Ahead of the federal Budget and upcoming election, headspace National Youth Mental Health Foundation is calling on Australian political leaders to help address increasingly unmet needs and critical gaps in Australia's youth mental health system.
headspace, Australia's flagship youth mental health service, advocates for sustainable funding to strengthen its national network of centres, reduce wait times and expand access.
Key initiatives include funding for 30 metropolitan and large regional headspace centres on par with Medicare Mental Health Centres (MMHCs) and more outreach to young people in rural and remote areas, who often find it hard to seek mental health support due to stigma, distance and cost to access.
To address acute workforce shortages across the mental health sector, headspace stands ready to expand the first-of-its-kind Early Career Program, which places graduates, early career clinicians and a clinical educator in participating headspace centres. Growing the program will create regional training and employment opportunities, immediately boost service capacity, and increase access to positive and supported training experiences that showcase youth mental health as a sector of choice.
headspace CEO, Jason Trethowan, commented: "Our goal at headspace is to ensure that every young person, regardless of location or background, can access the support they need, when they need it.
"The Government's most recent independent evaluation found that headspace is both effective and cost-effective. Much of our success to date comes from our services being informed by young people, by families, and with the expertise of workers from right across the headspace network of nearly 170 centres around the country.
"To keep delivering for young people headspace must continue to evolve and adapt, which means we need stable and sustainable funding to support our youth mental health services. Building on existing trusted models where young people feel safe is the fastest, most cost effective and lowest-risk approach to delivering better access and support for young people."
headspace's priority areas are outlined below:
- Sustain and increase access to services: establish new headspace services; introduce a sustainable, salary-based funding model for all headspace services; increase funding for metropolitan and large regional centres; and expand rural and remote services.
- Grow and develop the youth mental health workforce: build on the success of the headspace Early Career Program to provide education and training infrastructure, and increase the number of graduates and early career clinicians who can support young people.
- Reach and better support at-risk young people: increase culturally safe and appropriate support for First Nations, multicultural, and LGBTIQA+ young people; additional cultural safety training; strengthen suicide prevention for higher education students.
- Help young people stay in work and study: expand the headspace Individual Placement and Support (IPS) program, as recommended by the Productivity Commission, to help young people experiencing mental health challenges as a barrier to gaining and staying in employment and education.
Young people aged 12 to 25, as well as their family and friends, can visit headspace for support. Help is also available via phone and online counselling service eheadspace seven days a week between 9am-1am (AEST). The number is 1800 650 890.
If you're looking for someone to talk to immediately, Lifeline (13 11 14), Kids Helpline (1800 55 1800), and 1800RESPECT (1800 737 732) are available to talk 24/7.
