News

Headspace announcement welcomed

Thu, 11 Jul 2013 07:57:00

A Mildura consortium that won the battle for a specialised youth mental health service says the ‘headspace’ facility will make a huge difference in outcomes across the board for young people.

The Mildura project is one of 15 new headspace services announced by the Federal Government last week. The centres support young people dealing with depression, substance abuse and other mental health issues.
Mildura Base Hospital has taken the lead in a consortium of health organisations pushing the region’s case, and says the centre and its services will help address a range of health, welfare and education issues.
“We know Mildura lags behind the rest of Victoria in some really critical areas that relate to youth welfare,” said Mildura Base Hospital’s director of mental health David Kirby.
“The statistical data shows more people in Mildura than elsewhere report being under psychological distress and our rates of drug and alcohol clients and mental health clients are higher than the rest of Victoria,” Mr Kirby said.
A discussion paper prepared to support Mildura’s case for the headspace facility finds that in Mildura Rural City in 2010, 12.5 percent of the population reported a high or very high degree of psychological distress (compared to 11.4 percent of Victorians).
In addition, there were 9.5 drug and alcohol clients per 1,000 population (compared with 5.3 per 1000 Victorian population) and 25.9 registered mental health clients per 1000 population (compared with 11 per 1000 Victorian population). In 2006/2007, there were 13.2 psychiatric inpatient unit admissions per 1000 population in Mildura, more than double that for regional Victoria (6.4 per 1000 population).
Department of Health figures show about one in four people aged between 16 and 24 years has a mental disorder at some time during a 12-month period.
Mr Kirby said the number of community-based contacts the hospital provided for mental health had grown by 2.4 percent a year since 2006-07.
“For children and adolescents, the figure is growing by 15.8 percent a year .
“In 2006-07 we recorded around 3000 community mental health contacts to children and adolescents and in 2010-11 that had grown to 6400.”
Mr Kirby said the headspace facility would provide a holistic health service linking in to other health, welfare and education organisations, so that it addresses more than just the mental health aspect of issues a young person might be facing.
“Its focus extends to employment, housing, drug and alcohol issues and that is reflected in the makeup of the partnership we have in place.”
The consortium supporting the Mildura Base Hospital as the lead agency for headspace includes Sunraysia Community Health, Mallee Accommodation and Support Program, Mildura Rural City Council, Mallee Family Care, Lower Murray Medicare Local, Northern Mallee Primary Care Partnership, Northern Mallee Local Learning and Employment Network, Mallee District Aboriginal Services and Murray Mallee Accommodation and Support Program.
“We know that one in four young people will experience a mental health issue this year, but three-quarters of these people aren’t receiving the professional help they need,” Mr Kirby said.
“That’s because of a lack of access to youth-specific mental health services or because they don’t know who to turn to.
“The key to the success of our headspace site will be to create a place where young people feel welcome and comfortable.
“Elsewhere we know this approach works, because of those who have had support from headspace, 92 percent report improvements to their mental health.
“We will be working as quickly as we can to find a suitable location for the Mildura service, and have it up and running as soon as possible.” Mr Kirby said.