SUBSTANCE abuse and a high suicide rate in Waroona youths has prompted the Peel Youth Medical Service to supply a mental health social worker at the district’s high school.
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The youth medical service is under the banner of GP down south and funded by the Alcoa Foundation to deliver one on one counselling and health workshops to secondary students.
Waroona District High School student services manager Robyn Garwood said youth suicide and drug and alcohol issues in the community had been prevalent in recent years.
“I called GP down south and said ‘help we need a councillor in our school, is there any way we can get one’,” she said.
Peel Mobile Health Service mental health social worker Leanne Lange said the school needed to be visited for a long time.
“You don’t have a lot of public transport down here so the kids are quite remote and unable to access services,” she said.
Ms Lange is based in Mandurah but visits schools all over the Peel region in a bus equipped to support students in their community for free.
“Year 10 students finish school in two weeks but we can chat on the phone over the holiday period,” she said.
The bus has been visiting the Waroona community for several years but Ms Lange said it was great to offer the students someone to speak to and somewhere to go for the first time.
“Whether it’s in the school or in the bus this is more about the students than the community,” she said.
Mobile Health Services visits more than 600 students from Mandurah, Pinjarra, Waroona, Yarloop, South Yunderup and Dwellingup.
For more information call 9537 5500 or go to gpdownsouth.com.au
