Co-production in action: Youth Advisory Board making an impact through the Youth Priorities Project
In April of 2025, the Matilda Centre published The Coproduced Youth Priorities Project: Australian Youth Priorities for Mental Health and Substance Use Prevention Research in the academic journal Health Expectations. The study surveyed over 660 young Australians to understand their views on what should be prioritised in mental health and substance use prevention research. Previous activities have worked to identify Australians’ priorities for mental health research, but none have centred young people as primary stakeholders, making this a first of its kind in Australia.
A Coproduction Research Team (CPRT), which consisted of two members of the Matilda Centre Youth Advisory Board (YAB), two researchers and three coordinators was established to lead and contribute to the project. Youth CPRT members were involved in all stages of the research including agenda setting, coproducing the research design and protocol, developing recruitment materials, recruiting participants , collecting data , facilitating focus groups and even presenting findings to stakeholders at conferences.
Infographic: the nine recommendations brought by the Youth Priorities Project. The recommendations include:
- increase economic support for young people
- increase funding for evidence-based prevention in schools
- reduce barriers to accessing mental health support
- consider youth mental health in policy and implementation across all departments of government
- close the gap in mental health
- assess current prevention initiatives for effectiveness and scale up the most effective
- increase funding to help parents support young people, especially in early childhood
- increase funding for research to create stronger prevention and treatment programs
- ensure people with lived experience can engage in education adn employment opportunities
At the end of the project, young people had identified five final principles for investment and nine priorities for youth mental health and substance use prevention research. They also made eight recommendations for actions that governments can take immediately to support youth mental health.
The YAB continues to be involved in the paper’s development by participating in conceptualizing and producing content to promote the paper’s findings via social media in the format of reels.
Engaging diverse stakeholders who hold direct lived experience is a crucial element to developing research that is translatable, relevant and impactful. The Matilda Centre Youth Advisory Board’s contribution to the Youth Priorities Project exemplifies the tangible benefits of co-design and co-production not only for enhancing research quality, but for the opportunities and learnings it awards Lived Experience partners too. The Matilda Centre Youth Advisory Board looks forward to collaborating on further co-produced research projects in the future to continue to bring young people’s voices to the forefront of health and policy conversations.
Read the full paper: The Coproduced Youth Priorities Project: Australian Youth Priorities for Mental Health and Substance Use Prevention Research.
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