Media Centre

High school teachers are being urged to guide students to Kids Helpline and to use new school resources to help teenagers deal with the online body-shaming abuse

Kids Helpline plays an important role as a safety net to support young people. The pandemic has intensified the level of support required by young people who continue to contact Kids Helpline.

This year the intensity of support required by young people contacting us for counselling has increased.

Pyjamas and toys are desperately needed for the mothers and children staying at yourtown's Domestic and Family Violence Refuge. 

Kids Helpline reveals it has gone from receiving on average 6,000 contacts per week to now receiving up to 10,000 per week.

This funding will grow My Circle, our world first, purpose-built, counsellor-moderated mental health and emotional wellbeing social media platform.

The COVID-19 lockdown and containment measures, along with other aspects of the COVID-19 pandemic, has impacted on the mental health of Australian children and young people.

Kids Helpline, a service of yourtown, has announced extra counsellors have been engaged to respond to increased demand from children and young people. Children and young people are contacting Kids Helpline in increasing numbers relating to significant issues around child abuse, mental health, self-harm and suicidality. 

New data has revealed that children and young people are contacting Kids Helpline in increasing numbers regarding Child abuse, Mental Health, Self-harm and Suicidality. Calls regarding these significant issues accounted for 48.4% of all contacts in 2020 compared to 45.5% of all contacts through the same three-month period in 2019.

With the majority of Queensland public school students returning to school next week, yourtown is calling on parents and carers to take this time to look after their own mental wellbeing.