Youth Live4Life calls on state government for funding to expand

Youth Live4Life, a registered health promotion charity which runs the award-winning Live4Life program, is currently in nine Victorian rural communities but there is a waitlist of another 20 towns.

Youth Live4Life chief executive officer Bernard Galbally is calling on the state government to work with his organisation, and rural and regional communities, to support the scaling up of the evidence-based program.

"The government has stepped up to the plate with trying to fix the mental health system, and we congratulate them on these initiatives, but at the same time we need to be investing more in evidence-based, preventative models," Mr Galbally said.

"Ongoing Victorian government funding will help ensure a prevention initiative with proven outcomes is available to more rural and regional communities."

Upscaling the Live4Life program would deliver on many of the preventative recommendations outlined in the Royal Commission into Victoria's Mental Health System.

In 2019, the Royal Commission into Victoria's Mental Health System Interim Report found Australia's suicide rate is 40 per cent higher in rural areas over metropolitan areas.

Coroners Court of Victoria and NSW Health data confirms death by suicide rates have increased in both states in 2022.

Youth Live4Life already has funding in place to implement the Live4Life program in Ballarat over the next two years.

City of Ballarat mayor Des Hudson said the Live4Life program would be staggered in the Ballarat community throughout 2023 to accommodate the large student population.

"Some of these initiatives include identifying and training local community members, enabling them to become accredited youth and teen mental health first aid instructors, delivering youth mental health first aid courses to teachers and coordinating the delivery of teen mental health first aid courses to students in participating schools," Cr Hudson said.

"The Live4Life Ballarat Partnership Group is committed to the Live4Life initiative, which is a whole community approach. We want to ensure that young people, teachers, parents and the wider community are better informed about mental health."

The council is working closely with representatives from youth, school and community agencies as part of the group.

"Through implementation of the Live4Life model, the group aims to increase mental health knowledge of secondary school aged students, parents, teachers and other community members to reduce barriers for young people seeking help," Cr Hudson said.

An article published in the Australian Psychologist journal, 'A Community-led Suicide Prevention Initiative for Young People in Regional and Rural Australia: The Live4Life Model', calls attention to the success of the Live4Life model in empowering young people and those who care for them.

The Live4Life model was highlighted in the Royal Commission into Victoria's mental health system as a community-based initiative that is having real impact.

Live4Life has been running in the Macedon Ranges since 2010, in response to an increase in anxiety, depression, self-harm and suicide in young people.

It is the only mental health education and youth suicide prevention model designed specifically for rural and regional communities.

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