Five Pillars

Five areas young people told us matter most, and the foundation of everything we make.

Language

Words to describe what you’re feeling and what you need.

Confidence

Trusting your experience and speaking up for it.

Community

Knowing you’re not the only one.

Change

Young people shaping the systems that affect them.

Understand

Know your body, know the system

Health Literacy and Understanding Medical Dismissal give young people the basics: what health words mean, where to go for help, what your rights are, and how to recognise when your concerns aren’t being heard.

See our work

Speak

Break the silence, widen the conversation

Taboo Uplift and Diverse Voice Advocacy tackle the stigma, generational silence and language barriers that keep health unspoken, especially for CALD and LGBTQIA+ young people whose experiences are too often left out.

Lead

From lived experience to real change

Youth-Led Action puts young people in the room where decisions are made, through our Youth Executive Council, consultation and co-design, so their experiences shape services and policy.

Our foundation

The Five Pillars

1.
Health Literacy 101

Understand your body, health language, your rights and where to find support.

2.
Understanding Medical Dismissal

Recognise when you’re not being heard, and find the words to raise it respectfully.

3.
Taboo Uplift

Replace stigma, myths and cultural silence with clear, safe information.

4.
Diverse Voice Advocacy

Centre CALD, LGBTQIA+ and underrepresented youth in health education.

5.
Youth-Led Action

Young people leading, co-designing and advocating for change.

why these five?

Because the gaps are real,
and they start young.

Our five pillars weren’t chosen at random. Each one answers a gap young people told us about, and that the research backs up: not understanding their bodies or the system, not being believed, not being able to talk about it, not seeing themselves in the information, and not having a say.

Together they make one path: understand your health, speak about it without shame and in your own language, and lead the change for the young people who come next.

38.8%of Australians aged 16–24 had a mental disorder in the past year, including 45.5% of young women.2
71%of Victoria’s Women’s Pain Inquiry respondents said they were ignored, dismissed or had their pain minimised.1
6–8 yrsis the average wait between endometriosis symptoms and a diagnosis.6
11%of young adults believe people like them have real influence on government decisions.15
Illustration for Health Literacy 10101
understand

Health Literacy 101

What it means

Health literacy is being able to find, understand and use health information to make decisions about your own body. It means knowing what words like endometriosis, consent or bulk billing actually mean, where to go for help, what a referral is, and what your rights are once you’re in the room.

What it looks like

  • Knowing the difference between a GP, a specialist and a headspace centre
  • Understanding your Medicare card, bulk billing and confidentiality from age 15
  • Being able to tell reliable health information from a viral post

Why it matters

19%of Australians aged 18–24 find it difficult to navigate the healthcare system, the highest of any age group.3
1 in 315–19 year olds had adequate health literacy in the last national measure of its kind.4
44%of women aged 18–44 with bothersome periods never sought medical advice; most thought their symptoms “weren’t bad enough”.5

How Aletheia responds

Voice PacksHealth NavigatorDigital health education
Illustration for Understanding Medical Dismissal02
be heard

Understanding Medical Dismissal

What it means

Medical dismissal is when your symptoms, pain or concerns are brushed off, minimised or not believed. It is most often experienced by girls and women, gender-diverse people, and CALD and LGBTQIA+ young people. This pillar is about recognising dismissal when it happens, and having the words and confidence to raise it respectfully and ask for what you need.

What it looks like

  • Being told pain is “normal” or “just stress” without being examined
  • Waiting years for a diagnosis because symptoms weren’t taken seriously
  • Knowing you can ask for a second opinion, a longer appointment, or to have your concern written down

Why it matters

71%of more than 13,000 people in Victoria’s Inquiry into Women’s Pain said they had been ignored or dismissed, or had their pain minimised. Respondents were aged 12 to 79.1
6–8 yrsis the average time between endometriosis symptoms starting and a diagnosis in Australia.6
53%of inquiry respondents experienced a delayed diagnosis, and the inquiry found the system had been built around male biology.1,8

How Aletheia responds

Self-Advocacy JournalYouth workshopsVoice Packs
Illustration for Taboo Uplift03
break the silence

Taboo Uplift

What it means

Some of the most important health topics are the ones no one talks about: periods, sexual and reproductive health, mental health, bodies that don’t fit the textbook. Silence and shame stop young people from asking questions and seeking care. Taboo Uplift replaces stigma, myths and cultural silence with clear, safe, stigma-free information, and makes these conversations ordinary.

What it looks like

  • Talking about periods, pain and mental health without shame
  • Myth-busting what young people learn online or at home
  • Making sure no one misses out on care, or school, because of cost or embarrassment

Why it matters

64%of Bloody Big Survey respondents found it difficult to buy period products, and 83% of gender-diverse respondents experienced period poverty.9
1 in 5boys and young men aged 16–21 think periods should be kept secret.10
52%of young Australians see stigma around seeking help for mental health, and 40% would rather deal with emotional problems alone.11

How Aletheia responds

Voice PacksEmpower PacksAletheia Talks
Illustration for Diverse Voice Advocacy04
widen the circle

Diverse Voice Advocacy

What it means

Health information is too often written for one kind of young person. Diverse Voice Advocacy centres the young people most often left out: culturally and linguistically diverse, migrant and refugee, First Nations, LGBTQIA+ and disabled young people. It means resources in the languages families speak at home, examples that reflect real lives, and making sure these young people help decide what gets made.

What it looks like

  • Resources translated by bilingual young people and checked by a second volunteer
  • Knowing you can ask for a free interpreter at medical appointments
  • Examples, stories and images that reflect every kind of young person

Why it matters

57%of women and girls who did Victoria’s pain survey in a language other than English sought help for their pain, compared with 95% of all respondents.1
27%of Victorians speak a language other than English at home, across more than 290 languages and dialects.13
77%of LGBTIQA+ young people and 59% of First Nations young people reported high or very high distress, compared with 49% of all young people.12

How Aletheia responds

Multilingual resourcesYouth consultationTranslate with us
Illustration for Youth-Led Action05
lead the change

Youth-Led Action

What it means

Young people are experts in their own lives. Youth-Led Action puts young people in the room where decisions are made, leading, co-designing and advocating for the health services, resources and policies that affect them, rather than having those decisions made for them.

What it looks like

  • Young people designing the resources other young people use
  • Youth voices in consultations with councils, services and government
  • Young researchers asking their own questions and publishing what they find

Why it matters

11%of young Australians aged 19–24 believe people like them have real influence on government decisions, even though 83% are concerned about social issues.15
4,600+young people consulted for the national youth strategy asked to be included in decision-making and to have health information that is easy to understand.16
29%of 17,000+ young people named mental health as a top national issue, second only to cost of living.17

How Aletheia responds

Youth Executive CouncilYouth roundtablesYouth research
why it matters for everyone

Youth health isn’t a niche issue.
It’s the foundation of a healthy society.

The habits, knowledge and confidence young people build now shape their health for life, and the health of the communities, workplaces and families they go on to lead. Investing in young people’s health and voice is one of the smartest things a society can do.

Health literacy is a determinant of health.The World Health Organization says health literacy can predict health more strongly than income, employment, education or ethnicity.18
A tenfold return.Research in The Lancet found investing in adolescent health returns around ten times its cost in health, social and economic benefits.19
A right, not a favour.The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child gives every young person the right to the highest attainable standard of health, and to have their views heard in matters that affect them.20,21
how the pillars work together

Understand. Speak. Lead.

No single resource fixes a system. That’s why every Aletheia program is built around all five pillars, so young people gain the knowledge, the confidence and the platform to change things, for themselves and for each other.

01
Understand

Health Literacy 101 and Understanding Medical Dismissal give young people the knowledge and the words.

02
Speak

Taboo Uplift and Diverse Voice Advocacy make sure every young person can talk about their health, without shame and in their own language.

03
Lead

Youth-Led Action turns lived experience into better resources, services and policy, which makes the next young person’s path easier.

Sources and references (21)
  1. Victorian Department of Health, Bridging the Gender Pain Gap: Inquiry into Women’s Pain report (Nov 2025). www.health.vic.gov.au
  2. ABS, National Study of Mental Health and Wellbeing 2020–22 (2024). www.abs.gov.au
  3. ABS, National Health Survey: Health Literacy, 2018 (2019). www.abs.gov.au
  4. ABS, Australian Social Trends: Health literacy (2009, from the 2006 Adult Literacy and Life Skills Survey, the most recent national measure of this kind). www.ausstats.abs.gov.au
  5. Jean Hailes for Women’s Health, National Women’s Health Survey 2023: Periods and Australian women (2024). www.jeanhailes.org.au
  6. AIHW, Endometriosis (updated May 2025). www.aihw.gov.au
  7. Premier of Victoria, “Women’s Pain Is Real” (Nov 2025). www.premier.vic.gov.au
  8. ABC News, Victoria’s women’s pain inquiry released (Nov 2025). www.abc.net.au
  9. Share the Dignity, Bloody Big Survey 2024 (Aug 2024). www.sharethedignity.org.au
  10. Plan International Australia / YouGov (May 2022). www.plan.org.au
  11. headspace, National Youth Mental Health Survey release (Oct 2023). headspace.org.au
  12. headspace, National Youth Mental Health Survey release (Oct 2025). headspace.org.au
  13. Victorian Department of Health, Multicultural Health Action Plan 2023–27 (2021 Census data). www.health.vic.gov.au
  14. Blay et al., BMC Health Services Research (2018; data from 2014–15). link.springer.com
  15. Australian Institute of Family Studies, Growing Up in Australia (Jul 2026). aifs.gov.au
  16. Australian Government Office for Youth, Engage! youth strategy (2024). www.youth.gov.au
  17. Mission Australia, Youth Survey 2025 (Nov 2025). www.missionaustralia.com.au
  18. World Health Organization, Health literacy fact sheet (2025). www.who.int
  19. Sheehan et al., The Lancet (2017), via EurekAlert. www.eurekalert.org
  20. UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, Articles 12 and 24. www.ohchr.org
  21. PMNCH (WHO-hosted), Global Consensus Statement on Meaningful Adolescent and Youth Engagement. pmnch.who.int

Health is a conversation that includes all of us.

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