Youth Advisory Group

Lachlan

Hi, my name is Lach­lan. I cur­rent­ly work part-time at a pri­ma­ry school can­teen and as a com­mu­ni­ty researcher in an advi­so­ry group with Flinders University.

I joined YAG so that I could help improve tran­si­tion to adult health ser­vices for future young peo­ple. Hav­ing been in and out of the health care sys­tem with mul­ti­ple chron­ic ill­ness­es since I was a child I have had dif­fi­cul­ties tran­si­tion­ing and would like to share my expe­ri­ences to help make the sys­tem better.

Mackenzie

My name is Macken­zie and I’m 22 years old. I decid­ed to join the youth advi­so­ry group because I’ve got lots of expe­ri­ence in the health sys­tem as a patient and as a fam­i­ly mem­ber. I also have lots of friends, fam­i­ly and oth­er con­nec­tions with com­mu­ni­ty groups who have many ideas on how to improve our health­care sys­tem and I want­ed to be able to rep­re­sent them. I am cur­rent­ly not study­ing due to my health, but I enjoy cro­chet and knit­ting, and I absolute­ly love to learn just about any­thing I can.

Oliver

My name is Oliv­er, I am cur­rent­ly in year 11 at school. Out­side of school I work at a retail store as both a team mem­ber and duty man­ag­er, as well as being part of a local St Johns, Youth Unit. In my spare time I enjoy spend­ing time with friends and fam­i­ly, play­ing com­put­er games, board games and lis­ten­ing to music. 

I joined the YAG (Youth Advi­so­ry Group) at the sug­ges­tion of my mum, but also, as I have been per­son­al­ly fre­quent­ly involved in the health care sys­tem, hav­ing the chance to help improve it for future gen­er­a­tions is some­thing that I am pas­sion­ate about. 

Olivia

My name is Olivia, I am 19 years old and am cur­rent­ly study­ing reg­is­tered nurs­ing at uni­ver­si­ty. I joined the Youth Advi­so­ry Group, hop­ing to use my own expe­ri­ences to improve health care for oth­er young peo­ple in South Australia. 

I was born with birth defects and chron­ic health con­di­tions which has meant I have spent a lot of time receiv­ing med­ical care across pae­di­atric and adult hos­pi­tals and ser­vices. Through these expe­ri­ences, I under­stand how impor­tant a com­pre­hen­sive and respon­sive health­care sys­tem is for peo­ple liv­ing with dis­abil­i­ties and com­plex health con­di­tions. In my free time, I enjoy sup­port­ing the Matil­das and the Euro­pean Women’s Super League. 

I am excit­ed to be a part of the Youth Advi­so­ry Group and have the oppor­tu­ni­ty to advo­cate for young peo­ple in the health­care sys­tem and work on ini­tia­tives that lead to pos­i­tive change. I am espe­cial­ly pas­sion­ate about help­ing to improve care in the tran­si­tion between pae­di­atric and adult ser­vices as well as improv­ing care for young peo­ple with feed­ing tubes. I look for­ward to con­tin­u­ing to be involved in the mean­ing­ful projects that the YAG take on into the future.

Roman

My name is Roman, and I am 19 and liv­ing in SA. I am cur­rent­ly study­ing a cer­tifi­cate III in lab tech with the aim to work in health­care. I have cho­sen this career path­way and have joined the YAG so that I can help con­tribute to improv­ing health out­comes of young South Australians.

Zac

I am a young and active health con­sumer advo­cate and rep­re­sen­ta­tive with a CALD back­ground, who has par­tic­i­pat­ed in a vari­ety of health-relat­ed projects con­duct­ed by gov­ern­ment author­i­ties, uni­ver­si­ties, and NGOs. In recog­ni­tion of my vol­un­teer­ing effort to date, I have received var­i­ous acco­lades high­lights of which include being the win­ner of the Glob­al Youth Parliament’s Glob­al Youth Lead­er­ship Award 2022 in Aus­tralia, the rights activism cat­e­go­ry of the Dis­abil­i­ty Lead­er­ship Insti­tute’s Nation­al Awards for Dis­abil­i­ty Lead­er­ship 2022.