah. The funding helps us deliver counselling to regional school partners, and has helped us expand the team to provide service offerings in locations where public and private services are limited, unavailable, or inaccessible to young people and their families.
Free, school-based services are crucial to reducing barriers to seeking and receiving mental health support, improving prevention and encouraging early intervention to reduce long term, complex mental health challenges.
Telethon7 funding allowed for the recruitment and development of a Community Engagement Officer role for the South West region. This role offers a crucial and ongoing point of connection for the community, encouraging mental health education and improving awareness across the entire community. Community engagement is an important part working towards prevention and early intervention, educating the community on services available, and improving awareness around mental health challenges, shifting stigma and beliefs held around mental health.
We are grateful to Telethon7 and the people of Western Australia for their ongoing, generous support. These funds ensure that when young people do reach out for mental health support, they can access safe, professional services, no matter where they live.
