Moving beyond crisis: How youth mental health research can build a better future

Embrace @ Telethon Kids Institute, in partnership with Rio Tinto, invites you to a free public panel discussion on permacrisis and the mental health of young people.

Join us for a key note address from Embrace Co-Director and childhood trauma researcher Professor Helen Milroy AM and a panel discussion drawing on the expertise of researchers and young people. The discussion will be chaired by Telethon Kids Institute Director of Research Professor Catherine Elliot. You’ll hear from:

• UWA Associate Professor Jeneva Ohan, a Clinical Psychologist with a research focus on mental health services and the stigma that can deter young people from seeking support;
• Associate Professor Bep Uink, of both the Telethon Kids Institute and Murdoch University, whose research focus is on understanding how socially determined disadvantage impacts the social emotional wellbeing of young people, with a particular focus on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander youth;
• Consultant Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist Dr Pradeep Rao, a Clinical Associate Professor and Head of the Complex Attention-deficit Hyperactivity Disorders Service (CAHDS), who assesses and manages children and adolescents with a wide range of mental disorders, providing comprehensive, responsive and holistic care; and
• Miss Midaiah Harnett, a legal secretary, law student and Embrace Youth Community member who has been a prominent advocate for greater accessibility of mental health services for young people.

You’ll also hear reflections from young people about their own mental health, in the form of a video that has been especially commissioned for this event.

Finally, Professor Helen Milroy AM will be joined by Embrace Youth Community member and suicide prevention advocate Mr Luke McPherson for concluding remarks.

We’ll explore the pressures young people face from infancy to adolescence, and the potential solutions posed by research.

There is parking available underneath the State Library of WA and in the surrounding streets. Public transport is also easily accessible, with rail and bus services operating to the nearby Perth Station and Perth . More information on parking and transport is available here.

Speakers will start promptly at 5.30pm, so please make sure to arrive with time to spare. Light refreshments will be provided from 7pm for attendees and speakers.