SALLY BRYANT, HOST: We’ve been doing Free Kick Friday a day early because I’m away tomorrow, and something that’s happening tomorrow is a celebration of the fact that young people across the Riverina have now got greater access to free mental healthcare, because there’s the opening of the new and expanded headspace at Wagga. The official opening happens tomorrow, and Assistant Minister for Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Emma McBride will be on hand to do the honours. And she’s joining me this morning to talk about why this is important. Good morning.
ASSISTANT MINISTER EMMA
MCBRIDE: Good morning Sally, good to be with you.
BRYANT:
What services does headspace provide for young people?
MCBRIDE: headspace
provides critical services to young people in the heart of their communities.
And we know that young people, particularly living in Australia, that sometimes
these services have been hard to find affordably and close to where they live.
So I was so pleased that our government has committed more than $900,000 to be
able to expand this headspace centre to make sure that more young people in the
Riverina are able to access that care, whether it's mental health support,
whether it's support for work and study, or all of the other things that young
people need to be able to get wraparound support to thrive.
BRYANT: So
life is increasingly complicated for us all, but notably for young people.
They've got to negotiate an increasingly complex world. And it's not always
easy to access the help you need in a rural or remote region. So how does
headspace help those young people who might find it hard to get to a central
hub like Wagga?
MCBRIDE: headspace
also has digital services, eheadspace. So if a young person isn't able to get
into headspace Wagga, they can connect with eheadspace. headspace also does
outreach, so that headspace services can reach out to where young people are.
Typically, they visit local high schools, they have connections in community
centres, to make sure that whatever the young person's preference is or
whatever their circumstances are, they can importantly access headspace
services.
BRYANT: Now,
I gather there's a commitment from the government to upgrade a number of
headspace services, including the Wagga service, to headspace Plus. Can you
describe to me what that will mean?
MCBRIDE: headspace
Plus is a really important new part of our network of headspaces. You may
recall or your listeners would know that headspace began almost 20 years ago
when young people were experiencing mild to moderate symptoms, and it was an
alternative to going to a family GP. We now know young people in the last- in
any 12-month period, up to one in three young people might experience mental
health distress. We know that there is a growing group of young people that
need support sooner, and that earlier intervention can help to be able to mean
that they can live much more healthy and active lives. So headspace Plus will
be a new model of care, importantly co-designed with young people so that we
know that it meets the needs of young people [indistinct].
BRYANT: [Talks
over] So how will it differ from what is there at the moment?
MCBRIDE: What
it will mean is that for young people with more complex needs or more severe or
ongoing conditions, that headspace Plus will now be able to meet those needs
for them in the community. Some headspaces have been recourse to do that in
some parts of our community, but what we're going to do is uplift more than 30
headspaces around the country, including, importantly, the headspace in Wagga,
to make sure that we meet what's now described as that missing middle for
younger people with more complex needs that might need more clinical support,
more specialist psychologists or psychiatrists, more peer support from young
people who've walked in their shoes.
BRYANT: This
headspace centre is at 141 Peter Street in Wagga, and there is an official
event happening tomorrow. What's going to take place in Wagga tomorrow?
MCBRIDE: Importantly,
it'll be a celebration for the community and for young people. We always have
young people from the local headspace who have been part of the co-design, be
part of that. headspace is about young people, designed for young people and
delivered with young people in mind.
BRYANT:
Thanks so much for your time this morning, Minister. That is Emma McBride,
Assistant Minister for Mental Health and Suicide Prevention. I apologise for
the quality of that audio, apparently there was an issue with the Minister's
phone. But it is good news to hear that there's investment happening in young
people's mental health in the regions, and it's going to be interesting to see
what changes take place as part of that move from headspace to headspace Plus.