Youth and Family Participation

There are 3 different kinds of participation and they are equally important. Here's a brief run-down on what they are.

Participation in care planning and support
Participation at this level focuses on young people and families being included, respected and empowered as partners in decisions about their care, treatment and support.

Service co-design, delivery and improvement
This involves young people and families participating in consultations, focus groups, co-design activities and feedback processes to guide how we plan and deliver services. This could include input on opening hours, resources, programs, through to bigger projects and how the centre looks and feels.

Governance, Leadership and Strategic Decision-Making
This level of participation involves opportunities to feed into organisational policy, decisions and priorities.It can involve being part of the headspace Consortium, project committees or specific consultation groups that contribute to the direction of services and how we provide support.

Youth Advisory Council
headspace Southport's Youth Advisory Council (YAC) is a group of passionate young people who meet regularly to give guidance and feedback, collaborate on events and campaigns, create social media content and help make sure young people’s voices are being heard by the service. They meet 8 times per year and have additional opportunities to join staff on interview panels, at conferences, planning days and other cool projects. If you love leadership, advocating for mental health and hanging out with like-minded change-makers...YAC is for you! Find out more and apply here

Friends of headspace
Friends of headspace is a group of young people, parents, carers, friends and other community members who's input and voices help shape our local headspace services. You choose how you want to be involved and how often. Join a committee, attend our planning days, respond to a quick survey or have your say on the design of a resource.
There’s something for everyone. Your ideas and input help us stay connected to what's important to our community, and ensure your needs and preferences are considered in how we plan and deliver our services. Keen to get involved? click here to register your details.

Greater Gold Coast headspace Consortium
The headspace Consortium acts as a ‘committee' of youth services and stakeholders working together through a locally responsive platform to provide collaboration, strategic direction, partnership opportunities and resources to enhance the headspace service’s capacity to meet local community needs. We meet 4 x per year in person at either headspace Upper Coomera or Southport and welcome expressions of interest from friends and family of young people who attend headspace. To find out more or express your interest, email participation@liveslivedwell.org.au

Tell Us About It
We welcome feedback, suggestions, compliments and complaints from young people, their friends and family.   
Sharing your experience and ideas helps us to know what we’re doing well, and how we can make improvements. This information goes to our leadership team and directly influences policies, procedures, and how we plan and deliver our services. You can remain anonymous and there are a number of ways to tell us what's on your mind

• Fill in the Tell Us About It form in the waiting room and drop it in the box in centre
• Complete the digital Tell Us About It form here
• Speak to a team member in the centre
• Sharing online via Care Opinion
• or via headspace national feedback  

Talk to your headspace supports
If you, a family member or support person want to know more about how you can be involved in your own journey at headspace, we're here to listen and share. Talk to your headspace clinician, peer support worker, the reception team or any other staff member. We can support you to learn more about your rights, how to get involved in YAC, how to give feedback or raise a concern, or simply guide you through all there is to know about headspace. You're part of our community. You, and your voice are valued here. 

Young people, their families and carers have a wealth of knowledge born of their lived experience, and they're often willing to share it for the greater good.

We accept requests from external services and organisations who are seeking to hear from young people and their caregivers through consultations, focus groups, research activities, or other opportunities that would benefit from lived experience and youth perspectives.

Requests are reviewed through an internal triage process to ensure participation opportunities are meaningful, ethical and aligned with our service scope, values, and best-practice standards.

To learn more, and to request participation from the headspace community of young people and their caregivers, complete the request below. 

Make a participation request