Luke Gosling (Solomon, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I also wish to acknowledge National headspace Day and the work this organisation does in my electorate of Solomon, in the Northern Territory. For the 12 months from June 2015 to June 2016, more than 429 of Darwin's young people sought help from our local headspace centre, which is located just across from my electorate office in Casuarina. This figure represents 1,618 occasions of care for our local young people and their families—critical work when you consider the Northern Territory has one of the highest levels of youth suicide in the country.

Headspace has a great program called Yarn Safe to encourage young Aboriginal people to come, to talk and to seek assistance. Since they have had that program running, there has been a 32 per cent increase in young Aboriginal people availing themselves of that service. The new hub has eight counselling rooms, GP facilities and three meeting rooms. The bigger and brighter purpose-built centre was designed by young local people. It is a welcoming place and it is a great program.

I want to congratulate headspace and their team on their commitment, and I will do what I can to support them. I also want to acknowledge Lauren Moss MLA from the Northern Territory parliament for her work over many years for young people battling with mental health issues in the Northern Territory.

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