Youth Advisory Group

Aeisha

My name is Aeisha, I joined YAG because I’m pas­sion­ate about improv­ing health­care in South Aus­tralia. I believe that every­one should have equal access to ade­quate ser­vices designed to assist them in their health and med­ical needs. I’m excit­ed to con­tribute to ini­tia­tives that improve young peo­ple’s health­care expe­ri­ences and expand my knowl­edge of the South Aus­tralian health system.

As I near the end of my high school jour­ney, my top pri­or­i­ty is to ful­fill my ambi­tion of pur­su­ing a career in med­i­cine. How­ev­er, in my leisure time, I val­ue spend­ing qual­i­ty moments with my fam­i­ly, espe­cial­ly my younger sis­ter. Along with my aca­d­e­m­ic pur­suits, I’m also ded­i­cat­ed to per­son­al growth and mak­ing a dif­fer­ence in my com­mu­ni­ty, which I ful­fill by par­tic­i­pat­ing in the Aus­tralian Army Cadets and Surf Life Sav­ing. I love explor­ing the great out­doors through camp­ing and 4×4 dri­ving with my Mit­subishi Tri­ton. I also have a keen inter­est in trav­el­ing and immers­ing myself in dif­fer­ent cul­tures, which allows me to expand my world­view and meet peo­ple from diverse backgrounds. 

Work­ing on the Ado­les­cent Tran­si­tion Care Frame­work with CEIH and ATC­SCN is an excit­ing oppor­tu­ni­ty for me to con­tribute to improv­ing the health­care expe­ri­ence for young peo­ple in South Aus­tralia. I am thrilled to be a part of a team that is ded­i­cat­ed to devel­op­ing a com­pre­hen­sive frame­work that will enhance the con­ti­nu­ity of care and ensure a smooth tran­si­tion for these vul­ner­a­ble groups.

Benjamin

My name is Ben and I real­ly like to charm peo­ple. I have 2 busi­ness­es that I have run for near­ly 4 years, in appar­el and con­tent cre­ation, and I make tough deals. 

Any­thing that is organ­i­sa­tion­al is good for me. 

I am think­ing of becom­ing a guid­ance per­son. I like to ques­tion peo­ple to know more and see how the world works, and I like to believe in peo­ple. My words are not always very good, and I am not always cor­rect in the words I use. 

My per­son­al­i­ty can some­times be chal­leng­ing for oth­ers but I’m just a love­ly guy with a sense of humour, and like every­body I love a good laugh (Tee hee!). I love dogs and have two at present. I am look­ing for­ward to mov­ing into a new house soon. 

Evie

Hi I’m Evie and I joined YAG to spread aware­ness about impor­tant and life alter­ing health issues while aim­ing to improve health­care for all South Aus­tralians, espe­cial­ly dur­ing the pae­di­atric to adult tran­si­tion. Out­side of YAG, I par­take in var­i­ous oth­er advo­ca­cy areas, all to do with health­care and rais­ing aware­ness. Mak­ing a dif­fer­ence in health­care has slow­ly become a pas­sion of mine. 

I enjoy a range of activ­i­ties such as writ­ing, film­mak­ing, singing, trav­el­ling, play­ing gui­tar, play­ing sport and any­thing Biol­o­gy, Eng­lish Lit­er­a­ture and His­to­ry relat­ed how­ev­er a goal of mine is to join the Aus­tralian Defence Force, specif­i­cal­ly the Air Force. How­ev­er due to my Type 1 Dia­betes, this is not an option to me any­more. I hope that by being apart of YAG and mak­ing a dif­fer­ence in health­care through­out South Aus­tralia, my dream of join­ing the Air Force becomes a pos­si­bil­i­ty to me and many oth­er young South Aus­tralians who may be suf­fer­ing from ill­ness and unable to achieve their dreams due to them. 

I hope that being apart of YAG means I can make a dif­fer­ence in the health­care sys­tem, even if it’s just a small dif­fer­ence, which will ulti­mate­ly lead to larg­er changes being made around Australia.

Hannah

Hi, my name is Han­nah Joseph I am 16 years old and cur­rent­ly a year 10 stu­dent at Faith Luther­an Col­lege in the Barossa Val­ley. I am extra­or­di­nar­i­ly grate­ful for the oppor­tu­ni­ty that has been giv­en to be me to be rep­re­sen­ta­tive on the Tran­si­tion­al Health­care Youth Advi­so­ry Group and am an advo­cate for mak­ing sure the voic­es of Youth in the health­care sys­tem are heard. 

I joined the YAG as I feel pas­sion­ate­ly about improv­ing the lives of those nav­i­gat­ing the health­care sys­tem espe­cial­ly in the tran­si­tion from pae­di­atric to adult ser­vices. I was born with a phys­i­cal dis­abil­i­ty called Char­cot Marie Tooth Dis­ease type 3 which has meant I have spent a great por­tion of my life in phys­i­cal and occu­pa­tion­al ther­a­py and as both an inpa­tient and out­pa­tient at the Women’s and Children’s Hospital. 

I believe hav­ing these first had expe­ri­ences with­in both pub­lic and pri­vate prac­tice is ben­e­fi­cial to the work the YAG is hop­ing to achieve in help­ing youth nav­i­gate tran­si­tion­al health­care. Some hob­bies of mine also includ­ing debat­ing and pub­lic speak­ing and swim­ming, I now work as an assis­tant swim instruc­tor. I am very much look­ing for­ward to the future of the YAG and the YAG’s impact on the health­care system.

Isobella

I am Iso­bel­la Bar­rett and I am 19 years old. I joined the YAG as I hoped to imple­ment some change in the way care is tran­si­tioned in South Aus­tralia as I have had a dif­fi­cult and neg­a­tive expe­ri­ence with ado­les­cent tran­si­tion myself. I have a pas­sion for all things his­to­ry relat­ed includ­ing his­tor­i­cal dress­mak­ing and the gen­er­al study of his­tor­i­cal clothing.

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.

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.