The campaign is said to be the first youth-led national Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander youth mental health campaign of its kind and is being lead by Not for Profit organisation headspace.
'Yarn safe' was developed with a group of 12 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people from across Australia, including Elcho Island, Brisbane, Darwin, Broome, Melbourne and Perth. headspace said the campaign was created to improve mental health literacy among this group and encourage them to get help at headspace centres located around the country, eheadspace online and telephone counselling service or other appropriate mental health services. CEO Chris Tanti said depression, anxiety and suicide affect Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander youth at a significantly higher rate than non-Indigenous young people. "Shame, judgement and feeling isolated for not being 'normal' is stopping many young people from getting the help they need. There's also a lack of trust in services and knowledge of the mental health system,” Tanti said. "A huge appeal of headspace for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people is the ease of access and confidentiality, which isn't always guaranteed at other services, so the campaign needed to emphasise that.” Over the last 12 months, the group of 12 young people, who were selected through a national recruitment process, came together in Melbourne to attend various workshops where they conceptualised the campaign. Through the workshops and a series of phone and online interactions, young people provided direction into every aspect of the campaign, including language, colours, messaging and design.