Big upgrade coming for youth mental health support

GEELONG’S headspace will double its staff and provide a broader range of services to young people under a federal government plan to upgrade some of the centres across Australia.

More than 1,500 people aged 12 to 25 visit the headspace in Yarra Street annually and receive about 7,000 occasions of care, and this will go up when the facility becomes one of the first 10 headspace Plus centres.

The upgrade will expand the services at the centre, which has been in Yarra Street since 2014, and deliver a new model of care to support young people with more complex and ongoing mental health needs.

Work is expected to start next month and the centre will be fully converted to a headspace Plus within about 12 months.

Chief executive of headspace Jason Trethowan said headspace’s Geelong centre was one of the first in Australia when it opened in 2007, so it was fitting the Yarra Street site was also one of the first to become a headspace Plus.

He said a headspace Plus being in Geelong was not a reaction or response to any recent mental health incidents in Geelong.

“This is a process that’s been under way for some time – Geelong’s obviously been a service that’s grown continuously over time,” he said.

“Like other services, it’s trying to keep pace with the increasing needs of young people.”

He said the funding as a headspace Plus would more than double, which would support new services such as outreach care into neighbouring areas not well served by public transport, and more GP services.

“We’re really finalising what the actual model of care is going to be, and we’ve got the next 12 months to establish it,” he said.

Trethowan said the Yarra Street centre had some room to expand within its footprint, so the service would not have to move to a new building.

The federal government has allocated more than $149 million to upgrade 30 headspace centres to the headspace Plus model.

Deputy prime minister and Corio federal member, Richard Marles, and assistant minister for mental health and suicide prevention, Emma McBride, visited headspace Geelong on Friday last week to make the announcement.

McBride said the $149 million was part of more than $1.1 billion for mental health and suicide prevention, and most of that was going towards support for children and young people.

“We also know that most mental health conditions develop in adolescence, so we need to provide more support to young Australians today,” she said.

There are 175 headspace centres across Australia, with plans to grow to 201 locations.