Australia's innovation in youth mental health care: The headspace centre model

headspace is Australia's innovation in youth mental healthcare and comprises the largest national network of enhanced primary care, youth mental health centres world-wide. headspace centres aim to intervene early in the development of mental ill-health for young people aged 12 to 25 years by breaking down the barriers to service access experienced by adolescents and emerging adults and providing holistic healthcare. Centres have been progressively implemented over the past 12 years and are expected to apply a consistent model of integrated youth healthcare. Internationally, several countries are implementing related approaches, but the specific elements of such models have not been well described in the literature.

This paper addresses this gap by providing a detailed overview of the 16 core components of the headspace centre model.

The needs of young people and their families are the main drivers of the headspace model, which has 10 service components (youth participation, family and friends participation, community awareness, enhanced access, early intervention, appropriate care, evidence-informed practice, four core streams, service integration, supported transitions) and six enabling components (national network, Lead Agency governance, Consortia, multidisciplinary workforce, blended funding, monitoring and evaluation).

Through implementation of these core components headspace aims to provide easy access to one-stop, youth-friendly mental health, physical and sexual health, alcohol and other drug, and vocational services for young people across Australia.