College Connections

2025 Youth Mental Health Forum  

Term 2  Week 6

COLLEGE HOSTS 2025 MURRUMBIDGEE YOUTH MENTAL HEALTH FORUM

 

On Tuesday 3rd June, over a dozen schools and approximately 200 students converged at the MPC to participate in the 2025 Murrumbidgee Youth Mental Health Forum (YMHF). For over 10 years the event has been organised by Headspace, who are part of a Local Steering Committee. 

The YMHF provides an invaluable opportunity for students to have fun, learn about mental health, meet others from our region, and build their teamwork skills. Each year the forum gets together many schools from around the region. We met students, teachers, school counsellors and wellbeing officers ranging from Wagga, West Wyalong, Temora, Murrumburrah, Griffith, Batlow, Leeton, Tumut, Independent and Catholic schools.

 

From the College, 13 students participated ranging from Year 9 to Year 11, with College Counsellor Mr. Geoff McLean and Wellbeing Support Officer Mrs Tiana Flint attending in support. 

The day itself is run by an external organisation called Burn Bright. They got everyone up, moving, engaged, even having awkward initial conversations. There were workshops, videos, discussions, and a Q&A panel with student submitted questions about mental health. Finally, students got the opportunity to collaboratively develop a ‘Take It Back’ project to implement in their school communities. This is a powerful way to share learnings focused on mental health and wellbeing with their peers. Students courageously stood up the front and presented their ideas to the rest of the group. 

 

At the end of the Forum as chairs in stacks of 12 were wheeled away, we took the opportunity to debrief. Some of the students’ reflections were:

  • A continuum, it is not a case of either being well, or unwell. 
  • Everyone pretends they’re ok, but really everyone’s got stuff going on, so why can’t we just be real?
  • It was great to connect with other schools
  • Not everyday has to be happy. Happy should not be the baseline – it is normal to feel negative emotions in response to negative events. 
  • Normalising conversations about mental health and wellbeing. 

We asked for a highlight, an encouragement and a change – here’s what Felipe, Claire and Ella had to say:

Felipe (Year 10)

  1. My #1 highlight was that the people that were presenting the forum cared about us
  2. We were encouraged to care about ourselves and that if we need any help, we are not alone.
  3. A change I would like to see in the wellbeing space at our school is that many people at this school don't know that the school has a Student Wellbeing Group. 

Claire (Year 9)

  1. My #1 highlight was seeing so many people who are also passionate to make a change. 
  2. I was encouraged that lots of people also want to make a change and I am not alone in this.
  3. A change that I would like to see is a change of attitude towards mental health and that we need to remove the stigma around it. 

Ella (Year 10)

  1. My #1 highlight was being able to see that there is so much out there to help you and you don't have to just talk about your own struggles,  you can also ask for help by helping others who are struggling too.
  2. I was encouraged by everyone having a go with maybe getting out of their comfort zone to talk to someone new.
  3. A change I would like to see is that some students may not know that the Wellbeing Hub is there, so maybe making it not an embarrassing thing to go to by inviting them as some may find it hard to go and have a chat. 

Geoff McLean

College Counsellor