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

headspace aims to improve the mental health and social and emotional wellbeing of young people in Australia through the provision of evidence-based, integrated, youth-centred and holistic services. In January 2013, the Australian Government Department of Health (DoH) commissioned a consortium of researchers from the Social Policy Research Centre and the Centre for Social Impact, UNSW Australia; Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre, Curtin University; and the Telethon Kids Institute, University of Western Australia to evaluate the effectiveness of headspace.

The evaluation aimed to examine young people’s access to and engagement with the centre-based program including the demand for services at centres and barriers and facilitators to service use; assess the outcomes of young people who have received services from headspace to determine the effectiveness of the treatment; assess the centre-based program’s service delivery model including aspects of the model that are most and least effective in assisting headspace to meet its objectives, and conduct a cost effectiveness analysis of the program as it currently operates as well as an expanded version of the program that seeks national coverage.