Additional youth services needed - Limestone Coast AOD Regional Summit 2025

A need for more specialised youth drug and alcohol services has been a key point of discussion at Substance Misuse Limestone Coast’s (SMLC) third Regional Summit.

Held at Wulanda on November 29, around 70 frontline workers and community stakeholders attended the summit to hear from a range of guest speakers and discuss ways to address regional service gaps for youth needing specialised support.

As keynote speaker, South Australian Guardian for Children & Young People Shona Reid spoke from the perspective of the young people she sees in her everyday work, including children in foster care, out-of-home care, and also children in youth detention.

Ms Reid said she sees the lack of service access in regional areas across South Australia and highlighted the importance of specialised youth workers.

“Often the children’s voices aren’t the loudest in the room,” Mrs Reid said.

“What children tell us and me is that they are dealing with immense trauma in their lives. Because there aren’t services in our communities to support them, they are finding ways to self-heal or self-medicate.

“It’s time we are able to bring these messages to the funders and our government around what is really needed in our communities.”

SMLC Project Manager Sophie Bourchier said the keynote presentation was both “insightful and passionate”.

“Shona’s words really set the scene for the day, to think about what needs to change and how can we make that happen at a local level, through local solutions,” she said.

Summit attendees were also given an update on how Mount Gambier’s two new Drug and Alcohol Withdrawal Inpatient Beds would operate, a service that SMLC strongly advocated for following previous summit events.

Victorian drug and alcohol service providers WRAD Health CEO Mark Powell and Youth Support & Advocacy Service (YSAS) CEO Andrew Bruun also presented at the event, speaking about their evidence-based treatment approaches for young people.

SANDAS Senior Policy & Project Officer Sam Raven spoke about the multiple forms of stigma that continue to exist around AOD issues, while DASSA Addiction Specialist Dr Bianca Davidde spoke on the emerging threat of nitazenes infiltrating national, state and local drug supply.

Ms Bourchier said attendee feedback showed there is a crucial need for more youth AOD services in the Limestone Coast.

“A lot of services are not funded to provide services to people under the age of 18,” she said. “We’re advocating for change so that youth from the age of 10 are able to access a health service that addresses any drug or alcohol issues they may have. There is a strong need for youth specific clinical services in the region.

“SMLC will now collate all the data and report on those main points raised during the summit and begin to communicate and advocate to those key decision makers about those needs identified for the region.”