Is headspace making a difference to young people’s lives?
Evaluation-of-headspace-program
Evaluation-of-headspace-program
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Executive Summary<br />
<strong>headspace</strong> 1 aims <strong>to</strong> improve the mental health and social and emotional wellbeing of <strong>young</strong> people in<br />
Australia through the provision of evidence-based, integrated, youth-centred and holistic services. In<br />
January 2013, the Australian Government Department of Health (DoH) commissioned a consortium<br />
of researchers from the Social Policy Research Centre and the Centre for Social Impact, UNSW<br />
Australia; Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre, Curtin University; and the Telethon Kids Institute,<br />
University of Western Australia <strong>to</strong> evaluate the effectiveness of <strong>headspace</strong>.<br />
The evaluation aimed <strong>to</strong>:<br />
• examine <strong>young</strong> <strong>people’s</strong> access <strong>to</strong> and engagement with the centre-based program<br />
including the demand for services at centres and barriers and facilita<strong>to</strong>rs <strong>to</strong> service use<br />
• assess the outcomes of <strong>young</strong> people who have received services from <strong>headspace</strong> <strong>to</strong><br />
determine the effectiveness of the treatment<br />
• assess the centre-based program’s service delivery model including aspects of the<br />
model that are most and least effective in assisting <strong>headspace</strong> <strong>to</strong> meet its objectives, and<br />
• conduct a cost effectiveness analysis of the program as it currently operates, as well as<br />
an expanded version of the program that seeks national coverage.<br />
This report presents the evaluation findings.<br />
Evaluation Method<br />
The evaluation used qualitative and quantitative methods <strong>to</strong> answer the evaluation questions. The<br />
main methods and data sources included:<br />
• program datasets (including the <strong>headspace</strong> Centres Service Application and the <strong>headspace</strong><br />
Centres Finance Application): these datasets contain information relating <strong>to</strong> over 45,000<br />
<strong>young</strong> people who received almost 200,000 occasions of service across operational<br />
<strong>headspace</strong> centres<br />
• the 2011 Census of Population and Housing<br />
• interviews with key program stakeholders including <strong>headspace</strong> clients (n=50), centre<br />
managers and staff (n=25), and parents and carers of <strong>young</strong> people with mental health<br />
concerns (n=38)<br />
• surveys of 1,515 <strong>young</strong> people attending <strong>headspace</strong> and 4,774 <strong>young</strong> people 2 who were not<br />
attending <strong>headspace</strong> <strong>to</strong> compare the outcomes of <strong>headspace</strong> clients with those who have<br />
not used <strong>headspace</strong> or have received alternative forms of mental health care<br />
• surveys conducted with various stakeholder groups, including 226 parents and carers of<br />
1<br />
<strong>headspace</strong> is not capitalised throughout this report <strong>to</strong> align with <strong>headspace</strong> branding.<br />
2<br />
These figures relate <strong>to</strong> wave 1 of each survey.<br />
Social Policy Research Centre 2015<br />
<strong>headspace</strong> Evaluation Final Report<br />
1