Is headspace making a difference to young people’s lives?

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Executive Summary Parents played a critically important role in getting young people to attend headspace services through the provision of practical support (e.g. transport, contacting services), emotional support, discussion and encouragement. Surveyed parents encouraged their young person to attend headspace because they believed they needed professional help, they would not get well without it and/or they were concerned about their young person’s safety. While surveyed parents played an important role once young people started attending headspace, 62% (58 of 93 parents who responded to survey question) had not heard of headspace or did not know what headspace did before their young person started attending. A number of parents received information about headspace from a health or community service worker (33 of 93 parents/carers who responded to question). Young People’s Outcomes One of the primary research questions guiding the evaluation was whether treatment at a headspace centre resulted in improved outcomes for young people. The evaluation findings from the two different analytical techniques employed align well and show a pattern of small program effect. Changes in levels of psychological distress were measured using the Kessler 10 (K10) 4 . The mean average reduction in K10 scores for young people who received headspace services in the 2013/14 financial year was 2.3 points – from 28.8 at assessment to 26.5 5 at last recorded K10 6 . This general finding, however, masks significant differences evident in young peoples’ experiences with headspace. Overall, the psychological distress of almost half of headspace clients decreased (47%, n=12,233): 13.3% experienced a clinically significant reduction in psychological distress, 9.4% a reliable reduction and 24.3% an insignificant reduction. Almost 29% of young people experienced no change in their psychological distress level and psychological distress increased for almost one in four young people (24.3%). Of this group, 4.5% experienced a clinically significant increase in psychological distress, 4.9% a reliable increase and 14.9% an insignificant increase in their level of psychological distress. Young people identifying as Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander were over-represented in the groups whose psychological distress increased clinically. In summary, the level of psychological distress reduced significantly (clinically or reliably) for more than double the number of young people than those whose psychological distress increased (5,908 compared to 2,457). Suicidal ideation and prevalence of self-harm were analysed to further examine young peoples’ mental health outcomes. Suicidal ideation reduced significantly even among the group of young people who recorded an insignificant reduction or no reduction in psychological distress (i.e. suicidal ideation fell for this latter group by more than 16 percentage points; from 64% to 47.8%). Self-harm also decreased for all groups, except those who experienced a significant increase in psychological distress. The greatest reduction in prevalence of self-harm was for those who improved clinically significantly (down 24.7 percentage points), and those who recorded a reliably significant improvement (down 18.3 percentage points). These findings highlight the potential protective role that headspace may have against extreme adverse mental health outcomes. Young people treated by headspace and whose mental health improved also benefited from a range of positive economic and social outcomes. The number of days that headspace clients were unable to work or study dropped significantly by 4.5 days per month for those who showed significant reductions in psychological distress, from 7.6 days at the start of headspace treatment, to 3.1 days at the last occasion of service 7 . There was also a strong reduction in the number of days cut back 4 The K10 is a self-complete questionnaire designed to measure psychological distress based on questions about how frequently people have experienced negative emotional states in the past 30 days. A full description of this validated scale, including the score categorisations used for analysis, can be found in Chapter 2. Reduction in K10 scores means that the level of psychological distress has gone down. 5 As indicated in Table 2.3, K10 scores of 22-29 indicate high levels of psychological distress. 6 Young people are asked to complete the K10 scale at various times throughout their treatment (first, 3rd, 6th, 10th and 15th occasion of service). The last recorded K10 is not always an exit score and will include young people who are still receiving treatment. 7 The last occasion of service refers to the last recorded occasion of service within the hCSA data. A proportion of young people may still be receiving services from headspace. Social Policy Research Centre 2015 headspace Evaluation Final Report 4
Executive Summary through mental health issues among headspace clients that improved clinically, from 9.4 days per month at presentation to headspace on average down to 3.1 at the final observed visit. Responses to the number of headspace treatments varied by both age and gender. Young females entered headspace with a higher level of psychological distress than males, and typically received more occasions of service over a longer period of time. Females 23 years and over showed a high level of clinically and reliably significant improvement over time: the combined rates of clinical and reliable improvements rose from 16% by the third visit to nearly 29% by the tenth visit. The trajectory of clinically and reliably significant improvement in psychological distress was relatively flat for males by age, but the rate of clinical improvement in mental health functioning also increased as the number of headspace visits rose. Young people who only had 2-3 occasions of service were over-represented in the group who did not experience any change or had an insignificant change. This finding is not surprising as the initial occasion of service is generally an intake assessment rather than treatment and so this group of young people would have received a very low dose intervention. Young people who had 7-10 occasions of service were highly represented among those who had clinically significant reductions in psychological distress, while young people with 10 or more occasions of service were overrepresented in terms of their reliably and clinically significant reductions in psychological distress. Evaluation findings show a small positive improvement in outcomes for young people that sought headspace services relative to similar young people and a functional population. Specifically, the ‘headspace treatment’ group recorded a greater reduction in psychological distress when compared with both the ‘other treatment’ and ‘no treatment’ matched groups over time. Both results are statistically significant. The effect size for this outcome indicator is -0.11 for the difference-indifferences between the ‘headspace treatment’ and ‘no treatment’ group. Comparisons between the ‘headspace treatment’ and ‘other treatment’ group show an effect size of -0.16. Service Delivery Model The headspace delivery service model ensures that young people with a range of problems can access different practitioner types in the one location. There is a low rate of formal referrals to other services for headspace clients. Informal referrals to other services are not recorded in the hCSA; however, other qualitative data indicates that young people frequently receive informal referrals. There is variability in the connections centres have with local services, with some working effectively with local providers and tensions being evident in others. The evaluation indicates that one of the best ways that the service model could be enhanced to better meet the needs of young people and their parents and carers is to increase the capacity of centres to provide family therapy for some young people. The majority of staff interviewed and managers surveyed (n=22/29) identified family-based treatment as the main service gap. The increased provision of outreach services was the second most clearly identified strategy for enhancing headspace services. eheadspace was used by about 30% of clients that had accessed headspace services. eheadspace was viewed by staff working within centres as an effective additional component of headspace that can provide young people with information about headspace including what to expect at centres. Some staff commented on the value of eheadspace in holding young people steady while they were waiting to access services; however, assessing the effectiveness of eheadspace was beyond the scope of the evaluation. The evaluation produced mixed results about the role of headspace National Office. The overwhelming majority of centre managers (n=23/29) rated hNO as useful or very useful to the work of their centre; however, open-ended survey data indicates that some tensions exist around perceptions of the centralisation of control by hNO. Workforce issues present a challenge for many centres and impact on the provision of seamless service provision. Almost half of the centre managers surveyed (n=14/29) stated that they were operating with a staffing vacancy. In particular, there was an identified need to expand the amount of time that GPs operated in centres as well as the range of GP services offered. Finally, the evaluation indicates that headspace has been relatively effective in building brand Social Policy Research Centre 2015 headspace Evaluation Final Report 5
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Page 3 and 4: Authors This report was written by
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y three percentage points, and 2.1
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6. The Costs of headspace One of th
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6. The Costs of headspace Table 6.1
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6. The Costs of headspace In-scope
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6. The Costs of headspace Revenue/
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6. The Costs of headspace Other gov
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7. Conclusion The evaluation of hea
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7. Conclusion treatment); however,
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7. Conclusion Overall the evaluatio
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Appendix A Evaluation scope areas h
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Appendix B The current model of hea
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Appendix B and each SA3 in non-capi
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Appendix B chapter 39 . To determin
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Appendix B While there is an overal
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Appendix B Figure B3 describes the
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Appendix B Figure B5 Cost per young
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Appendix B The concept of access as
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Appendix B Figure B7 Heard of heads
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Figure B10 Proportion of headspace
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Appendix B Table B5 Females 18-25 y
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Appendix B following section. Figur
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Appendix B and less access to mains
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Appendix B Figure B17 Estimated pre
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Appendix B Figure B18 SA1s within 1
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Figure B20 Hypothetical allocation
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Appendix B The current model of cen
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Appendix B Current centre funding m
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Appendix B Evaluation of the curren
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Appendix B Level of funding availab
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Appendix B provide a method for ide
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Appendix B centres and Localities i
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Appendix B for greater flexibility
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Appendix B Additional consideration
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Appendix B of achieving more effici
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Appendix B • Used the simulation
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Appendix C information relating to
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Appendix C Regarding gender, in bot
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Appendix C Figure C5 Total number o
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Appendix C Table C1 Information Sum
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Appendix C Data Cleaning and Analys
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Appendix C groups. The age and sex
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Appendix C Figure C8 Demographic ch
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Appendix C The KeySurvey software s
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Appendix C different client groups.
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Appendix D Round State Centre Name
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Appendix E Characteristics HS clien
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Table E4 Cell Sizes for Figure 3.4
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Appendix F Figure F1 Changes in K10
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Appendix F three SEIFA quintiles. A
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Appendix F Occasion of service inte
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Appendix F Table F1 Cell sizes for
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Appendix G Supplementary material f
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Appendix G Table G3 Round 3 (10 cen
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Appendix G Table G7 Round 7 (10 cen
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State (youth population) a headspac
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Appendix G Table G12 Round 11(16 ce
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Table G16 Additional youth populati
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Round Region State Additional youth
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Appendix G Figure G1 Percentage of
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Appendix G Table G22 Australians 18
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Appendix G Synthetic small area est
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Appendix G Figure G16 Estimated pre
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Appendix G Figure G22 SA1s within 1
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Appendix G Table G25 Centres alloca
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References Atkins, D.C., Bedics, J.
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References Smith, E., Jones, T., Wa
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