The CSIRO outlined the trends in a joint study with VicHealth called Bright Futures in 2015, and the health promotion body recently held workshops with regional youth to gauge their thoughts.

The Border Mail spoke to four members of headspace Albury-Wodonga’s youth reference group – Ethan Coffey-Hill, 15, Nicola Ball, 23, Josh Rickard, 21, and Makayla Pollard-Chivers, 16 – about the research.

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The headspace group supported the study’s findings that young people in rural and regional Victoria feel they need to move away from their hometown after finishing high school to pursue tertiary education, sport or employment opportunities.

“I want to go into law, so there’s nothing locally, but even with open days no one really comes here; you have to go down to Melbourne,” Makayla said.

Similarly for Ethan, there are hurdles between him and his university degree.

“They’re introducing more science courses rurally but you’re better off going to do the cities because there’s more job opportunities,” he said.

Nicola, a medical student, said while UNSW had enabled her to pursue a degree in Albury, she would still have to undertake years of training in the city.

“And that will be at a time in my life where I’ll probably be hoping to meet someone and have kids … people end up staying, even if they wanted to go rural,” she said.

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While city youth are immersed in the ‘gig economy’ – being able to make money through platforms like Uber – young regional people have less opportunity to engage with these platforms.

The Border group said connectivity to internet was no major barrier for them personally, but they agreed physical connectivity could be improved.

“Obviously public transport isn’t great – the study shows 13 per cent compared to 81 per cent (of young people living in regional Victoria and those in major cities using public transport to travel to work respectively),” Nicola said.

Josh commented that working in a school, he saw the rapid changes of digital innovation.

“There’s streaming sites like Twitch where you can film yourself, and one bloke did a 24-hour fidget spinning video for charity,” he said.

“Talking to the kids, they’re really into that and YouTube and that’s become a career path for them now.”

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The study outlined diversity was growing outside of cities, and that community clubs were “the social glue” in many regional areas, but that youth who weren’t part of sporting clubs could experience social exclusion.

“We certainly have a small but strong refugee community and there’s a lot of people working on making the Border a good home for them,” Josh said.

“I think places like the retro youth cafe have created spaces for people outside of sporting clubs, and run activities like anime night that can bring niche groups together.

“There’s always room for improvement.”

Overexposure online: The virtual world is presenting new challenges and opportunities for young people.

The impact social media has on youth is undeniable, but research shows those in regional Victoria are better at disconnecting – being 10 per cent more likely to delete social media contacts than those in cities, and spending less time online generally.

While the Border group spoke about a relatively good experience with social media, headspace community development worker Bree Cross said for many young people the internet played a major role in their lives.

“It’s not necessarily the key thing that would bring someone through the door to get help, but might be part of it …. it’s about them learning how to navigate that and learning how to switch off,” she said.

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The study puts it quite succinctly: “Young people, regardless of where they live, face significant mental health challenges.

“In rural and regional Victoria, the rate of deaths caused by intentional self-harm and suicide has continued to rise, up from over 11 per 100,000 in 2012 to 13 per 100,000 people in 2016 – this is higher than for young people in Greater Melbourne”.

Further, the study noted in 2005 more than 70 per cent of psychiatrists, mental health nurses and registered psychologists were employed in major cities.

Josh believed promotion of support services was key to reaching young people and reflected the study’s findings having to travel for help was a big barrier.

“There’s a lot of material for headspace and places like The Hive in schools; schools are giving referrals and people are talking a lot about it,” he said.

“But if you asked kids in Beechworth or somewhere like that, they might not know where headspace is, or even not be able to get there.

“There’s also kids sleeping rough and I think that has a massive impact on anyone’s mental health.”

Nicola pointed out support for addiction was important too – as the study showed alcohol use was more prevalent in rural and regional areas.

“We’re a long way from any kind of drug rehabilitation facility,” she said.

The issues identified in Bright Futures are by no means new to the 12 young people aged 15 to 25 on the headpsace youth reference group – but they are helping the adults who develop support better understand the reality of the problems.

“It’s great to be on the side to see what’s being done to help with mental health,” Makayla said.