WASC-Y Media Release

Ground-breaking Australian first research on Indignous youth mental health & suicide behaviour clinical norms prevalence data reveals 1 in 4 Indigenous Australian youth have attempted suicide, while a staggering 42% have had suicidal thoughts (N=1,266).

It’s time to prioritise culturally appropriate and clinically validated psychometric tools for early intervention and prevention.

Read the full research article by Westerman & Dear (2024) in Australian Psychologist.

Lead researcher Dr Westerman AM is a proud Nyamal woman and the founder and executive chair of the Westerman Jilya Institute for Indigenous Mental Health.

For media enquiries and a copy of the media release, contact admin@thejilyainstitute.com.au

JILYA

The Westerman Jilya Institute for Indigenous Mental Health, (“The Jilya Institute”, or “Jilya”) is an Aboriginal Community Controlled not for profit organisation, registered as a charity with the Australian Charity and Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC).

Jilya was created in response to the 13 deaths of Aboriginal young people in the Kimberley, the subject of the 2019 Fogliani Coronial Inquiry. These deaths, and the continuing deaths of Aboriginal people by suicide, compelled Dr Tracy Westerman AM to act and do something to support improved access to culturally and clinically complex mental health services which could provide measurable outcomes for high risk communities. She commenced the first Indigenous Psychology Scholarship Program with a personal donation of $50,000. Since then, and in just TWO years we are supporting FORTY ONE Indigenous Psychology Students to ensure there is more capacity on the treatment side and to ensure that never again shall a child die from want in a world of excess.

Jilya’s vision is to reduce Indigenous suicides, build resilience and strengthen wellbeing in Indigenous Australians. We hope to achieve this through leading the development of culturally and clinically informed mental health and suicide prevention responses, and increasing the number of Indigenous Psychologists working in Australia, in our highest risk regional and remote communities.

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Help us reach our $600k target!

Now that our army of psychologists has grown to 41, we’re developing a NATIONAL Indigenous Psychology Clinic and Psychological Assessment Service to value add to services on the ground. With 6% of Indigenous people in mental health distress accessing services, Jilya wants to change that unacceptable statistic!

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Why Do we need more Indigenous psychologists

Imagine having a child caught in the grip of  mental illness and there are no services to help. Imagine when you do find a service they struggle with the very basics of cultural understanding that the opportunity for healing is effectively lost”

Dr Tracy Westerman

The ‘system’ has been built by non-Indigenous people, to meet the needs  of non-Indigenous people, and is delivered to Indigenous people by, frequently, non-Indigenous people. It is therefore unsurprising that this is failing and the implications of doing nothing new or different are clear. Listen here to Dr Tracy Westerman speaking on ABCs “All In The Mind” on “Why we need more Indigenous Psychologists”

Our children deserve a better future.

Indigenous children die by suicide at 6 times the rate of non-Indigenous children. Our highest risk communities are consistently our most remote. Help us to #BuildAnArmy of Indigenous Psychologists to address the needs of these communities, where successive Governments have failed. Our country has now had generationally the highest child suicide rates in the world. The Dr Tracy Westerman AM Indigenous Psychology Scholarship Program directly addresses the needs of bereaved Indigenous parents and communities by ensuring access to specialist clinical and cultural services into these regions.