Spotlight: Royal Flying Doctor Service - Warren LDAT

Warren is a town in the Orana Region of New South Wales, 120km northwest of Dubbo.

The Shire has a population of 2,600 people and it’s known for its wetlands and large-scale art on the local water tower.

While it’s a beautiful place, rural living can have its challenges for young people.

The Warren Local Drug Action Team (LDAT) is working with schools and young people to help address some of the associated risk factors for alcohol and other drug (AOD) harm.

The challenge

Luke Braund is the GROW (Guiding Rural and Outback Wellbeing) Program Coordinator at the Royal Flying Doctor Service. He says that in the rural area, alcohol, cannabis and vaping are focus points for the LDAT’s prevention efforts.

Getting involved in recreation activities is a protective factor against AOD harm. Warren is a sporting town, especially enjoying rugby, and there’s also a new gym and sporting complex. But despite the options on offer, Luke has noticed participation going down.

“Due to being a rural town, a lot of youth go away for boarding school. This does decrease numbers, providing less opportunity for engagement through sports.”

Another barrier is the distance that families have to travel from other local towns to get their kids to sporting or social activities.

Age restrictions at the gym and a lack of mentors to show young people the ropes can also mean it’s harder for young locals to take advantage of the new sporting complex.

When it comes to health and support services for young people in Warren, they are available but not all families are aware of what's actually there.

The solution

The Warren LDAT’s ‘Healthy Bodies and Minds’ Community Action Plan (CAP), led by the Royal Flying Doctor Service, builds on earlier prevention and community mobilisation work that the group has done.

The LDAT has been active in the community for a few years, working to strengthen social connection and wellbeing and build awareness of local supports.

Following a successful 2024 community event featuring Aussie FMX (freestyle motocross) and a ‘Let’s Cook’ program, the LDAT saw that the local community wanted practical, health-focused activities they could get involved in. So the Healthy Bodies and Minds CAP was designed to combine structured wellbeing sessions with a second large community event.

The star of this CAP was GROW Warren Day - a free whole-of-community day out, delivered with local schools, youth services and health organisations.

Re-engaging the Aussie FMX crew helped attract young people and families. And it also provided a great opportunity to share health promotion messages, provide service information, and support positive role modelling through the rider meet-and-greet.

In addition, a six-week Healthy Bodies and Minds program at the Warren Shire Council community space provided yoga, breathwork, mindfulness, Pilates and healthy lifestyle planning activities, alongside AOD education and service information.

The program aimed to improve physical and mental wellbeing, increase social connection, and build participants’ knowledge of alcohol and other drug harms and local support pathways.

Luke explains that the activities were chosen on the back of feedback from locals.

For this CAP, the LDAT also wanted to link in with audiences that it hadn’t previously connected.

Promotion through local school partnerships meant they could engage with parents and grandparents and including gentle physical activities ensured that the sessions were more accessible for a wider range of abilities and age groups.

“A lot of people believe that they're not fit enough or not confident enough to participate in these things. But we negated a lot of those barriers and gave them an opportunity to get out,” Luke said.

The progress

The Warren LDAT saw fantastic results, especially from its community event.

The GROW Warren Day was held in September 2025. Despite poor weather, around 24 services and local partners turned out, and 250 adults and young people (aged 10 and over) took part – well above the target of 200 attendees.

Luke said that the enthusiasm was a welcome surprise, as getting locals engaged in rural farming towns can be a challenge for many reasons.

“The community event went extremely well compared to other ones. We do hold similar days in a lot of our communities that we service. And Warren is sometimes a tough community to crack. It is a farming community, so it's hard to get families and community members out.

“Even though it was raining, we still had 200 plus out there engaging, talking to services, gaining resources and having those conversations that they might not normally have.

“It's been really well received on both ends, from the services’ perspective as well as community members,” Luke said.

And getting local sporting heroes on board made all the difference for young people. The day was headlined by motocross legend Brodie Carmichael, a three-time world champion, along with the Aussie FMX team.

“Having that engagement with the FMX was really good. We had the riders come and do a Q&A, helping guide the youth in the community.”

Evaluation with young people, aged 11 to 17, showed strong positive outcomes.

Of those surveyed in the FMX meet-and-greet queue, 93% reported knowing more about the harms of risky drinking and vaping, 96% felt more connected to their community, and 82% felt more capable of seeking help from local services.

The team aimed to survey 30 young people but engaged 60, with most responses indicating either ‘yes’ or ‘a bit’ of improvement across the measures included.

For the Healthy Bodies and Minds sessions, attendance averaged five participants per workshop, with a total reach of 30 across six weeks. It came in below the target of 10 per session and was likely affected by limited promotion capacity.

Survey feedback from the people who did attend was positive – 100% said they knew more about alcohol and drug harms after the sessions, 80% felt more confident encouraging others to join healthy activities, 100% felt more connected to their community, and 80% felt better equipped to seek help from local services.

Advice to other LDATs

Luke’s advice to other LDATs is to really nurture local partnerships.

“Build up relationships with other organisations, whether it's sporting clubs or youth-based groups that are present in your communities.”

This could mean further developing activities or programs that already exist in the community.

“You don't have to always reinvent things, just try and improve on what’s there and see what else is needed.”

Luke also strongly advises consulting directly with young people, whose perspective may not be heard enough.

“Adults can speak about what they think their own children or students need, but kids provide more insight into what they actually want and really need.

“It’s important to make sure those conversations identify if there are gaps in the community that might need to be addressed and then focus your activities on that,” he advises.

Luke also strongly advises consulting directly with young people, whose perspective may not be heard enough.

“Adults can speak about what they think their own children or students need, but kids provide more insight into what they actually want and really need.

“It’s important to make sure those conversations identify if there are gaps in the community that might need to be addressed and then focus your activities on that,” he advises.