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

3. Access and Engagement with
Centres
One of the main aims of headspace is to reduce the impact of mental health problems on young
people by enabling earlier access to and engagement with high quality and integrated services
(Rickwood et al., 2014). The evaluation examined young people’s access to and engagement with the
centre-based program as a priority focus by drawing on five data sources, including:
• hCSA (n=45,195 headspace clients)
• Centre Managers Survey (n=29)
• Professional Stakeholders Survey (n=207)
• interviews conducted with headspace staff (n=25) and clients (n=50)
• the Parents and Carers Study (interviews=38; survey = 226).
The findings show that headspace is being accessed by a large and diverse group of young people.
The socio-demographic analysis highlights centres have had mixed results in reaching different
targeted groups. Young people seeking treatment at headspace have significantly higher levels
of psychological distress than those in the general population. Centres have been successful in
engaging young people from some marginalised groups including those who identify as LGBTI,
those who are homeless, and those who are disengaged from work and study. The proportion of
Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander clients is double their representation in the general population,
and young people from regional areas are also over-represented as headspace clients. This finding
suggests that headspace is increasing service access for young people who have traditionally been
disadvantaged in service options. In contrast, young people from CALD backgrounds are starkly
under-represented as clients.
A number of factors were found to promote service access and engagement. These included the
youth friendly nature of centres, friendly and non-judgemental staff, free or low cost services, the
wide range of services, and innovative modes of engagement. Many parents and carers support
young people’s engagement with headspace in practical ways such as driving them to a centre, but
as awareness of headspace is low among this stakeholder group, they are less likely to encourage
initial access. Other barriers to service engagement that emerged in the evaluation included standard
opening hours, the stigma of mental illness, waiting times, culturally insensitive service provision and
the distance of a young person’s home to a headspace centre.
3.1 What is the current demand for headspace services?
Number of young people attending headspace in a year
During the 2013/14 financial year, 67 headspace centres provided 194,968 occasions of service to
45,195 young people with mental health or other issues. The number of young people accessing
services through headspace centres has increased substantially since headspace began in 2006.
Social Policy Research Centre 2015
headspace Evaluation Final Report
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