The Wire

National Youth Week began on Monday and so the release of the Telethon Survey is timely given the picture it provides on how Indigenous kids are coping. The study says almost a quarter of Aboriginal children are susceptible to mental illness, compared with only fifteen percent in the wider population. High rates of smoking, alcohol and drug use, and sexual activity were also reported among the young people in the study. But what do young Aboriginal people themselves think? Mundinara Bayles is a 21-year-old Indigenous woman working in Brisbane, and says the survey gives an accurate snapshot of the young Aboriginal community.