headspace The National Youth Mental Health Foundation is now the largest provider of youth mental health care across Australia. It was initiated in 2006 as the Australian Government’s response to high levels of need for mental health care and low levels of service use among adolescents and young adults aged 12-25 years. The growing headspace platform represents an innovative reorientation in youth mental health service delivery. The platform includes headspace centres which are designed as highly accessible, youth-friendly, integrated service hubs and networks providing evidence-based interventions across the core streams of mental health, alcohol and other drugs, general health and vocational support services. There are now 76 headspace centres across the country, with 100 projected to be open in 2016. An online and telephone service, eheadspace, commenced in 2010, increasing the reach of headspace services by providing young Australians and their families access to evidence-based mental health services in a time, space and place that suits them. In 2014, headspace extended its services to include young people experiencing early psychosis or who are at risk of developing psychosis, delivering the Australian government’s national early psychosis initiative. This symposium will provide an update on the rapid progress of headspace, describing the growing platform of services and what these are achieving for young people in Australia with mental health care needs.

Access and engagement for young people at headspace centres

headspace centres prioritise access, engagement and acceptability for all young people with concerns about their mental health and wellbeing. This paper will describe how headspace centres are responsive to the needs of young people by ensuring they are youth-friendly and participative, enable early access, and provide a holistic care approach. The characteristics of young people accessing headspace services will be reported, showing how services are meeting the needs of a diverse client group through a no wrong door policy, while still facilitating access early in the development of mental health problems. Understanding what young people want and need is an ongoing focus, and the ways that this information is obtained through participation at the organisational level and also through shared decision making in clinical care will be described. The types of services that young people need and their main presenting issues, as well as the unique needs of some special youth population groups will be explained. It will be shown how these factors are effective in increasing access and engagement in mental health care for this high need age group.

Expanding service options online through eheadspace

headspace has undergone rapid expansion in recent years and the development of an online treatment service through eheadspace has been a cornerstone of the organisation’s growth. Since its inception, eheadspace has experienced consistently growing demand and in 2014 provided direct support to over 15000 young people, family members and friends. As headspace rolls out early psychosis services across the country, eheadspace is providing 24 hour electronic and telephone services to compliment the treatments young people and their families receive through traditional face to face programs. In addition to out-of-hours supports, there is immense potential for young people to access online communities, assertive support and creating connections to services beyond treatment discharge. An overview will be provided of eheadspace treatments, approaches toward demand management and practice evaluation. Additionally, opportunities for embedding ehealth practice across face to face services will be discussed.

Adding early psychosis services to the headspace platform

headspace has begun delivering a national program of early psychosis services by building on and enhancing the existing headspace platform. These services are for young people aged 12 to 25, who are experiencing early psychosis or at high risk of developing a psychotic disorder. The initial roll-out will see the establishment of nine centres nationally which will deliver the 16 core components of the model of care developed and evaluated by the Early Psychosis Prevention and Intervention Centre (EPPIC), with the capacity to tailor services to suit the local context. Services will reflect existing headspace culture in being youth-friendly, accepting and flexible, delivering early psychosis services in a consistent and responsive manner with the aim to expand access to specialist early intervention treatment and improve continuity of care. This innovation in service delivery, which will see tertiary mental health care delivered for the first time in a youth-specific, community-based environment, reflects a significant leap in youth mental health reform and will see headspace positioned as the world’s largest provider of early psychosis services. This paper will provide a detailed overview of the model of service delivery and the process of implementation. It will cover issues related to service development, stakeholder collaboration, clinical governance, workforce profiles and fully addressing the needs of young people experiencing or at risk of first episode psychosis.