National Youth Roundtable 2003 Member Profiles

Health Team

Team Members:

	Tegan Cohen - Corowa, NSW 17-year-old Tegan attends Corowa High School, where she is a prefect involved in the Peer Support Mediation program and chairs the charity committee. Actively involved in her local community, Tegan was a founding member of the Corowa Youth Council. She was one of 48 young Australians selected to participate in the Rotary Adventure in Citizenship program, held in Canberra. Particularly interested in issues affecting rural young people, Tegan is keen to address health and culture issues in secondary schools, which targets students in the junior years of high school, starting from Year 7. She has chosen to focus on school culture, and hopes to demonstrate how negative aspects of school culture can contribute to the ineffectiveness of a secondary school’s health network. View Report- PDF (370KB)
	Alice Chang - Douglas, QLD Alice, at 22, is studying medicine in Townsville, Queensland. She won the 2001 John Flynn Rural Health Scholarship and her long interest in health issues for young people has seen her working as a volunteer for the Townsville Aboriginal Health Service, the Queensland Drug Summit, for the Red Cross at Princess Alexander Hospital and as a Community Sexual Health Educator for Queensland Health. Alice is the 2003 Young Queenslander of the Year. Alice's project is to examine the current and re-occurring health needs of young people in Townsville, with the goal of starting up a youth clinic. She has successfully co-ordinated various youth services and Government agencies to provide support and information, in the form of a health services flyer, to households in her community. As a first step towards her holistic youth health service, Alice has started a popular Alcohol Overdose First Aid workshop at her university, where she is looking towards targeting senior high school students for schoolies next. View Report- PDF (54KB)
	Anamika Sharma - Moonah, TAS Anamika is a final year medical student who has a strong commitment to helping out in her local community. She is currently training to be a Lifeline volunteer and participates in Red Cross fundraising activities. She is an active member of the Multicultural Council of Tasmania’s Youth Group and is also a presenter on the local Community and Multicultural Broadcaster’s Inc. radio program. In the near future, she plans to participate in programs that volunteer services of medical personnel in disadvantaged areas of Australia or internationally. She is very interested in primary preventative health issues, specifically tobacco smoking. Although the harmful health effects of tobacco smoking are primarily seen in later life, the habit can be more effectively discouraged or prevented in the youth population. Anamika, in collaboration with representatives of the state Public and Environmental Health Service, plans to investigate the views of local state politicians about current smoking legislation in Tasmania. The results and conclusions based on this study can then be used to help tailor anti-smoking groups’ actions to the needs of policy-makers, with the ultimate aim of producing a smoke-free Tasmania. *Report unavailable
	Daniel Hunt - Westminster, WA Daniel is a 19-year-old from a remote community. He has seen the effects of diabetes and renal failure on his family and community; and this has led to him studying at the University of Western Australia with a view to a career in medicine. He is also a volunteer for Djooraminda, a respite program for young Indigenous children in foster care, and is an organiser with the Western Australia Student Aboriginal Corporation. View Report- PDF (417KB)
	Andrew Higgs - Fitzroy, VIC Andrew, 20, was a recent envoy by appointment of the Australian Government, to the 15th Ship for World Youth Program. Devoted to the youth movement since his Rotary Exchange abroad, Andrew seeks to gain an appreciation of the concerns underpinning youth in the areas of health and education as an executive on his local youth council. As Prime Minister of the Australian Centenary of Federation National Youth Parliament and a community ambassador for Victoria Youth Week, he has engaged in many areas of youth representation, receiving recognition for his volunteer work with the YMCA and the United Nations. As a naturopathic scholar, Andrew is alarmed at Australia’s emerging generation O (‘O’ for Obesity). He believes that it’s ‘crunch time’. In a fresh bid to curb an expanding nation, he has called for Victorian schools to take the ‘Vitality Crunch Challenge’, pulling the plug on the canteen deep fryer in exchange for healthier alternatives, with a focus on the needs of multicultural pupils. By educating students about the principles of good nutrition and physical education, he hopes to reduce the burden of diet-related illness, disease, disability, and early death in an equitable way across communities. He anticipates to service schools with a breakfast program through the Australian Red Cross as an adjunct to the challenge. View Report- PDF (586KB)
	Janine Borg - Cowes, VIC Janine, 23, works full-time in the Youth Suicide Prevention area of Kilmany Family Care and is a member of the High Risk Adolescent Reference Group, FreeZA, and the South Gippsland/Bass Coast Youth Network. She is interested in young Australians and their health needs with a particular focus on mental health promotion, and suicide prevention and intervention. Janine would also like to see more support for young mothers to ensure greater access to professional health advice and support networks. Janine is a Project Officer for Youth Suicide Prevention and has seen first hand the poor co-ordination and fragmentation of services available to at-risk adolescents. Through her community project, Janine seeks to improve the level of early identification of rural, high-risk adolescents; actively involve youth workers in the provision of health promotion in schools; and provide pathways to connect young people to support services. View Report- PDF (2,139KB)
	Adam Marshall - Gunnedah, NSW 18-year-old Adam completed his HSC at the Farrer Memorial Agricultural High School in 2002. He is interested in health issues for rural young people, with a particular focus on mental health issues facing farming youth. National runner up in the Lions Australian Youth of the Year, Adam has been very active within both his local community and throughout NSW. He has been involved in a number of fundraising activities, has been a member of the Gunnedah Shire Council Youth Council and the Gunnedah PCYC Youth Committee for the past two years. He was also a member of the NSW Premier’s Youth Advisory Council in 2001. View Report- PDF (49KB)
	Birra Riethmuller - Toowoomba, QLD 18-year-old Birra was Darling Downs Young Achiever of the Year in 2001, was a Centenary of Federation Youth Envoy and Toowoomba City Council Youth Councillor. After a busy six months in 2003, including a move to Adelaide, Birra is now settled back in Toowoomba, mainly focussing on her work with the drug and alcohol free Eidecan Youth Music Festival. Birra is a true believer in 'youth for youth' projects, and is especially concerned with youth mental health issues. Birra would like to research the effectiveness of peer counsellor training held in Queensland secondary schools. In consultation with Kid's Help Line, and their research results regarding peer counselling, Birra plans to create a written model of Secondary School Peer Counselling Groups that schools can use as a tool to set up their own group after peer counsellor training. View Report- PDF (361KB)
	Rebecca Pole - Robina, QLD 19 year-old Rebecca was awarded the Vice Chancellor’s Scholarship to Bond University to study business and communications. She has since been appointed as student co-ordinator for the scholarship scheme and as a mentor for new students in that faculty. Having overcome an eating disorder during her transition to independence, Rebecca is keen to share her experience in the area of young people’s health, and of the benefits of involvement in youth leadership programs. Rebecca is passionate about decreasing the apprehension and stigma surrounding eating disorders and depression. Her project will focus on equipping parents and teachers with skills for dealing effectively with teenagers who suffer from these disorders. Particularly, Rebecca hopes to increase the early detection and professional treatment of these illnesses. View Report- PDF (38KB)