Mental Health

Fact sheet: Mental health, wellbeing and suicide prevention initiatives supporting children and young people

The Australian Government is committed to supporting the mental health and wellbeing of children and young people through the following initiatives. These initiatives work to build the resilience of young people and promote protective factors which reduce the likelihood of suicide.

Fact sheet: Mental health, wellbeing and suicide prevention initiatives supporting children and young people (PDF 26 KB)

headspace: Youth Mental Health initiative
eheadspace
headspace: School Support
Access to Allied Psychological Services (ATAPS) Child Mental Health Service (CMHS)
MindMatters
KidsMatter
National Suicide Prevention Program (NSPP)

headspace: Youth Mental Health Initiative

• headspace provides a national coordinated focus on youth mental health and related drug and alcohol problems and aims to improve access for young people aged 12-25 years to appropriate services and ensure better coordination between services.
  
  
• The headspace model provides for holistic care in four key areas - mental health, physical health, alcohol and other drug use, and social and vocational support.
  
  
• The model provides a service platform for and entry point to existing services by engaging a range of youth workers and mental health professionals, but also referring young people to other appropriate services.
  
  
• The 2011-12 budget allocated $197.3 million over five years, on top of a current commitment of $133.3 million to 2013-14, to provide funding for 90 fully sustainable headspace sites across Australia by 2014-15. Once all 90 sites are fully established, headspace will help up to 72,000 young people each year. The headspace sites are being rolled out in a number of rounds.
  
  
• There are currently 40 youth friendly sites around Australia which provide information, promote early detection and offer integration of existing mental health, broader health and substance misuse services.
  
  
• Further information on headspace services and site locations is available at www.headspace.org.au Top of page

eheadspace

• In addition to the rollout of further headspace sites, a telephone and web-based support service for young people building on the headspace platform is providing services.
  
  
• This eheadspace service provides free, confidential and anonymous counselling services to young people between the ages of 12 and 25 years with, or at risk of developing, a mild to moderate mental illness. The service also provides referrals to other appropriate services, including mental health, alcohol and drug, social and vocational services.
  
  
• This service is an alternative approach for young people to access support and help, and will use online communication tools that many young people have indicated is a preferred way of communication and accessing support services.
  
  
• eheadspace can be contacted at www.eheadspace.org.au or on 1800 650 890 (free call). Top of page

headspace: School Support

• The headspace School Support program is a nationwide network of state and territory based teams to provide outreach postvention services from local headspace sites or other local services, to work collaboratively with government and non-government schools in the event of a suicide.
  
  
• headspace has been funded $18.7 million over three years to 2013-14 to deliver the service under the Mental Health: Taking Action to Tackle Suicide package.
  
  
• This service is designed to respond to, and work with schools in the event of a suicide in order to minimise the distress caused to staff and students, and to coordinate the appropriate services and resources required in the event of a suicide.
  
  
• The service will integrate with and complement current headspace activities, and have links to and complement other Commonwealth funded initiatives including MindMatters, the national mental health promotion initiative for secondary schools and StandBy, a community-based program that provides a 24 hour coordinated crisis suicide postvention response.
  
  
• headspace School Support commenced on 16 January 2012 with web-based information and resources available, and email and telephone support in place. These can be accessed at www.headspace.org.au/schoolsupport or on 1800 688 248 (free call). While the service is targeted at secondary school staff, anyone can make an enquiry, participate in the needs assessment process and receive information and guidance. Top of page

Access to Allied Psychological Services (ATAPS) Child Mental Health Service (CMHS)

• Children who have, or are at risk of, developing a mental, childhood behavioural or emotional disorder will benefit from additional services provided through the ATAPS initiative. Additional funding is being provided to Medicare Locals to improve access to psychological services for children under 12 years of age, and their families.
  
  
• Further information on ATAPS CMHS is available through your GP or by contacting your Medicare Local.
  
  
• A list of Medicare Locals, including contact information, can be found at www.yourhealth.gov.au/internet/yourhealth/publishing.nsf/content/medilocprofiles.

MindMatters

• MindMatters is a national mental health initiative for Australian secondary schools. It aims to increase a school’s capacity to implement a ‘whole-school’ approach to mental health promotion, prevention and early intervention and involves providing hardcopy resource materials, a website, professional development and implementation support for teachers and school personnel.
  
  
• MindMatters has been implemented by the Principals Australia Institute Inc since its inception in 2000. Since then, MindMatters professional development has been accessed by 83% of schools with secondary enrolment across Australia. Top of page

KidsMatter

• KidsMatter Primary is the national primary school mental health promotion, prevention and early intervention initiative.
  
  
• Under the Mental Health: Taking Action to Tackle Suicide package the Australian Government will invest $18.4 million over four years in funding for the expansion of KidsMatter Primary to a further 1,700 schools by June 2014, taking the total number of participating schools to 2,000. Further information is available at www.kidsmatter.edu.au.

National Suicide Prevention Program (NSPP)

• The NSPP is the Australian Government funding program dedicated to suicide prevention activities. The funding allocation covers two streams of activities:
  • community-based projects impacting on issues at a local level and
  • national investment largely taking a population health approach and supporting infrastructure and research.
    
    
• The NSPP supports suicide prevention projects at both the national and local level. The NSPP is currently supporting 14 projects that undertake activity targeting young people. Specific projects include:
  • The Peer Support Program ($458,298 2011-12 to 2012-13), delivered by Peer Support Foundation, is a national peer-led program which fosters the mental, physical and social well-being of young people and their community by supporting positive cultural change within schools.
  • The Response to Youth Suicide in Greater Geelong ($58,671 2011-12 to 2012-13) is delivered by Anglicare Victoria to conduct Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training (ASIST) courses for secondary school teachers.