Youth mental health service Headspace facing funding crisis, experts warn

Updated

Young people will be turned away from clinics of popular youth mental health service Headspace because funding has been frozen, experts warn.

Documents obtained by the ABC show the federal Department of Health has told the centres their funding will not be indexed and it will remain the same for 2015-16.

Professor Ian Hickie from the Brain and Mind Research Institute, which runs one of Australia's busiest Headspace centres at the University of Sydney, said he was worried young people would miss out on crucial mental health services.

"Because of the funds freeze in indexation, we are not able to replace clinical staff who have left in recent times," he said.

"We have had to make it clear to all staff that we cannot guarantee their positions over the next 12 months, pending resolution of the total amounts to be received from Headspace.

"These are staff directly employed under the Headspace grant to assess young people presenting with mental health difficulties."

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Headspace provides mental health services for people aged 12 to 25.

Many of the busy centres in cities and outer regional centres already face long waiting lists and struggle with being able to treat more complex cases.

Headspace chief executive Chris Tanti said the Government had given Headspace and other mental health groups a 12-month funding guarantee.

"If you have a mortgage and kids and are working in mental health then you will be worried about your income. We have lost staff over it," he said.

While there were some waiting lists at some Headspace centres, Mr Tanti said the organisation was doing a "reasonably good job" of meeting demand.

"We do have waiting lists and that is suboptimal. But we are not in a crisis," he said.

"We are looking at different ways to minimise waiting times such as offering more brief counselling and using private practice, so young people can be seen through the Medicare Benefits Schedule."

He said what mental health groups needed was stability so they could offer services to those who needed it.

Professor Hickie said demand for youth mental health services was skyrocketing and now was not the time to reduce funds for clinical services.

His Headspace centre is linked to the University of Sydney and Sydney Local Health District.

"The national office is fully aware that the large and busier services like ours are already struggling to deal with the demand for services," he said.

Sector wants action from mental health review

The Government-commissioned review of the mental health sector was released in April.

The report suggested the current model favoured non-government organisations such as the widely-respected Headspace, but that such groups did not always use the money effectively.

It called the current system a "collection of often uncoordinated services that have accumulated spasmodically over time, with no clarity of roles and responsibilities or strategic approach that is reflected in practice".

The report stated that Headspace had become too "overly centralised", with "rigid management requirements imposed on local services".

It raised the concern that a "one-size-fits-all, shopfront-oriented approach" does not meet the needs of some communities or people from diverse groups, including those with "more complex or ongoing difficulties".

The Government has committed to expand to a total of 100 Headspace services by next year, and more than $400 million has been committed to Headspace over the five years from 2013-14.

The commission recommended the Commonwealth give power and money to Primary Health Networks to manage the contracts options for non-government organisations, like Headspace, at a local and regional level.

Topics: mental-health, health, youth, australia

First posted