This presentation draws on a program evaluation activity by the Royal Flying Doctor Service’s Outback Mental Health team. It includes the voices of remote service workers providing mental health supports to Aboriginal teens struggling with a range of problems including suicidal ideation and histories of complex, inter-generational trauma.

The paper is structured using the ‘Web of Care’ model, developed collaboratively with Aboriginal communities, to assist in conceptualising and assessing networks of support around mental health clients in remote settings. This is an approach which helps with the visualisation and understanding of not only theoretical supports or connections but the actual impact of these ‘webs’ on the well-being of clients.

This presentation is based on six interviews with service providers I have worked in parallel with, providing support to Aboriginal youths experiencing suicidal crises along with other mental health difficulties. These are remote service workers keenly aware of the limited resources that exist on these margins, as well as the difficulties negotiating cultural boundaries, particularly where dominant, mainstream forces create even greater marginalisation of a people impacted by colonisation and inter-generational trauma. Highlighting this, narrative therapy methodology has been utilised to shift the conversation away from ‘apparent’ or ‘institutional’ care of clients towards the actual enhancements our service connections have been able to create – or not create - in the lives of these teens.

The presentation is supplemented by conversations with some key Aboriginal community members from the small remote communities I work with – I have asked them to comment and add their own thoughts about what could make even more of a difference for highly stressed teens in their communities. Through this process of dialogue, we hope to begin a journey of co-design; developing more robust, culturally appropriate and competent types of support.