Awareness of headspace youth mental health service centres across Australian communities between 2008 and 2015

Abstract

Background: Two common barriers to help-seeking are lack of awareness of appropriate services, and low mental health literacy. The headspace awareness campaigns are designed to address these factors.

Aims: To examine whether distance from a headspace centre affects community awareness of headspace, and whether general awareness of headspace changed between 2008 and 2015.

Method: Responses from 4707 participants aged 12–25 years, collected in 2008 and 2015, were analysed. The effect of headspace centre location on awareness of services was assessed by comparing awareness between those living in headspace areas (within 20 km of a centre) and those who were not. Change in awareness between 2008 and 2015 was assessed.

Results: Awareness of headspace and its services was significantly greater among those living in headspace areas than among those living further away. Within headspace areas, awareness increased by 27% between 2008 and 2015. Prompted and unprompted awareness were significantly greater in 2015 than in 2008.

Conclusions: Awareness of headspace has increased over time; however, innovative awareness campaigns are needed for those residing in non-headspace areas. Continued funding to increase headspace’s national coverage, improving mental health literacy and service access for youth and their families, particularly those living in non-headspace areas, is needed.

Keywords:

• Awareness
• mental health
• headspace
• youth
• help-seeking

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Partnership Project Grant(#1076940). The authors wish to thank the Australian Department of Human Services. Professor Patrick McGorry is the Director of the Board of headspace National Youth Mental Health Foundation (hNYMHF). Professor Debra Rickwood is the Chief Scientific Advisor for hNYMHF. Professor Ian Hickie is the Co-Director of Health and Policy at The University of Sydney's Brain and Mind Centre, which operates headspace Camperdown, and was also one of the founding board members of hNYMHF.