W.A PSYCHOLOGIST TO LEAD "ARMY" AGAINST YOUTH SUICIDE

Western Australian Psychologist and Nyamal woman, Doctor Tracy Westerman pushed for an “army” of psychologists to tackle youth suicide in Indigenous comminutes and her dream may come true.

Doctor Westerman organised a concert in Perth to raise money for her cause last Friday on World Suicide Prevention Day and promoted the event on ABC’s ‘The Drum’ program, with all proceeds going towards the psychologist scholarship program she created in 2018.

The response to her appearance on the program was immense.

“Because I got off the interview literally we get notified every time I get a donation by our email and our site actually crashed and thankfully our um, I think I was in front of the computer and reboot it and it literally did

not stop the days and we have now as of this morning we have now had $76,000 worth of donations across Australia just all over the place as a result 10 minute appearance on ABC’s The Drum.”

Doctor Westerman told Ngaarda Breakfast.

“So we were able to announce 11 indigenous new scholarships on the night. Now they joined 15 that we announced in our first year in 2020. So that effectively means that we now have 26 future indigenous

psychologists just in 12 months of the junior Institute that we are financially and supporting as well as obviously I also personally mentor all of them and best practice.”

Western Australia has the highest rate of Indigenous suicide in the country, followed by the Northern Territory and Queensland.