Urgent Help
IS THIS AN EMERGENCY? Are you or others in danger? Do you need an ambulance or the police? 24 HOURS
Lifeline 24 hour phone line for crisis support and suicide prevention. 24 HOURS
13YARN 24 hour crisis phone line support for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. 24 HOURS

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Tara’s story

There are many reasons young people come to YSAS. For Tara Shultz, it was a problem with marijuana. But, at age 16 she braved the rain, caught the bus to Frankston and knocked on our door.

Young Person  
19.11.2024

When I was 15, I drank so much that I fell unconscious on my bed. My dad rang me and I wasn’t able to speak to him, and he freaked out. We had to go to the hospital and the nurses were asking me questions like ‘do you drink a…

YSAS Worker  
04.11.2024

Lake Majstorovic is passionate about improving the lives of LGBTIQA+ young people. Growing up as a non-binary person in the Frankston area, they experienced first-hand what it’s like when mental health services aren’t designed for you. “There is a real dearth of understanding, and a kind of fear and hesitation…

YSAS Worker  
10.10.2024

When Marcus first learned about intersectionality, it was a light bulb moment. “It’s a theory from black feminists who are talking about a subjective experience they’ve had… about what it means to be a black woman, to be queer,” they say. For Marcus, an African American queer person with lived…

YSAS Worker  
26.09.2024

Support for young people often takes a one-size-fits-all approach. Youth worker Cihan Tohumcuer has seen how this cookie-cutter model has left Victoria’s Muslim community behind. Cihan is Muslim himself and grew up in Melbourne’s north watching many of his brothers and cousins using and dealing drugs. “Back…

YSAS Worker  
24.09.2024

Dave Pettingill has felt like a youth worker since he was three. He grew up with many foster brothers and sisters, and eventually, his parents used the family home as crisis accommodation. He loved meeting so many different kids. “From an early age I could see that…

Young Person  
03.11.2023

There’s an old saying in social work: if you want to help people, you have to meet them where they are. For Akash Nadar, that meant heading over to his parents’ house in the back of a police van.*

The year was 2019, and Akash’s home life, which…

YSAS Worker  
03.11.2023

They call it the Experience Paradox: to get a job, you need experience; but to get experience, you need a job. Larry De’Corso understands the problem well. After completing their Master of Social Work, Larry spent months looking for work in their chosen field of youth mental health.…

Young Person  
03.11.2023

When Kelly* came to YSAS, she was 17 and looking for help. “I was having problems with alcohol,” she remembers, “and using marijuana and ice.” After chatting with a case worker, she decided to enter one of YSAS’s withdrawal units. And though she occasionally found detox “overwhelming”, she…