Investment in youth mental health ensures continued support for young people across Australia

headspace National Youth Mental Health Foundation welcomes the Minister for Health’s announcement of continued investment to support the delivery of the headspace platform.

headspace Chair Lisa Paul said the boost will extend the important early intervention work of headspace around the country and ensure young people’s voices are heard.

“headspace will help approximately 110,000 young people across Australia this year who are experiencing a tough time,” she said.

“With one in three young people (32%) experiencing high or very high levels of psychological distress, this investment will help to strengthen our core services to ensure more young people can access support tailored to their needs.”
This injection is being allocated to the headspace national program which allows it to ensure young people have access to and are receiving the services and support they need. Specifically, the renewal of funding will ensure headspace continues to: 

• Ensure that the headspace network supporting young people has access to ongoing professional development specific to the needs of young people.
• Raise community awareness that promotes help seeking, increased mental health literacy, and reduced stigma.
• Undertake research and build the evidence base that supports continuous improvement and best practice for youth mental health. 

Additional funding has also been provided to establish a young ambassadors for mental health project, which engages young leaders from the mental health sector to identify ways to reduce the stigma associated with mental health.

This important initiative is currently in development in partnership with Orygen, ReachOut, SANE, Mind Australia, Black Dog Institute, Beyondblue, The Butterfly Foundation, Batyr and the Consumers Health Forum of Australia.

The Hon Greg Hunt MP, Minister for Health, said “I am committed to ensuring that Australians can get information, advice, understanding, counselling and treatment, when and where they need it. I want our young people to know they are not alone on their journey, and that headspace is there to deliver quality frontline support and coordinate the right interventions for people who are at risk.”

The extension of funding cements headspace as the Government’s key youth mental health platform and will ensure that headspace has stable funding to continue the vital work it does to support young people who are experiencing mental health issues.

Since inception, headspace has enjoyed bipartisan support from both sides of government which demonstrates the importance of addressing youth mental across the Australian community.

For media enquiries please contact: Stephanie Fonti, headspace Communications Coordinator on 0413 025 385 or sfonti@headspace.org.au

See Minister for Health’s announcement.