The Labor party has announced a $197 million scheme for ‘headspace Plus’, a network of resource centres they say will fill the “missing middle” in youth mental health services.
Shadow Mental Health Minister Deborah O’Neill says that headspace Plus will cater to those with mental illness more severe than what headspace is currently equipped to deal with but not severe enough for hospitalisation.
Currently, mental health service headspace caters to young people aged 12-25 who have mild to moderate mental illness.
“In 2013, when Mr Abbott was elected, one of the first things he did was tear up the national health partnership agreements,” O’Neill told The Feed.
“We knew that was already fragile but when Tony Abbott broke it, we ended up with a very big gap and that is the gap that has to be addressed.”
Young people with access to a headspace Plus centre will also be entitled to 30 subsidised psychologist sessions under the Better Access scheme. Currently, people with a mental health plan administered by a general practitioner are entitled to 10 sessions.
What if you’re outside the cities?
If Labor wins at the May 18 federal election, it has vowed to trial the headspace Plus centers in four areas - Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne and Tasmania.
headspace CEO Jason Trethowan told The Feed that Labor made the final decisions on where the resource centres will be located and while these centres will be beneficial he would like to see them go further.
“What Labor has announced will be a gamechanger, I believe. You have to start somewhere to provide services to the ‘missing middle’ of the mental health system,” he said.
“I’d love to see a Labor investment in rural and remote areas, I guess what the Labor party has done is chosen Tasmania as the trial rural site.”
Senator O’Neill couldn’t comment on whether the scheme will be rolled out to rural and remote areas in the future.
“We need the expertise of the people that are in the academic field as well as the response capacity in the cities to get a handle on what’s going on,” O’Neill said.
We need to bide our time.
“This is a really significant investment, we need to have a look at what we’re doing and how we can partner with the states to provide a broader more sustained network over time.”
Trethowan agrees that headspace Plus provides a vital opportunity to connect mental health services at a state and federal level.
“It’s not enough to change everything because it’s coming out of mostly metropolitan areas but what Labor have done is started to fund a concept that will be very appealing for state governments to invest in,” Trethowan said.
What we all want is one system.
Online help overlooked
While headspace welcomes the significant investment from Labor, Trethowan says it overlooks the important work conducted by its online help services.
“Online is where a lot of young people are seeking support, it's often a soft entry for people that are anxious about getting help ,” Tretheown said.
headspace online counsellors are available from 9am to 1am, seven days a week. The eheadspace service is one-on-one and completely free.
“Both parties can’t just say that it’s all about going into a face-to-face service because we know that transport, social isolation and rural isolation are all factors in people not seeking support when they need too,” explained Tretheown.
“We have to be able to provide a safe service but we could reach so many more young rural and remote Australians with support for online.”
If you or someone you know would like to talk to someone about your mental health, here are some people ready for your call:
• beyondblue support service line 1300 22 46 36
