2025 Youth Mental Health Forum
Term 2 Week 6
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:
We asked for a highlight, an encouragement and a change – here’s what Felipe, Claire and Ella had to say:
Felipe (Year 10)
Claire (Year 9)
Ella (Year 10)
Geoff McLean
College Counsellor