Bunbury students win big at Innovation Think Tank event

Three South West high schools have gathered 40 students together to come up with new ways for young people to access mental health services. It was part of the Innovation Think Tank event in partnership with the WA Country Health Service, with Bunbury Cathedral Grammar School, Newton Moore Senior High School and Cape Naturaliste College taking part. They met in a preliminary competition for the best ideas on Friday at BCGS, who won a place in the grand final of the program. WACHS innovation manager Wendy Winters said it was clear the students had put time and effort into helping improve the accessibility of mental health services for young people. “They all came with some really great solutions — we had things along the lines of looking at using digital technology, and bringing more trained mental health staff to country communities,” she said. “One of the student teams had looked at how they could embed mental health education into the school curriculum, as well as lots of co-designing solutions with youth and community, which was fantastic. “ Ms Winters said the winning solution was the Outback Reach Project from BCGS which will soon come up against other winning ideas in the grand final, with the ultimate winner set to be applied in the health services industry. “They proposed how they could use telephone booths from Telstra, the 14,400 that exist, and turn them into mental health hotline hubs, working with communities to co-design art and bring that message out to community about how to access the current services that are out there,” she said. One of the winning students, Justin Margono, said most of the participating students were keen to learn about the health system and were considering a career in the sector. “Most of us decided to participate in this competition to gain some experience in medical thinking, “ he said. “With the prospect of going into medical school next year, it was a good way to just see how the medical industry functions and how they think.” BCGS student David Nelson Palmer said the competition was a chance to think outside the usual school curriculum. “It gave us a chance to get creative, think of some cool ideas for a problem that you would not really think about normally,” he said. The Innovation Think Tank Program has been running since 2019, with this year’s grand final to be held on September 12 at Fiona Stanley Hospital.