Sharing knowledge and

translating evidence from across

the headspace network
headspace would like to acknowledge Aboriginal and headspace is committed to embracing diversity and
Torres Strait Islander peoples as Australia’s First eliminating all forms of discrimination in the provision of
People and Traditional Custodians. We value their health services. headspace welcomes all people
cultures, identities and continuing connection to irrespective of ethnicity, lifestyle choice, faith, sexual
country, waters, kin and community. We pay our orientation and gender identity.
respects to Elders past and present, and are
committed to making a positive contribution to the
wellbeing of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young
people, by providing services that are welcoming, safe,
culturally appropriate and inclusive.
Sharing knowledge
and translating
evidence from
across the
headspace network
01
headspace Forum Summary
03
headspace CEO –
National Address

17
Service Management
21
Service Delivery
• Administration Training – Opportunity • Adaptation of Dialectical Behaviour
to grow Therapy for young people at
headspace
• Structuring student psychology
placements in primary care • C
hilled Out Chatswood - A successful
anxiety management program
• Getting the most out of your data
• D
igital Work and Study - Working with
centres

• F
ocusing on food – Building nutrition
and dietetics within headspace

• F
unctional Recovery - Gaining life skills
and independence

• M
ind the Gap - A progressive approach
to meeting the needs of at-risk young
people presenting with complex needs

• M
yLifeTracker - A routine outcome
measure for youth mental health

• Peer work from a youth perspective

• S
hedspace - Lifting the roof and
creating a space to improve wellbeing

• S
hifting the systems - A champion’s
journey implementing SSFC in a local
community

• T
he BIC experience - Five years after
healthy headspace skills workshop -
Using the Orygen toolkit

• The Wizarding World of Engagement

05
Ministerial Address
07
Keynote Speakers
13
Sector Engagement
• Perma+ The slip slop slap of • Everything you wanted to know
psychological wellbeing Community about working with schools in 35
Engagement minutes or less

• Physical exercise for prevention and • Using Telehealth to boost your

treatment of mood disorders service profile

• N
utrition for prevention and treatment • Rainbow Warriors - Creating
of mood disorders safety, support and social
inclusion for LGBTIQAP+ young
people

39
Community Engagement
45
Hacks and Knowledge Wall
• Arms & Armour - Supporting young
men to create a safer community

• Couch Surfing - Race for youth

homelessness

• Driving social inclusion with adaptable

initiatives like Dog Space, Close the
Gap and more

• How do we stay relatable in

multicultural environments

• Pride of Place - A safe art project for

LGBTIQ+ youth in a regional city

• Y
ourspace – Client information

47 51
sessions at headspace

Showcases Acknowledgements
 headspace Forum
Summary
On Wednesday 21 March
2018, the headspace
forum ended just as it
began: with the high-energy
moves of hip-hop dancers
from L2R and the high
hopes of 850 headspace,
lead agency and Primary
Health Network staff, who
gathered for two days to
share the latest science,
technological solutions
and creative initiatives to
tackle youth mental health
issues in Australia.
‘Possibilities’ was the theme
for this year’s forum, which
was our third and biggest to
date, but it could just as easily
have been ‘Yes, and’.
On the opening morning of the forum, MCs
Ally, Pheobe, Sina, Liam and Sharene led
the entire audience through the ‘Yes, and’
game. To play, forum attendees partnered
up and built a narrative together by starting
with a sentence and then using “yes, and”
to join another sentence to it, and then
another and then another.
01
But the game was not just a model for the bedrock that enables us to get back up
how to play at the forum and stay open and back out there.
to the people and possibilities in store; it
also encapsulated some of the forum’s key
Our organisation has faced recent changes
take-homes and the collective capacity
and challenges. Yes, and we are moving
forward with a strategy that will clarify our
building of our organisation.
role in Australian youth mental health and
We have helped over 380,000 young our relationship with others in the network.
people since our doors opened and
These discussions took place across a
we’re doing amazing things across the
number of breakout sessions, keynotes
network. Yes, and how can we be more
and plenary addresses.
creative, coordinated, connected, inclusive,
innovative and evidence-based to achieve In his national address, headspace
greater success with our young people? CEO Jason Trethowan talked about
the organisation’s next steps and the
We are experts in helping young people
importance of value. “I want to shift the
tackle mental health issues in Australia.
language of headspace from volume back
Yes, and how can we amplify our results
to value,” Jason said.
by integrating easy-to-apply lifestyle
interventions like diet and exercise? A panel of keynote speakers explored
lifestyle interventions and the power
Our people face daily challenges and this
of headspace to implement these
work sometimes gets us down. Yes, and
interventions among young people.
our shared stories and self-care become

“You are the lucky people with the network
structure to draw the young people you are
trying to serve to you. You have incredible
opportunity to work at that interface. Each
interaction you have with each person you
meet is where something excellent could
result,” said Gabrielle Kelly, Director of
the South Australian Health and Medical
Research Institute.
The Federal Minister for Health, Greg
Hunt, and the Shadow Minister for Ageing
and Mental Health, Julie Collins, echoed
this recognition of our role and relationship
with Australia’s young people.
“The headspace model is looked at
around the world as, I think, the leading
model for dealing with youth mental
health challenges. It is not the solution
to everything, but in our view it is the
foundation for almost everything we do in
headspace Forum Summary
youth mental health within Australia,” Mr “Up until this morning, I honestly
Hunt said on day one. didn’t see the point of sharing my lived
experience. My lived experience isn’t
The Shadow Minister also acknowledged
personal; it’s not emotional. Until a friend
the pressures on the organisation and
from the forum crew told me, ‘Each
its staff. “What we are seeing is a failure
person brings their own story to the table,
of other health services, meaning that
and you bring your passion for diversity to
headspace centres are dealing with more
the table and your story is just as valuable
severe mental ill health and they don’t have
as ours’,” Sina said.
the resources to do that,” Ms Collins said.
“That got me thinking: because no matter
Such work challenges and personal
how small your story is or no matter what
struggles were the stuff of stories
your story is, it’s still your story and your
throughout the conference, with MCs,
story is still valued in headspace and in
speakers and audiences members
any discussion across Australia.”
sharing their lived experiences – some
upbeat and inspirational and others that And after two full days of stimulating and
made voices shake. sometimes surprising ideas at the forum,
those discussions, stories and exchange
It was the charismatic MC Sina, 17, who
of ideas will continue.
touched a chord when he momentarily
veered off script to talk about the
importance of these shared stories.
02
 headspace CEO
Jason Trethowan –
National Address
In his national address,
headspace CEO Jason
Trethowan was optimistic
about the strategic direction
of the organisation. Despite
the transition it’s been
through over the past twelve
months, Jason assured us
that the values and purpose
of headspace have not
changed, rather that we are
heading towards a more
cohesive national network.
03
He applauded the contributions of young
people, showing the courage to share
their lived experiences. Jason talked
about the organisation’s aspirational
vision where all young Australians
are supported to be mentally healthy
and engaged in their communities.
Engagement is key; young people who
stay engaged with family, with work and
with school, live a more functional life.
In order to meet that vision, the mission
of headspace is clear: to collaborate, to
design and to deliver innovative ways of
working with young people to strengthen
their mental health and wellbeing.
With a rapid rise from ground zero to 101
headspace centres around the country,
collaboration and partnership have had
a rough ride. The pressure to achieve
consistent branding and centre set-ups
so headspace can be seen to be united
as one has been a necessary part of
development, but it has also meant other
areas have received less attention.
Jason acknowledged that the foundations
have been laid and the strategic direction
and objectives for headspace has been
set through to 2020. Although there
are challenges to face, he’s confident
through partnership and communication,
headspace can achieve these objectives.
First objective is in our approach. A
consistent experience across Australia may
be highly aspirational, but for a young person
to enter any headspace centre throughout
Australia and know what to expect would
be ideal. Keeping the care models and
brands innovative, youth-friendly and of high
quality, with constant input and feedback
from our youth, will retain the integrity of
the brand. Naturally, reducing barriers to
services is always a priority.
In terms of our services, Jason said high
quality, accessible centres and online
services are crucial but it’s important we
“shift the language of headspace from
volume back to value”.
Building the mental health literacy of
the community where young people are
is imperative. That means headspace
welcomes the safe use of social media
and other youth-centric platforms.
Young people need to feel “we’ve got
their back”.
In addition, as a trusted provider of youth
mental health services to schools and
the wider education sector, headspace
can contribute to a continuum of care for
young people.
None of this can be achieved without the
exceptional people who work at and with
headspace. Jason recognised how the
challenges of youth mental health can
weigh heavily on staff and reaffirmed the
importance of self-care. “We’re not going
to build momentum if we’re down and
out. We need to be up and about.”
The aim is for headspace centres to
be great places to work, to attract and
retain people who will flourish and grow.
Accomplishing these goals while actively
seeking to embed the perspective and
practices of Australia’s First Peoples in all
we do is just as vital.
Succeeding in meeting these objectives
will involve building and maintaining
partnerships that drive innovation,
enhance services, increase access,
and form a national network that is
connected and engaged. Youth mental
health needs to remain a key national
priority and in order to do this, we must
be “singing from the same hymn sheet”.
Jason said headspace National is
committed to listening to young people,
the centres, PHNs and the wider
headspace network so they can gain
knowledge about ways headspace can
constantly strive towards success.
A recent example was the survey of
headspace centres across Australia,
which resulted in over 500 responses
from 98 per cent of centres. Although
still collating the results, four main
themes have emerged: communication,
collaboration, resources and training.
Knowing who to contact when
headspace CEO – National Address
headspace staff have a query and
making that process as easy as we
can, is a simple request that we can
address. Early notification of campaigns
and upcoming projects that have a
tremendous impact on local centres
will be a priority. Extending training to
administration staff, tailoring induction
packages to different roles, offering
face-to-face training as well as webinars,
and providing professional development
opportunities, will be improvements
valued by our centres.
Like any large, national organisation, there
are obstacles to overcome. Access is
one of our biggest issues. We know not
having enough GPs in our centres is an
issue we need to address. We also know
the Australian health system doesn’t
always lend itself to support a workforce
to go where the need is greatest. We are
looking at new ways to increase access to
GP services and private practitioners and
asking ourselves, what’s a better way of
doing things?
Wait times are an issue. At this stage,
data is not effectively captured. It’s not
yet sophisticated enough to reflect the
challenges such as phone calls from
frustrated parents trying to access
services for their young people. The new
version of hAPI will improve on this.
Working with lead agencies, clinicians,
PHNs and other services will not always
be a smooth relationship, but we can
build on the momentum we’ve achieved.
Expansion of services and the number
of centres is also on the agenda, but
Jason said we need to be conscious
of “stabilising the base first”. Ensuring
the centres that already exist have the
capital expenditure needed to expand or
relocate to larger centres if required will
be a priority.
With a refreshed direction, strong
political support, and a commitment to
presenting the value and outcomes of
early intervention in youth mental health,
not to mention a proud, strong and
highly valued network that is passionate
and committed to our young people, the
future of headspace looks promising.
04
 Ministerial Address
The Federal Minister for Health, the Hon Greg Hunt MP
& Shadow Minister for Ageing and Mental Health, the Hon Julie Collins MP

The Federal Government and the Opposition were united in

their support for headspace at the forum.

The Federal Minister for Health, the Hon
Greg Hunt MP, helped open the forum with
a video address that applauded headspace
for its work and reconfirmed the
government’s commitment to the model.
“The headspace model, which began
over a decade ago, is looked at
around the world as the leading model
for dealing with youth mental health
challenges,” Mr Hunt said.

“My belief in headspace, my respect for
the work you do and my commitment
to the future of headspace is clear and
absolute,” Mr Hunt said.
“As long as I am in this role and we are
in government, and I hope and believe
as long as whoever is in government,
headspace will be the foundation model
for youth mental health practice and
management within Australia.”
“In the end, you save lives and protect
lives. You make lives better, and for that
I want to give you a sense that what you
do is not just of value, it is of the most
profound importance.”
He also addressed the recent changes in
the sector by saying: “headspace will be
a preferred provider going forward. That’s
an important message going out to the
PHNs, individually and collectively.”

According to the Minister, the headspace

model is not only recognised by
governments and communities in Australia,
but it is also recognised overseas.

05

On day two of the forum, the Shadow
Minister for Ageing and Mental Health,
the Hon Julie Collins MP took to the
stage to confirm her commitment too.
“It’s critical as legislators and policy-
makers that we understand what is
happening on the ground for young
people and the services. And I’m here
today to say that we are listening and
we are learning and we are prepared
to continue those conversations,” Ms
Collins said.
The Shadow Minster also acknowledged
the challenges faced by headspace, its
staff and the youth mental health sector
in Australia.
“From our visits around the country,
we do know that there are waitlists at
headspace centres. We do know when
young people put up their hand to say
I have an issue, they may not be able
to get the services that they need when
they need it,” Ms Collins said.
“If we are going to continue to reduce
stigma, if we are going to continue to
raise awareness, if we then fail to deliver
the services that young people need, we
are heading for trouble.”
In particular, she was concerned about
the lack of services for more severe
youth mental health issues and the
impact on our organisation.
“headspace was established to deal
with mild depression and anxiety, but
we are seeing a failure of other health
services, which means that headspace
are dealing with more severe, complex
mental ill health and don’t have the
resources to do that,” she said.
Ms Collins also called on the government
to extend the deadline for the suicide
headspace Keynote speakers
prevention trial, which is happening at 12
sites across Australia.
“We believe we have a really valuable
opportunity to get the data and evidence
about how we can make a difference
as a community, as service providers,
as legislators and policy-makers, and
actually turn the suicide rate around in
Australia,” she said.
But the Shadow Minister ended her
presentation by bringing the political
back to the personal, reassuring MC Sina
that he could in fact change the world.
“Sina is up there telling his story and it’s
a valuable story and we are listening to
those stories and they change policies
and they change lives,” she said.
06
 Gabrielle Kelly - Director - Wellbeing and
Resilience Centre, South Australian Health
and Medical Research Institute.

“Slip! Slop! Slap!” is the catchy slogan

the Cancer Council credits with changing
Australian attitudes to sun protection and skin
cancer over the last two decades.
Sid the Seagull helped spread and embed this sun-safety
awareness, and Gabrielle Kelly has a bold plan – minus the board
shorts – to do the same for wellbeing with another social meme.

Say hello to PERMA+, an evidence-based framework that Gabrielle

hopes will help develop awareness and action around resilience
and wellbeing at an individual level and a population scale.

To scale up, her Wellbeing and Resilience Centre is partnering

with local governments, health networks, schools, prisons,
TAFEs, community groups, companies and sport clubs to spread
and embed these PERMA+ skills in the community.

Her focus? Today South Australia, tomorrow the world.

“We are building South Australia as a state of wellbeing, as a

prototype for the world. Our objective is to translate the science
of psychological health, happiness and wellbeing into the
community. We are also building a movement,” said Gabrielle,
the Director of Wellbeing and Resilience Centre at the South
Australian Health and Medical Research Institute (SAHMRI).

The PERMA+ recipe for resilience and wellbeing includes

Positive Emotion, Engagement, Relationships, Meaning and
Accomplishment plus Physical Activity, Nutrition, Sleep and
Optimism. It’s a DIY tool that helps people assess their own lives
and wellbeing markers, and then make the necessary changes.

“I see PERMA+ like a number of very large doors that lead to

the science behind them. It’s the science of psychology, positive
psychology, neuroscience, behavioural change, organisational
development, relationships, sociology and health,” Gabrielle said.

“We are piping a lot of science through our translation centre

into measurements, products and services to build wellbeing
in the community wherever people are – at work, at home, in a
retirement centre or within their families,” she said.

But wellbeing didn’t always carry such weight when Gabrielle

started this journey.

PERMA+ is based on the work of Dr Martin Seligman, a positive

psychology heavyweight brought over to South Australia to talk
about the importance of wellbeing in 2012 and 2013.

07
PERMA+: the slip, slop,
slap of psychological
wellbeing
“When we started in 2009/2010, positive
psychology was very new and the word
‘wellbeing’ was associated with yoga or
fitness. People didn’t trust the language
of wellbeing. They thought it was too soft
and it wasn’t scientific,” Gabrielle said.
Over the course of two years, Dr Seligman
spoke to 14,000 professionals, politicians
and community members at a series of
events. “Wellbeing needs to be on the
political agenda, and more importantly in the
warp and weft of a community,” he said.
According to Gabrielle, the public got it.
“The community understood immediately
the importance of building the wellbeing
of themselves, their families and their
neighbourhoods.”
She said many also recognised the need
for greater resilience in the face of a fast-
paced 21st century life and changes to
the way we work.
“We expect our young people are
going to have seven careers. There are
opportunities for young people to create
businesses and be entrepreneurs but that
is not an easy road. It requires courage
and resilience and the ability to fail and
get back up again,” said Gabrielle, who
also pointed to the particular need for
resilience among headspace staff.
“You are in tough jobs. You are at the
interface where young people come to
you in distress with complex needs in
situations that can’t be magically fixed,”
she said.
According to Gabrielle, resilience supports
better decision-making, better problem-
solving, better performance under
pressure and stronger leadership. It also
improves health by supporting better
sleep, lower blood pressure, a stronger
immune system and longer life span.
But to create these benefits at scale
requires cultural change and a systems
approach, so the Wellbeing and
Resilience Centre focuses on the Dr Aaron
Jarden concept of Me, We and Us –
better known as the individual, community
and society.
“You’ve got to take a top-down and
bottom-up approach,” said Gabrielle,
who also said they couldn’t go it alone.
“Partnership is the only way to achieve
wellbeing at scale.”
Their Resilient Futures SA Project is an
example of this collaborative and systems
approach. The three-year project has
partnered with schools and youth agencies
to focus on building wellbeing and resilience
in 850 young people who are at risk of
falling through the cracks because they are
not engaged in school, work or training.
To build the young people’s wellbeing,
the project is working directly with young
people (me), agency staff (we) and agency
systems (us). It also plans to reach 1200
young people by the end of the project.
“We’re teaching them skills for life: how
to remain calm in terrible situations; how
to engage their frontal lobe and reason
and then make good choices; and how
to be resilient and bounce back from
adversity,” said a youth worker involved in
the project.
The Wellbeing and Resilience Centre
is also working with schools to teach
wellbeing and resilience to teachers.
“There’s a big movement towards
positive education in Australia that’s now
unstoppable, and we are part of that
work – particularly teaching workforces,”
said Gabrielle.
“The evidence from schools is very
clear. Do not start teaching wellbeing
to young people if you have not taught
headspace Keynote speakers
psychological health to the teachers. It
will not work because young people have
very good BS meters and it just won’t fly,”
she said.
The Centre has applied the same
approach to South Australian prisons
by working with the whole corrections
system and starting with the workforce
before moving on to the prisoners.
In this project, they used PERMA+ to
measure the wellbeing and resilience of
prison staff and to establish a baseline
that they could then measure against at
the end of the program.
Prison staff then undertook a train-the-
trainer program to learn resilience skills,
which led to significant improvements
in all the wellbeing scores across the
organisation, especially those who had
low wellbeing. There were also reductions
in absenteeism and serious psychological
injury claims.
“We saw improvements even for those
who hadn’t done the course yet, so the
system is beginning to change after a
year,” said Gabrielle.
Each staff member also received an
individual report and the de-identified
data was shared with the organisation,
enabling it to monitor the wellbeing of the
whole system.
Their train-the-trainer program is also
proving popular with companies, where
those who have undertaken the training
talk about results that are simple but
profound. “When I did this course, I got a
new consciousness about my life,” said
one company trainee.
“I don’t see my psychologist as much
now because I know myself better,” said
a young person in the Resilient Futures
SA Project.
08
 Physical exercise for
prevention and
treatment of mood
disorders
“Walk it off” took on a
whole new meaning when
Professor Alex Parker took
to the stage to talk about the
power of exercise to reduce
depression in young people
within three weeks.
“Think about what it would
mean to offer young people
an intervention, where within
three weeks they could see a
rapid reduction in depressive
symptoms,” Alex from the
Institute for Health and Sport,
Victoria University said.
09
These results were based on a study that
she did at headspace Sunshine and
headspace Glenroy in Melbourne, where
one group of young people received just
counselling and the other group also
undertook physical activity.
Those who did the physical activity had far
greater reduction in depression symptoms
over the six-week study compared with
counselling group, and the improvements
began at three weeks.
According to Alex, other research shows
that the power of physical activity doesn’t
stop there.
“For those starting to show some
difficulties – problems with stress, tension
periods of low mood and increased risk
for developing a mental health problem
– physical activity can have a role to play
in preventing the development of that
disorder,” she said.
“And for those who are experiencing
mental ill-health, we know that physical
activity can help with its treatment and it
can also help prevent co-morbid physical
health problems.”
Alex, who is currently heading a large
NHMRC-study into physical activity and
mood disorders, is passionate about
helping clinicians to achieve greater results
with young people by integrating this easy
and evidence-based tool into their care.
Professor Alex Parker
- Institute of Sport,
Exercise and Active Living,
Victoria University
“If we can imagine an intervention that can
help prevent the onset of depression, treat
an episode of depression and increase
a young person’s life expectancy, why
wouldn’t we want to offer this to young
people?” Alex said.
Like the other keynotes, Alex pointed to
a recurring theme of the forum: We can’t
just focus on mental health but the young
person’s whole health – physical, social
and psychological.
The link between physical activity
and good health goes back as far
Hippocrates, who intoned: “If we could
give every individual the right amount of
nourishment and exercise, not too little
and not too much, we would have found
the safest health.”
But more recent reports by the World
Health Organisation (WHO) really
highlight the link between poor health,
lack of exercise and the emergence of
“The slow-motion disaster”.
“Globally, 31.1 per cent of adults and
80 per cent of adolescents are not
doing enough physical activity, which
contributes to early death and the
development of preventable diseases like
coronary heart disease, Type 2 diabetes
and some cancers,” said Alex.
Meanwhile, Australian research has
shown that 50 per cent of 18–24 year

olds and 80 per cent of 12–17 year olds
are not active enough.
“Even in children and adolescents,
those who are inactive are increasing
their risk of developing cardio-metabolic
diseases,” Alex said.
But the picture is even worse closer to
home: only one out of every 10 young
people seeking help from headspace is
doing enough physical activity.
“It’s a critical time point – as we all know.
Physical activity and healthy habits that
are established at this time are also
carried through to adulthood,” Alex
said. “And the more active you are as
an adolescent, the less likely you are to
develop depression later.”
So how does physical activity prevent
or treat depression, anxiety and other
mood disorders?
Exercise, it turns out, is the ultimate
multitasker: it distracts some people from
negative thoughts and it increases self-
efficacy and confidence by improving the
ability to cope with stress and increasing
the perception of control.
“Physical activity provides opportunities
for social support by interacting with
others and increasing your network,”
Alex said. “It also increases engagement
in adaptive activities, and provides
headspace Keynote speakers
opportunities for enjoyment, achievement behaviour as well as research bulletins
and reward reinforcement.” on the Orygen website, which
summarise the evidence for exercise
Biologically it affects a wide range of
and interventions. You can also find
body processes, including increasing
a physical activity module within the
endorphins, dopamine and noradrenaline
headspace ‘Brief interventions in youth
and preventing the uptake of serotonin,
mental health toolkit’. Meanwhile, GPs
the feel good neurotransmitter. It
can learn more at medicine.com.au.
also increases the volume of the
hippocampus, and decreases cortisol “We know depression is the largest
and inflammation. contributor to the burden of disease in
this age range. We also know that our
Unfortunately, there are some barriers
current first-line treatments are useful but
to integrating physical activity into the
only modestly effective,” Alex said.
mental health care of young people.
“So we need to think about additional
Some mental health clinicians and youth
therapeutic strategies and anything that
workers feel they don’t have enough
might be an adjunct intervention to boost
knowledge or confidence in what to
these treatment effects. And physical
recommend while others believe that
activity has a role to play.”
physical activity may be insufficient for
complex clinical needs.
Mental health clinicians might also feel
it’s not part of their role or that it might
disrupt the therapeutic relationships to
start talking about physical activity.
But it’s not rocket science, according
to Alex. You just need to keep it simple,
include it as a treatment goal and make
sure to review physical activity in each
and every session – and there are plenty
of resources to overcome these barriers.
These include the Australian guidelines
around physical activity and sedentary
10
 Nutrition for
prevention
and treatment
of mood
disorders
Professor Felice Jacka - Director
Food and Mood Centre, Deakin University

There’s a treatment for depression, anxiety

and other mental health disorders that’s easy
to find, simple to administer for both client and
carer, and won’t cost the earth.
An amazing new medicine? Nope. It’s the
meals that you make, and Felice Jacka
provided much food for thought when she
highlighted the ever-growing evidence of the
link between diet and depression and diet’s
power to prevent and treat a range of mental
health disorders.

“ I loved the Keynote

presentations and was
awed by the work from
all Keynote speakers.”

11
“Many risk factors for mental health
disorders, such as your family history,
early life trauma, life stress, social
disadvantage are quite difficult to change
but diet is modifiable,” Felice said.
And given that half of all mental disorders
start before 14, its imperative that we
target modifiable factors like diet to
prevent these disorders from developing,
she said.
But her strongest message was
directed at the forum participants: this is
something simple and powerful that you
can do now with your young people.
Felice, Director of the Food and Mood
Centre at Deakin University said, “You
don’t have to be a clinical dietician to talk
to people about their diet when they’re
sitting in front of you”.
“Given that poor diet is now the leading
cause of early death in developed
countries, it really should be one of the
first things that you ask: What do you
normally eat for breakfast, lunch and
dinner? What are your favourite foods?
What don’t you like? And then talk about
how you might make those changes:
cutting down on those processed foods
and increasing foods that are high in
nutrient density.”
According to Felice, less than 0.5%
of Australian children consume the
recommended daily intake of vegetables
and legumes. Adults aren’t much better
at less than 5 per cent.
The Global Burden of Disease Study
2016 points to unhealthy diet as one of
the leading risk factors for early death
around the world, and obesity levels are
soaring in many developed countries. In
Australia, obesity rates in primary school
kids are climbing as high as 40 per cent
in some areas.
But while obesity is a weighty issue, tipping
the scales should not be our only concern.
“The focus of diet and health has been
on obesity, but I think that’s created
a problem. Obesity is one marker of
changes to the food system. But being
obese doesn’t mean people are unhealthy
and being thin doesn’t mean they are
healthy,” Felice said.
“We need to take the conversation
away from weight because it is a bit of a
distraction. We need to be thinking about
the quality of what we eat because it
has a major impact on our physical and
mental health,” she said.
Felice is a pioneer of the emerging field of
nutritional psychiatry, and she has dedicated
herself to research that keeps stacking up
the evidence around food and mood.
In 2010 she published her first study
showing a strong link between the diet
quality of study participants and the risk
for clinical depressive disorders and
anxiety disorders, irrespective of their
age, body weight, education, socio-
economic status and physical exercise.
Also in 2010 Felice and the Murdoch
Children’s Research Institute studied
7,000 Australian adolescents and
revealed that those with the highest
intake of unhealthy food and lowest
intake of healthy foods had the highest
rates of depression. These links were
independent of a wide range of personal,
family and social factors.
Her 2013 study of 23,000 mothers
in Norway also revealed the negative
impact of the mother’s poor diet during
pregnancy on the future mental health
of their children. And yet another
study in 2015 showed a link between
poor diet and the reduced size of the
hippocampus, the part of the brain
responsible for learning and memory.
“What this is saying is that the food
you eat doesn’t just have relevance
to your mental health but also to your
brain health – your ability to learn and
remember and that has implications for
education and work,” said Felice.
But it’s her latest research, the SMILES
trial, which investigated food as a
potentially effective and cost-effective
treatment for depression.
In this 2017 study, one group of adults
with major depression received social
support and the other group undertook
seven sessions with a qualified dietician
over three months.
The dietician helped the food group
headspace Keynote speakers
move away from junk food and
processed foods to a diet high in fruits,
vegetables, whole grains, legumes,
fish and olive oil. Most importantly, they
formulated diets that were individualised,
easy to follow, practical and tasty.
“What we advocated was very very
simple stuff: this was not fancy Ottolenghi
cooking. This was a tin of sardines,
whole-grain biscuits and a bit of salad.
Frozen vegetables. Cheap, affordable and
easy to access,” Felice said.
In fact, the cost of following the study’s
modified Mediterranean diet was cheaper
than the diet that participants had prior
to the study. The average participant
spent $138 a week on food and
beverages before the study and $112
per week on the study’s diet.
Participants in the dietary group also lost
less time from paid and unpaid work
and visited health professional less often
than their support group counterparts.
This contributed to a reduction in their
expenses, with their total health sector
costs $856 lower than the other group and
average societal costs also $2,591 lower.
But the results were the real proof of
the pudding, with the dietary group
showing a much greater reduction in
their depression symptoms than the
support group. In fact, a third of those in
the dietary group went on to achieve full
remission of their depression compared
to 8 per cent in the control group.
“People loved that this was under their
control – something they could do to
help themselves,” Felice said.
South Australian researchers have
since replicated this research with their
HELFIMED study, which focused on
young people. It also integrated cooking
workshops, food hampers, instructions
on how to shop and opportunities for
the young people to connect with each
other. Their results have shown the same
decrease in depressive symptoms and
increase in mental and physical wellbeing.
“We need to get away from treating bits
of people’s brains and start treating the
whole person,” said Felice.
12
 Everything you wanted
to know about
working with schools in
35 minutes or less
For headspace Liverpool, working with
schools has been an opportunity to
extend and amplify their work with young
people by creating initiatives such as the
Youth Mental Health Summit, a wellbeing
network for teachers and a pilot for
individual-based intervention.
This focus on schools has not only enabled
them to reach a large number of young
people via a ready-made platform, but it
has also taught them about the power of
partnerships to create even better mental
health outcomes for young people.
“We want to move away from the
one-dimensional work of going into
schools and just doing a presentation
or a workshop. We really want more
of a focus on the collaborations and
partnerships with other community
organisations so we can do more
dynamic work with schools,” said
Caitlin Miles, community development
coordinator at headspace Liverpool.
“Schools are one of the richer
opportunities to grow students’ social
and emotional health, which we know is
a huge part of mental health. They are
also a really easy platform for us to go in
and engage with young people that we
would otherwise miss or who wouldn’t
want to approach us,” Caitlin said.
28 per cent of referrals to headspace
Liverpool come from the local schools,
but despite local recognition of the
headspace brand and its mental health
kudos, the centre was battling to go it
alone with events.
“We were really struggling to get people
from the community to come to our
events,” Caitlin said.
13
Martin Baker, Caitlin
Miles & Vikki Radford
- headspace Liverpool
In 2014, headspace Liverpool partnered headspace Liverpool’s top tips:
with South West Connect to run their
• Don’t view schools just as schools
first Youth Mental Health Summit. Much
– they are platforms for improving
like the national headspace forum, the
social and emotional wellbeing and
summit was a chance for teachers and
building resilience.
students to meet, share stories, swap
skills and learn strategies for reducing • Identify what mental health support
mental health issues in their schools. schools already have in place
for students and staff. Complement
The summit now brings together 390
existing services. Don’t reinvent
students and teachers from 20 schools
the wheel.
in Liverpool and Fairfield.
• Understand the complexities,
“The main aim is to remove the stigma
challenges and constraints that
around mental health and to provide
schools face – they may be resistant.
resources and strategies for students
and teachers so they can bring it back • Support the supporters – focus on
and share it with the rest of the school. staff too.
There is also an expo element where they
connect with about 20 different service • Use your existing partnerships to put
providers,” Caitlin said. together something more dynamic and
really engaging.
And for the past three years, their post-
• Make your event fun and engaging.
event evaluations have highlighted the
summit’s success, with 100 per cent • M
ake sure there’s food – students like
of students saying it was useful and to be fed.
beneficial in promoting positive mental
health and wellbeing. • Don’t be afraid of trial and error.
The summit led to the development of • To create a network, identify the issues
the wellbeing network, a passionate in the school and wider community
team of wellbeing teachers who and make sure that it’s worth the effort
wanted to unify schools and provide of time-poor teachers.
more support for their schools and
• E
stablish a Memorandum of
communities. To further these aims, the
Understanding with the schools
network established mini youth reference
so there is a clear understanding of the
groups within schools.
role of headspace and the school’s
headspace Liverpool has also commitment.
established a pilot program at Canley Vale
High School, where they work with school
executives and counsellors overwhelmed
with demand from students struggling
with the pressure to perform and cultural
backgrounds that often don’t recognise
mental health issues.
Want to work with schools? Here are the

Using Telehealth
to boost your
service profile
At six foot six, Ian Johansen from
headspace Swan Hill was already
tall, but he towered over the lectern
when he stood on a chair to talk
about the benefits of the headspace
Telehealth Service.
“The National Telehealth Service
is like this chair,” said Ian as
he clambered up. “It helps the
headspace centre to reach even
higher because it gives us a lot of
resources to help our staff go further
with young people.”
17 headspace centres currently
use the National Telehealth Service,
which provides young people in
rural areas with access to a bulk-
billed psychiatrist.
These young people often live in areas
where there are no mental health
specialists, forcing them to either
travel to bigger towns or, worse, to
just stay silent about their problems.
With a GP referral in hand, young
people can talk to a psychiatrist from
the comfort of their local headspace
centre where they use purpose-built
video-streaming to connect to a city-
based specialist.
Rose Griffiths, headspace National
Telehealth Service Manager said,
“This consultation can occur at any
time during the stepped-care model.”
“The service is usually for mild to
moderate mental health issues, but in
rural areas it often moves into more
complex areas because of the lack of
services and because young people
don’t want to leave town to seek help.”
Rose Griffiths - headspace National
Ian Johansen - headspace Swan Hill
headspace also plans to extend the
service by supporting Primary Health
Networks (PHNs) and mentoring
rural health professionals.
“We are looking at offering this
service to fill the gap for PHNs’
stepped-care models or other
services that don’t have a
headspace near them. We are
also looking at offering secondary
consultation support to the rural
workforce, which would involve
time with a psychiatrist to do case
review,” Rose said.
headspace Swan Hill has used the
service since 2015, and Ian enthused
about its benefits for the centre’s
clients and staff.
“Young people have received
their psychiatric review and
management advice in a short and
prompt timeframe,” he said, adding
that it provided clarity to families
that sometimes resort to Dr Google
for diagnoses.
His staff also benefit from attending
the sessions of their clients and
undertaking their own secondary
consultations with the psychiatrist.
“They feel like their hypotheses have
been affirmed and they’re growing in
their skills,” Ian said.
To integrate the telepsychiatry
service into headspace Swan Hill,
the centre promoted it to GPs, local
services, practice managers and the
community. They handed out flyers,
sent information to an email network
of around 200 service providers and
partnered up with Northern District
Community Health to run a public
information session in Kerang.
headspace Sector Engagement
“It was a great moment. People got
the chance to see what it took to
make a referral through the National
Telehealth Service and how easy it
was,” Ian said.
According to Claudio Villella, GP
advisor at headspace National,
it’s particularly important for
centres to build relationships with
GPs if they want to introduce a
telepsychiatry service.
These GPs often have very long-
term relationships with their
young patients, provide important
background information and
implement the recommendations of
the psychiatrists.
“It’s an opportunity to make the GP
in the community feel part of the
team at the headspace centre if
you engage with them, meet with
them, set up the expectations about
the appropriate referral pathway,
and keep them in the loop about
what happened in the assessment,”
Claudio said.
Rapport and engagement are also
the name of the game when it
comes to the sessions themselves,
said psychiatrist Lorelle Drew, who
provides telehealth sessions to Swan
Hill. “Telehealth seems to have little
negative effect on that,” Lorelle said.
Ian couldn’t agree more: “The only
people who have an issue with it
not being face to face are workers.
Young people don’t give a damn.
Make it happen.”
14
 Rainbow Warriors – Creating
safety, support and social inclusion
for LGBTIQAP+ young people
With each new offer of a cupcake,
people squirmed in their seats and the
tension in the room went up another
notch – never had the simple act of
choosing a chocolate muffin or cupcake
caused such a stir.
The cupcake culprit was Jade Mirabito,
the LGBTIQAP+ youth worker from
headspace Southport. He was on stage
pretending to be a shopkeeper who
persistently offered a cupcake every time
the customer repeated their initial order
of a chocolate muffin.
The role-play may have been frustratingly
fun, but the message was very serious.
“We’re getting frustrated over invisible
muffins. Imagine if it was your identity that
people kept tripping over,” Jade said.
“Say you’ve got conversations where you
have people stuffing up pronouns. That
can be hard and you can apologise but
still do same thing. Until we change the
behaviour, the apology seems insincere.”
And what if you had already gone to
a few different bakeries? “How many
times would you ask before giving up?
Three times? Once? Or would you have
just taken the cupcake straight away
because you’re too anxious to ask for
what you really want?” Jade said.
Unfortunately these experiences are all
too common for LGBTIQAP+ young
people, who often run the gauntlet of
everyday services and people who refuse
to recognise their choice of partner,
pronoun or gender.
According to Jade, some keep pushing
back while others just give up, and this
struggle with identity, safety and social
inclusion can have serious ramifications
for many young people.
15
In the general population, 2–4 per cent
have attempted suicide while the figures
for the LGBTIQAP+ community are
much higher: 19 per cent of intersex
populations, 10–24 per cent of lesbian,
gay and bisexual populations and up to
50 per cent of trans populations.
“So when we are working with mental
health in the community, these are the
commonalities we’re seeing amongst
young people,” Jade said. “What we’re
noticing is that unless services are
explicitly inclusive, it’s going to be hard
for young people to get through the
doors and to know about the service.”
So to ensure that your service creates
safety, support and social inclusion for
these young people, here are some of
Jade’s accountability tips:
• Respect and acknowledge
individual identities.
• Avoid assumptions around gender,
sexuality or intersex status. “Stop
looking for gender with your eyes; start
looking with your ears.”
• Avoid curious questioning. “You need
to work out whether you are asking
questions because it will really make
your work easier or just because you
want to know.”
• Ask for people’s pronouns when
introducing yourself.
• Ensure that your antidiscrimination
policies are accessible to the public.
• Ensure support is visible within the
service. “And not just for the people
who identify as LGBTIQAP+ but
for everyone else so they know
behaviour that is anti the community
won’t be tolerated.”
• Don’t make jokes about identity.
• I f you say the wrong thing,
apologise in an appropriate manner
and keep trying.
Adrian Ellis and Keiah Smith, both from
the youth advisory group in Tweed
Heads, also shared their tips for rocking
youth participation in the groups and
events that your service might create.
• Make use of your reference group and
build strong foundations.
• Keep it fun but also professional.
You want to have clear boundaries
between workers and young people.
• Consult your young people right from
the beginning of a project. “It’s one
thing to listen. It’s another to hear what
they’re saying to you. If you can’t do
something, give them a reason why,”
said Keiah.
• Offer resources and guidance – they
can’t do it by themselves.
• Make sure it’s fun and engaging
for them.
• Recognise the barriers they may face.
“Sometimes they need that extra bit of
help,” said Adrian.
• C
ommunication is key, and you
can really gain both personal and
professional growth.
• R
emember they are volunteering their
time. “It’s important to really thank
them for their help and guidance –
because they don’t have to be there,”
said Adrian.
 headspace Sector Engagement
Claire Cottone, Keiah Smith and
Adrian Ellis & Jade Mirabito
- headspace Tweed Heads

16
 Administration Training
– Opportunity to grow
Jessica Morton & Kelly Lee - headspace Parramatta
First impressions matter, for all of us, but that first encounter at
the front desk of a headspace centre can either engage and
welcome a young person or turn them away.
Those primary encounters set the tone
for the relationships that follow. Building
the capacity of administration staff to
better deal with their first interactions
with young people, particularly in
challenging presentations, is vital to the
success of the service.
Jessica Morton is a mental health
administration officer at headspace
Parramatta and said although we know
a poor first impression can negatively
impact a young person’s experience,
there is limited data on how training
administration staff can help. According
to the headspace independent
evaluation (2009), a youth-friendly
environment and the welcoming,
non-judgmental nature of staff were
factors that influenced a young person’s
engagement with headspace.
Jessica said although she had solid
experience in administration and was
confident in her ability to deal with
frontline contact, her knowledge of the
mental health sector was limited. She
said it is vital for frontline staff to have the
right information, tools and strategies to
respond to calls or walk-ins as the first
contact for young people.
Jessica shares the story of a particularly
chaotic day. The phone was ringing
constantly, and the administrative work
was overloaded. She answered a call
only to have silence at the other end. She
probed a couple of times and was about
to hang up, but then heard something.
Considering what could be happening
to the young person on the other end,
Jessica told the caller, “I’m just going to
sit here, and you can tell me when you’re
ready to talk”. Finally, the young person
spoke up and Jessica was able to transfer
her to an intake officer. Had Jessica hung
up because she was too busy, she could
have cost that young person their life.
17
What that experience taught Jessica was
to understand the stress and courage it
takes for a young person to reach out to
mental health services. “Being constantly
reminded of the context that I’m working
in and the people I am there to support is
of utmost importance.”
Kelly Lee is a clinical psychologist who
said we need to train our administration
staff, so they are equipped to manage
crisis situations. In their role, administration
staff receive lots of special requests, they
must also administer complaints from
staff, as well as from young people and
their families. There needs to be realistic
expectations from other people in their
team to appreciate how they juggle these
competing issues.
Kelly reiterates to her administration staff,
“You are not ‘just admin’ at headspace,
you are such an important part of the
service. You are the face of headspace.”
Inducting administration staff,
providing access to ongoing training
and development, as well as offering
informal support like including them in
care coordination, clinical review, and
giving them the opportunity to listen to
clinicians and debrief, shows them they
are an imperative service provider too.
Jessica recommends other headspace
frontline staff “agitate for training” and
have conversations with their managers
about what will help them help young
people who approach headspace for
assistance. These young people are not
simply customers of headspace, they
are vulnerable people who need comfort
and support from their very first moment
of contact.
Student placements have many
benefits, not just for students
themselves and for the headspace
centres they attend, but as a key part of
training the future workforce.
Dr Tracy Garvin, Clinical Psychology
Supervisor at headspace Glenroy
and Craigieburn, is part of the team
who has been running an Orygen
Placement program across four centres.
With numerous student placements
over eight years, Tracy said, “student
placements have multiple and far-
reaching benefits.”
Students have the opportunity to
consolidate their learning and “build
their capacity around assessment and
intervention and engagement with
young people. They also get invaluable
exposure around [the] core values [that]
underlie all their work.”
Staff members benefit from the
placements by improving their self-
development through teaching someone
a skill and also having the chance
to reflect on their own professional
practice. A clinical psychologist / AHPRA
endorsed supervisor employed one day
a week at each centre means staff also
benefit from professional development.
For headspace sites, the advantages
are bountiful. Increased service provision
with students included in intervention
sessions, helping run community
engagement activities, and assisting
with assessments, all aid in relieving
centre workloads.
The pros extend to universities. Students
can translate their knowledge into
practice, as well as guide youth-centred
curriculum development. In addition,
Tracy said placements can influence the

Structuring student
psychology placements
in primary care
health sector as a whole. “[Placements
are] a real investment in youth mental
health workforce development.”
The rewards are clear, but recruiting
and structuring psychology and other
allied health student placements can
be daunting.
Karen Marriage, Clinical Psychology
Supervisor at headspace Sunshine,
said employing 24 past students,
averaging between two to six
placements at each centre each year,
has given them the opportunity to refine
their recruitment process. Given the
complexity of clinical presentations,
strong relationships with partner
universities help meet their criteria
of only accepting students in final
placements. Students commit to at
least three days per week for a 50-day
placement, which means they can be
integrated with the team and absorb the
culture of the staff and the service.
The interview process is a way to
identify student levels of knowledge,
what support they require and most
importantly, to gain a sense of who
they are and their attitude towards
young people. Are they warm? Are they
passionate about youth mental health?
Karen said although they appreciate
students who have some background
in relevant areas, they’re not focused
on those who simply have a high level
of knowledge. Rather, “we’re wanting
to choose students who [will be] able
to engage and work well in a
collaborative way with [our] young
people and [their] families.”
Naturally, students arrive with varying
levels of specific mental health knowledge
dependent upon the course they’re
undertaking. Placements need to be
structured to reflect their understanding
and some students may require more
scaffolding, teaching and observation.
Students on placement attend an
orientation workshop day with students
from all four centres as a way to get to
know each other and become familiar
with headspace values and models
of care. Supervisors assess where the
students are at and what information
gaps need filling. Students commence
a staged work program, beginning with
sitting in with the Access Team. They
step that up to joint work with another
clinician and once confidence and
competence are built, students take
the lead (with observation) in sessions
until they can work independently with
regular supervision.
Observing different clinicians and how
they tackle tricky questions in sessions
and “having the opportunity to see various
styles of doing the work, we think, is
actually quite valuable,” Karen said.
Supervisors getting to know and
understand their students and vice
versa is vital for a successful placement.
Lisa Catania, Clinical Psychology
Supervisor at headspace Werribee, said
there are real benefits to learning how
your student works. As a supervisor,
using warmth, respect, collaboration
and encouragement to “[set] up a
space that you want the supervisee
to talk about the things they don’t feel
competent in” is important and will have
a flow-on effect to how they relate to the
young people and their therapies.
In addition, the role of the supervisor
is to monitor competency and
create a safe and respectful space.
Acknowledging the power imbalance,
modelling problem-solving in technical
headspace Service Management
Tracy Garvin
- headspace Glenroy
Karen Marriage
- headspace Sunshine
skills and working with the student to
fill their knowledge deficiencies, as well
as providing constructive feedback
delivered in a supportive way are all
crucial for a successful supervisor-
supervisee relationship.
With individual one-hour supervision per
week, and monthly group supervision
that is shared across the centres,
students can come together and benefit
from supervisory and peer learning
and support. Participation in intake,
assessments, brief intervention clinics
and group programs gives them a
rounded placement experience.
The team of supervisors has developed
a pre- and post-placement evaluation
that assesses knowledge, skills and
confidence across a number of domains.
This is followed by a mid-placement
evaluation of the supervisory relationship
and the placement. University core
competencies are also part of the
assessment and evaluation process.
Student placements are an invaluable
source of learning and can influence the
future youth mental health workforce.
Placements require support, framework
and effective evaluation but centres
can start small. Partnerships between
neighbouring centres to share a supervisor
or pool resources, or even providing
remote supervision are some options.
Karen said she wants headspace staff
to feel “inspired that headspace is really
well placed to influence the workforce.
We have an opportunity to inspire
people that working with young people
is awesome and that…they can make a
contribution early in people’s lives.”
18
 Getting the Nick Duigan, Sandra Mitich, Carla Cummins & Yong Ly
- headspace National

most out of Paying close attention to the stories of young people and their
families can shape the way headspace centres provide services

your data that anticipate and meet the needs of their young people. Data
plays a crucial role in this because it, too, tells a story.

The data captured in the headspace
Application Platform Interface (hAPI) is
currently reported to our headspace
centres through Tableau. Carla Cummins,
Business Education and Change
Consultant for headspace National,
acknowledged that tables, charts and
graphs in the Tableau data reports can
befuddle many people, but says, “We want
to demonstrate today…that there is a lot
more to our data than charts and graphs.
They tell a story.” Carla added, “The story
is only going to be as a good as the data,
and the data is only going to be as good as
what we’re putting into hAPI.”
The key to reading, understanding
and effectively using the data is to be
curious, says Nick Duigan, Senior Clinical
Advisor at headspace National. While
he was Centre Manager at headspace
Geraldton, Nick’s curiosity sparked him
to ask questions about what bigger
story the information revealed. He also
wondered how staff expertise could be
used “to really build the depth and the
quality of that information”.
Sharing this curiosity with relevant team
members left them able to address
issues the data was representing. Nick’s
presentation encouraged centres to
look at how their centre data could be
used “to make innovation or service
development better tailored to suit the
needs of the young people”.
The presentation then looked in detail
at how data from hAPI, and presented
in the Tableau reporting dashboards,
can be used to inform service offerings.
Many centres struggle with demand
management. The data captured in
hAPI can prompt centres to consider
offering group sessions as a way to fill
gaps between the first assessment and
the first appointment. The data reports
available to centres in Tableau can help
to inform service providers about what the
young people in the region are seeking
help for. Ultimately, it’s important to read
the data like a book, and ask yourself:
What is the story this data is telling?
It will be common for local centre data to
identify some primary issues of concern
for young people. If, for example, those
concerns are anxiety and anger, the centre
management team might ask themselves:
How can they focus their community
education presentations on these issues?
How might this information inform strategic
partnerships within the community and
with experts? How might it also affect
workforce planning and recruitment?
To address the issues the data highlighted,
one possible option is to deliver two
separate group programs. A centre could

19

choose staff with expertise in these areas
to coordinate the groups and engage
schools, family and friends to filter the
information throughout the community. 
 groups is an important part of increasing
Using Tableau, Nick showed how
individual centres can drill down to
detailed data relevant to their centre. By
adjusting date ranges, it is possible to
examine whether the period after they’ve
delivered group sessions has made a
difference to engagement, wait times or
client load. It is possible to identify if and
when a centre might be losing participants
and to then filter to the specific age
bracket and demographic to understand
which young people are disengaging.
Through data Nick also showed that it
is possible to identify discrepancies in
access among varying demographics.
It might be that data reporting indicates
a centre is struggling to engage the
younger age group (12-14) or struggling
to engage a specific cultural or priority
group. Addressing the needs of priority
social inclusion. Data for individual
centres can tell all sorts of stories about
service engagement and duration of
access. Centres will inevitably find that
their data highlights some inconsistencies
which, in turn, can encourage a centre
to reflect on where and how they are
promoting their programs.
Data can help monitor the impact of
service changes, can determine the
effect of implementing new initiatives or
education sessions, and can measure
improvements in client satisfaction. Yong
Ly, Business Engagement and Support
Lead at headspace National, says that
deconstructing data to centre-specific
details offers evidence-based information
that can help centres tailor programs and
headspace Service Management
inform the offerings and services they
provide. He says it is important to challenge
and ask questions about the data. For
example, are there reasons why young
people of a specific age group, cultural
background or demographic may not be
filling in the client satisfaction survey? Do
we need to look at the ways in which we
engage with them in this context?
Most importantly, it is vital to use data
to ask the question: Are we meeting the
demands and needs of the young people
accessing our services?
Providing a timely, accessible and
relevant service is the aim of all
headspace centres. Being curious about
the available data opens the doorway
to engagement with the story of each
centre. Knowing your centre’s story
equips you to evaluate what is truly
making a difference to young people.
20
 Adaptation of the
Dialectical Behaviour
Therapy (DBT) for young
people at headspace
Carly Clutterbuck - headspace Meadowbrook
Chris Tutt - headspace Ipswich
With this in mind, headspace
Meadowbrook recognised the benefit of
DBT as an early intervention treatment for
young people with emerging Borderline
Personality Disorder (BPD) traits. Carly
Clutterbuck, a psychologist working in
the headspace Youth Early Psychosis
Program (hYEPP) along with Chris Tutt,
a Provisional Psychologist working in
the Ultra High-Risk Program at Ipswich,
were two clinicians who worked as
part of the clinical team at headspace
Meadowbrook. They condensed the
26-week ‘Dialectical Behaviour Therapy
for Adolescents’ program developed
by Linehan et al. into a 10-week
schedule. This was designed to be run
in headspace centres under Medicare’s
Mental Health Care Plan model.
Using the guiding principle: How can
you be effective right now? headspace
Meadowbrook provided intensive therapy
for participants that included skills group
sessions, phone coaching, individual
therapist appointments and family and
friend education.
DBT has four major components including
Distress Tolerance, Emotional Regulation,
Walking the Middle Path and Interpersonal
Effectiveness. Although having to omit
the mindfulness modules to reduce the
number of sessions, they managed to
retain this with a mindfulness activity
21
at the beginning of each consult
and skills group. More recently, they
introduced a peer support component
where past participants join the group to
mentor and support the application of
skills learned within the DBT program.
“This provides the lived experience and
the heart to the program,” Carly said.
Meadowbrook found the program
successfully reduced BPD traits, improved
symptoms of depression and anxiety
and reduced emotional dysregulation
in participants. Carly said, “we are
demonstrating that our young people are
starting to live a life worth living”.
One of those young people is Lily
who presented alongside Chris and
Carly. Struggling at school in Year
9, she moved to a home-schooling
arrangement, participating in therapy
once a week, sometimes twice. She held
very little hope for her future, believing
she wouldn’t graduate from high school.
In and out of hospital, Lily said, “I got to
know all the doctors, nurses, ambulance
staff and their pet’s names and how they
had their coffee.”
Attendance at her first DBT program
was a huge commitment with a five-hour
round trip, not to mention a new city with
new people. Although it presented all
sorts of challenges, Lily said it became
easier towards the end.
Dialectical Behaviour
Therapy (DBT) is an effective
treatment for people who
have difficulty controlling their
emotions and behaviours.
It aims to replace problem
behaviours with skilful ones.
Deciding on a second round of DBT,
Lily’s family relocated to be closer.
Although her brain still felt scrambled,
Lily persisted and improved her skills. By
the third round of DBT, she was able to
mentor other participants and use skills
from each of the four major components
to work toward a life worth living. “I felt
like I didn’t have to learn the content
anymore which meant I could put the
skills into practise more frequently.”
Now enrolled in nursing, Lily has also
booked an overseas trip with friends, as
well as been invited by headspace to
return as a peer support representative.
“I have scars and people stare when I
walk down the street, but it doesn’t faze
me anymore. I can have this life, with
these things as part of my story, and it
doesn’t define what I can do.”
Despite the limitations of a small data
set, unequal representation of females
to males, and no follow up measures
yet, headspace Meadowbrook is
optimistic that with the training and
commitment of staff and participants,
modified adolescent DBT can be
delivered in a community mental
health setting resulting in improvement
of overall emotional regulation and
reduction in emotional distress.
Chilled Out Chatswood
– A successful anxiety
management program
Janet McEwen & Jessie Booth - headspace Chatswood
Anxiety in young people is a hot topic
amongst mental health workers.
Janet McEwen is a Youth Access
Clinician and Private Practitioner at
headspace Chatswood. She said
they identified a dual need for their
client base: a program that not only
addressed the high reports of anxiety
symptoms but one that taught
parents the skills to help their young
person manage anxiety and improve
daily functioning.
The solution was to run group
sessions based on the ‘Chilled
Program’ developed by Macquarie
University. It boasts an evidence-
based, manualised, anxiety treatment
program targeted specifically at
adolescents.
The 10-week holistic program uses a
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT)
framework and can be accessed
under the Medicare Mental Health
Care Plan. In order for the program
to qualify for Medicare benefits, at
least six young people must attend.
Potential participants are screened
for anxiety levels, as a group setting
is not always appropriate for clients
with extreme anxiety.
Group sessions provide the
opportunity for connection in a safe
space and are run by a ‘Chilled’
qualified facilitator and two trained
Youth Access Clinicians. Jessie
Booth is one of those. She loves
that being part of a group normalises
social anxiety by having young
people share their stories. “I’m sure
you’ve all had the experience talking
with a young person where they feel
like they’re ‘weird’ or completely
isolated, or that their symptoms are
their own and only their own.”
Participants learn what anxiety is,
how to employ realistic thinking,
and the all-important skill of goal
setting. For young people with
anxiety to even contemplate tackling
a final goal can be overwhelming.
By developing personal step
ladders and strategies to success,
participants “independently and
autonomously [take] on the creation
of those personal self-soothing
strategies and [learn] them from
each other as opposed to being
suggested…by their therapist,”
Jessie said.
Group challenges celebrate
successes and demonstrate to the
young people and their families just
what they are capable of. Parents
play a supportive role, learning skills
along the way.
headspace Chatswood has run two
programs, one tailored to 12–15
year olds, and another to 16–18 year
olds. Janet said it is important for
each cohort to be close in age, so
participants can relate to their peers
and build friendships.
Using a combination of outcome
measures including K10, the
Spence Anxiety Scale, DASS and
for the older group, the Beck Anxiety
Inventory (BAI), results were mixed.
Janet said although they are happy
with the overall results and feel they
are indicative of a program that helps
reduce anxiety, there is a discrepancy
between self-reporting and outcome
measures. “Anecdotally [young
people and their parents] found it
enormously helpful… and they really
valued the group benefits, the social
aspects of the program.”
headspace Service Delivery
The team at headspace Chatswood
know it’s a worthwhile group program
to offer. The flexibility of treatment
options means it can run in conjunction
with one-on-one therapies and in
some cases relieve waiting lists for
these services. The ability to operate
under the headspace branding is a
vote of confidence for parents, which
boosts engagement. Young people
learning new regulation and anxiety
management skills in a social setting
helps motivate them to face their
fears. From a staffing point of view, the
diversity and professional development
opportunities are invaluable.
Top tips for centres looking to
incorporate the ‘Chilled Program’
into their services are to consider the
timing within school schedules, and
to target narrow age ranges. Janet
said although recruiting participants
can be challenging, intake is a great
opportunity but widening the scope
is also useful. Given there will always
be natural attrition, numbers are key
as they affect the logistics of staffing,
venues and times available.
Tai is a young person who completed
the ‘Chilled Program’. He learned
that, “worrying doesn’t stop bad
things from happening. This was a
revelation to me…I think differently
to how I used to…Realistic thinking
helped me realise crap happens, but
life goes on…I just like that there are
less balls to juggle and dropping one
doesn’t seem like such a potential
disaster after all”.
Resources and training are available
through Macquarie University,
Centre for Emotional Health Clinic,
Department of Psychology.
Email: ehc.admin@mq.edu.au
22
 Digital Work
and Study – Working
with Centres
Carolyn Watts, Leigh O’Gorman, Ella Hewitt &
Jess Downey - headspace National
The Digital Work and Study Service
(DWSS) is a world-first pilot program
that has been operating for 18 months
from headspace National. It provides an
online space for young people to connect
with work and study support and the
ability to access integrated vocational
and clinical support in order to improve
psychosocial outcomes. The program is
integrated with the headspace Model
Integrity Framework (hMIF), and as Jess
Downey, Clinical Advisor for DWSS, says
“vocational engagement is vital in mental
health recovery”.
23
Close to one third of young
people accessing centre
services are not engaged in
employment or study and
many centres have difficulty
sourcing appropriate partners
to address this need.
Strengths-based sessions run for three addition, 82 per cent said they would
months with intensive one-on-one, recommend the service, with 75 per cent
individually tailored support. DWSS offers gaining skills that would assist with their
a webinar series on employment and work and study goals.
education topics, with the opportunity
Jess says the meaningful integration of
for young people to speak with industry
the service through monthly meetings
specialists. The service also runs mock
and clinical debriefing allows staff to pick
interviews with corporate partners, an
up on any early warning signs, helping to
invaluable learning experience for building
support the young person’s engagement
young people’s confidence in a practical
in clinical and vocational services.
application. Work experience and on-hire
placements are an additional part of the
service. Young people can also apply to
access financial support for study.
Using preliminary data collected from
60 Service participants, 83 per cent
reported that DWSS helped them
realise how mental health and wellbeing
issues impacted their work and/or study
situations. This link is crucial in recognising
how effective a holistic approach can
be in the treatment of young people. In

DWSS and
headspace
Gladstone
Lois Auld, Centre Manager at
headspace Gladstone, integrated DWSS
at her centre, and says it has “worked
wonders for our young people”. The
positive impact of being engaged with
this service has seen the centre’s overall
client satisfaction far exceed the national
average, largely due to their commitment
to the four core streams.
Lois says intake workers identified the
majority of young people presenting
were either unhappy at school, at risk
of disengaging, were unemployed or
dissatisfied with their work. Add to this
an economic downturn in Gladstone,
with no apprenticeships available, and
the young people were lost in the abyss
of limited employment opportunities.
Through shared care and an easy referral
process, headspace Gladstone was
able to provide clinical and therapeutic
support, while DWSS offered robust
vocational support.
Phone, email and online options made
it simple for young people to get
involved and the flexibility of the
program meant it was accessible from
home and on weekends.
Compared to a Job Network Provider’s
case load of up to 200, not only does
DWSS cap their load at 20 participants
giving them the time and attention
required, they are also aware of mental
health issues. Lois is passionate about
DWSS; “I encourage you all to make
referrals to the service”.
headspace Service Delivery
Digital
Industry Mentor
Service
A new and exciting sister service to
DWSS is the Digital Industry Mentor
Service, an Empowering Youth Initiative
through the Department of Employment.
The service coordinator, Ella Hewitt, says
it is an opportunity to connect young
people with industry career mentors
thanks to corporate partners, such as
Viva Energy Australia, NBN.co, Kmart,
and ANZ, amongst others.
Mentors, ranging from entry level position
to CFOs, undertake training to qualify.
Mentorships are open to 17–24 year olds,
with young people self-referring online.
Matches are based on both career goals
and personal interests, with mentors
available from a range of backgrounds,
levels of education and industries.
Operating fortnightly, online sessions
run for an hour, covering anything from
career and industry guidance, discussions
around workplace etiquette, to support
with networks and industry contacts. Ella
says that 30 per cent of mentor sessions
are currently running longer than an hour
because young people are so engaged
and keen to hear more.
This is a complementary service, meeting
a niche market. With around 40 per cent
of current participants in the program
identified as Not in Education, Employment
or Training (NEET), one quarter of whom
were already working with an employment
service provider but clearly not getting
results, the need for a more targeted
service was apparent. Across all young
people in the program, 60 per cent are not
employed but looking for work.
Feedback for the service shows mentors
agreeing or strongly agreeing in 95 per
cent of cases that their session went
well. In the future, the program hopes to
offer possible employment opportunities
through the mentors.
DWSS and the launch of the Digital
Industry Mentor Service offer
quality headspace solutions to
providing integrated vocational support
for young people.
24
 Focusing on food – Building nutrition
and dietetics within headspace
Lisa Staples - headspace Tamworth
Evidence suggests that a key factor in
improving physical and mental wellbeing
of young people at-risk of eating issues
is early identification and nutrition
intervention. The facts reveal that young
people treated in the first year of illness
show a recovery rate of between 74 and
90 per cent, compared to a 21 per cent
recovery rate for young people treated
with a four-year history of illness.
Lisa Staples, the Clinical Care
Coordinator at headspace Tamworth,
and the centre team were keen to
explore how they could educate young
people about the impact physical
and nutritional health can have on
mental health. Lisa’s background in
Occupational Therapy laid a solid
foundation for practical ways they could
help at-risk young people in their region.
In consultation with the centre dietitian,
Deanne Harris and Fly-in Fly-Out GP, Dr
Gerard Cudmore, they developed and
implemented services that focused on
nutrition in young people, specifically in
disordered eating and eating disorders.
Despite limited resources available to
service their small rural community,
they developed two clinics to increase
education around nutrition.
The first is a general nutrition clinic
that looks at weight concerns, sports
nutrition, eating during pregnancy,
allergies, anxiety and mood. Puberty is
a time of great change in young people
who are often quite anxious about their
body, particularly in terms of weight.
When 90 per cent of 12–17 year old girls
and 68 per cent of 12–17 year old boys
have been on a diet, programs that help
normalise body developments in puberty
and educate young people about the
physiological changes that need to
25
happen (such as weight gain for girls in
order to menstruate) are vital.
The second clinic focuses on
disordered eating behaviours, such as
fasting, binge-eating, laxative-use and
compulsive exercise, amongst others.
With Australian rates of disordered eating
behaviour doubling in the past decade in
both males and females, recognition and
early intervention are crucial in halting the
progression of these behaviours.
In addition to the clinics, headspace
Tamworth ran nutrition-centred
programs. ‘Rock Your Mind and Body’
– education sessions for parents and
young people, facilitated by a private
psychologist, which covered body image
and nutrition, and ‘Nourishing Networks’
– a 10-week self-directed learning
package, focused on early identification
and management of clients with all forms
of disordered eating through online and
face-to-face education session run by
the University of Newcastle University
Department of Rural Health, designed for
GPs and allied health professionals.
Lisa said, “Through all of this, our interest
in nutrition and disordered eating grew.”
This led to the creation of a ‘Food for
Thought’ manual: a manual for staff on
nutrition and eating issues focused on
early identification and management of
clients with all forms of disordered eating.
The aim was to make staff more aware of
nutritional flags during screening and to
be comfortable in the referral process.
Probing questions during initial screening
and throughout continued sessions can
reveal deep-seated food issues. Asking
a young person if they worry about their
weight, if they attempt to control what
they eat by using diet pills, skipping
meals or undertaking excessive exercise,
are some areas that can indicate more
complex concerns. As not every centre
has a dietitian, Lisa said using the SCOFF
(Screening for a likely Eating Disorder)
questionnaire is another useful tool.
Managing eating disorders under
a triad of care model - GP, dietitian
and counsellor – along with joint
appointments for consistency of
communication, and regular review, has
seen at-risk young people accessing
the services at headspace Tamworth
celebrate improved outcomes.
By recognising early warning signs,
trained staff are able to refer young
people for basic health checks with the
GP including pathology tests to rule
out medical factors. Comprehensive
pathology can provide insights into links
between physical health and mental
health. In one case, blood test results
revealed an iron deficiency that impacted
the young person’s presenting issues of
anxiety and lethargy.
This holistic approach to health care
is not new, but what they’ve learned
is incorporating nutrition into centre
services is highly beneficial. How can
other centres do this? It’s important to
keep the topic of eating behaviours on
the agenda with young people, as well
as encouraging them to acknowledge
that the body is meant to grow during
adolescence. Educating them about
fueling their body and how that can
impact them not only physically but
mentally is also a great way to introduce
a positive and healthy relationship with
nutrition. Parents play a fundamental role
in promoting healthy food.

Centres don’t have to be restricted
by limited resources. Lisa encourages
other headspace centres to take some
 headspace Service Delivery
of the ideas they’ve implemented at
headspace Tamworth and find a way
for nutrition to be built into services that
support this specific at-risk group of
young people.

“Have a think about what you can do with

a dietitian, and without a dietitian. Think
about your assessment of young people:
what extra questions can you ask? How
can you delve more deeply into the area
of eating with young people?”

She challenges centres to resist making

assumptions about what the underlying
causes of a young person’s issues may
be, by asking direct questions, and
referring on for further investigations if
necessary. Early identification and nutrition
intervention play a central role in positive
outcomes for at-risk young people.

Nourishing Networks training package

is available by contacting headspace
Tamworth or the University of
Newcastle, Department of Rural Health
based in Tamworth.


26
 Functional Recovery –
Gaining life skills and
independence
Rabyh Barhoum & Daniel Marciano - headspace Camperdown
Functional Recovery is an
evidence-based therapy
that focuses on regaining
and increasing the functional
development of young
people suffering with mental
illness. Engagement in study,
work, leisure and general
activities of daily living are
vital to successful outcomes.
Youth Access Clinicians, Rabyh Barhoum
and Daniel Marciano, from headspace
Camperdown, used their experience
in Occupational Therapy to develop a
Functional Recovery Program (FRP)
that focused on the link between a
young person’s self-worth and their
occupational identity.
Where a young person fits into society
– whether that is as a student or
employee, how they develop their life
roles and independence, and their
levels of engagement in meaningful
tasks or activities can all influence their
mental health.
Although part of a large team at
headspace Camperdown, Rabyh and
Daniel identified a considerable gap in
services. Research referenced by the
pair demonstrated that over a five-year
period, people’s functional levels had
not changed (according to their SOFAS
scores), therefore despite five years of
traditional early intervention treatment,
their functional levels remained below the
impairment cut off line (SOFAS= 70).
“The outcome of this research has
said young people who enter an early
intervention service need more than just
early interventions, they also need social
and functional recovery interventions,”
Daniel said.
27
Recent research on young people and end of treatment.
identified as Not in Employment,
Daniel says their evaluation of the pilot
Education or Training (NEET) predicted
an early transition to severe and recurrent
study involving 23 young people (15
mental disorders. Trying to halt this
females, 8 males) demonstrates the
changes they’re making are impacting
digression, and with a desire to drive
outcomes, with mean changes in the
functional improvement, Daniel and Rabyh
COPM and SOFAS scores increasing
focused on five domains of intervention
significantly.
aimed at young people presenting at
Stage 1b (Attenuated syndromes). The case study of a 21-year-old male
who presented to headspace with
• Personal Activities of Daily Living:
Depressive and Anxiety Symptoms is a
basic tasks such as showering and
success story for FRP. Unemployed and
eating
struggling to find work, the young person
• I nstrumental Activities of Daily had enrolled in an online IT course,
Living: independent living that however low motivation hampered his
includes preparing meals, budgeting, ability to complete it. He had difficulties
managing a household in social situations, and a lack of
engagement in meaningful activities. The
• E
ducational and Vocational
GP referred him to FRP for vocational
Functioning: linking work and study,
support, sleep hygiene, and developing
enrolling in courses, helping with
an improved routine around eating and
resume writing, practical assistance
activity scheduling.
in applying for jobs, providing
interview strategies, and actively Upon entering the program, his
engaging in the community performance scores were 3.8 and
satisfaction similar at 3.4. After
• L
eisure Activities: could be physical
completion of the program, these scores
or more passive such as reading or
increased drastically to 9.4 performance
drawing
and 9.4 satisfaction with equally
• S
ocial Functioning: reconnecting with impressive results in his SOFAS (52 to
peers or helping the young person 80) and K10 (32 to 14) scores.
establish new social networks.
Daniel and Rabyh would love to see
As a multi-disciplinary approach and an every headspace centre across Australia
adjunct service, the FRP can help young include Occupational Therapists in their
people referred by clinicians or identified treatment plans. As Rabyh said, “the way
at intake, for up to six months. we conceptualise illness, and focus on
function is quite unique”. And importantly,
Using the Canadian Occupational
it gets results.
Performance Measure (COPM), a
strengths-based assessment, which
focuses on self-care, productivity and
leisure, the young person is assisted
to identify areas to work on. Goals are
set, and levels of performance and
satisfaction are rated at the beginning

Mind the Gap –
A progressive approach to
meeting the needs of at-risk
young people presenting
with complex needs
A unique region-wide response to a service
gap experienced across many centres
may be the way forward for meeting the
complex needs of at-risk young people.
The Enhanced Care Coordinator (ECC)
is a full-time, salaried role that allows
extended resources to help engage
young people presenting with multiple
barriers to treatment.
The goal is to better target young people
with complex needs who otherwise
may receive inadequate care, have
difficulty accessing services or present to
emergency departments.
ECCs have been integrated into five
centres across two lead agencies - Orygen
and YSAS - in North West Melbourne.
These include headspace Sunshine,
Glenroy, Collingwood, Craigieburn and
Werribee. Serving some of the most
disadvantaged suburbs, the North West
Melbourne ECCs operate like a satellite
pod, meeting monthly for peer supervision.
In her role as ECC for headspace
Collingwood, Lucinda Leggett said
with the high numbers of young people
accessing their centres, compared to the
national average, coupled with a projected
high population growth in the area, they
needed to think creatively about how
they would address the needs of their
region. They developed a nuanced and
collaborative approach, whereby the ECC
role serves as “the scaffolding and glue to
complex care coordination”.
With a focus on flexibility, ECCs come into
care at different points in a young person’s
treatment. It could be at initial intake or
after a client has seen AHPs and they have
identified a need for more intensive support
outside the standard 10 sessions. GP
clinics may also engage ECCs for referral
to tertiary support or other linkages.
Dayna Minovski is the ECC at headspace
Sunshine. She said, from a developmental
perspective, help-seeking can be
counter-intuitive for young people who
may be attempting to establish their
independence or individuate. Their
capacity to use therapies can be
influenced by a range of factors including
complex family dynamics, cultural
understandings or difficult social issues.
Isolation or a lack of support in their lives
can exacerbate situations, leaving a small
window of opportunity to offer assistance.
The Medicare model doesn’t allow enough
support for those presenting with complex
mental health issues. Private options for
care can be costly and not necessarily
suited to a youth population. Schools
are not always well-equipped to manage
multifaceted risk and are often misinformed
about treatment plans. Young people can
get lost in the system when presenting
to emergency departments, where the
capacity to assertively link them into
applicable supports is lacking. All these
gaps often leave young people feeling
daunted and discouraged.
The ECC model is broad, responsive,
flexible and agile, and integrates into a
healthcare system tailored to the need of
consumers and carers.
Denise Poyser is the ECC at headspace
Craigieburn and said this method fits
within the stepped care model. Formerly
disjointed interconnecting services have
been replaced with a smoother transition
so young people are not falling through
the cracks. For young people to feel
supported the entire way means they are
more likely to engage with the services.
Dr Sonya Morrissey said it is comforting
to have somebody available five days-a-
week to assist with complicated young
people. She said co-ordination of care
headspace Service Delivery
Dayna Minovski
- headspace Sunshine
Lucinda Leggett
- headspace Collingwood
Denise Poyser
- headspace Craigieburn
Belinda Cain
- headspace Glenroy
Sharon Williams
- headspace Werribee
can be complex, so having ECCs to refer
to is a huge plus.
The ECCs sit closely with the access
team, collectively aware of difficult cases.
“Clinical responsibility and sitting with
complexity is hard and even harder when
working in isolation,” Sharon Williams
the ECC at headspace Werribee said.
For this reason, operating collaboratively
with schools, emergency departments
and other services outside headspace
is integral to the work. Spending time
creating a shared vision and agreeing
on core principles of advocacy,
comprehensive care coordination,
engagement, and creative solutions that
ultimately strengthen systems is crucial
to successful treatment.
A year on, results are optimistic. Dr Firuz
Begic said this coordinated approach
saw improved engagement which
resulted in better outcomes for the young
people he was treating. Additionally,
he recognised that collaborative care
enables clinicians to take on more
difficult cases.
Belinda Paterson, ECC at headspace
Glenroy, said like with any new care
model there are challenges and
considerations. Balancing the need
to be flexible while also maintaining
boundaries, as well as fostering
independence and developing coping
skills in a young person can be tricky.
ECCs need to remain mindful of what
they take on and what their caseloads
look like.
The ECC model, in its flexibility and
responsiveness, addresses a service
need experienced across many centres.
Under enhanced care, at-risk young
people presenting with complex issues,
are engaged and supported to reach
positive outcomes.
28

MyLifeTracker –
A routine outcome
measure for youth
mental health
Debra Rickwood & Nic Telford - headspace National
Ben Kwan - headspace Canberra
In consultation with clinical staff, clients,
other young people, and through
extensive literature review, headspace
Canberra developed MyLifeTracker to
supplement other measures being used
for data collection.
Outcome measures are designed to
capture mental health intervention
during treatment and are traditionally
used to monitor effectiveness and
quality assurance. Ben Kwan, Senior
Clinician at headspace Canberra and
his co-collaborators, Debra Rickwood
and Nic Telford, found there were no
validated broad mental health outcome
measures targeting the whole 12 to 25
age group. Most measures captured
data for 18 years and older, or for
children and adolescents.
Measuring five areas based on client self-
reporting, MyLifeTracker helps assess
current quality of life, through:
• general wellbeing
• day-to-day activities
• relationships with friends
• relationships with family
• how you are coping
29
Peer work
from a
youth
perspective
Charlie Cooper, Sara
Strachan, Kimberley Scanlan,
Gillian Abadines & Hannah
Hyatt - hY NRG
Young people working with
young people could be the
solution to mitigating lengthy
wait times and encouraging
inclusion across a variety of
at-risk groups.
Each question was designed to
be meaningful to young people.
Responses on a sliding scale have a
corresponding numerical value and
the total MyLifeTracker score averages
those values. The higher overall score
correlates with a higher quality of life.
The simple functionality and the option
to have the results displayed in a graph
format of outcomes over time, gives
a fuller picture of a client’s treatment
journey and recovery.
The benefit of MyLifeTracker is that the
evidence-based, client-level data is
sensitive to change and can be used
quickly in every session. Its brevity could
be seen as a limitation, but Ben said it
is only one part of the picture. Not only
does MyLifeTracker help target young
people who are deteriorating or not
improving, but it involves them in shared
decision-making.
MyLifeTracker can be used to inform
treatment planning for clinicians and as
a clinical tool in therapy. This measure is
currently implemented into hAPI.
Ben Kwan is completing a PhD in Clinical
Psychology and his thesis topic covers
youth mental health outcomes.

Utilising the lived experience of young
people with mental ill-health and sharing
their path to recovery is at the core of
peer work.
Hannah Hyatt is part of the headspace
Youth National Reference Group (hY NRG)
from headspace Ipswich and an early
psychosis Peer Support Worker. She says
her lifelong battle started in high school
with insecurity, anxiety and depression
which eventually ended in hospitalisation
and a diagnosis of schizophrenia in her
late teens. “I felt like my real self no longer
existed,” Hannah said.
Through hYEPP (headspace Youth
Early Psychosis Program), Hannah was
able to find a place where she could
live life unafraid. Being treated as an
equal, not as a ‘sick person’ offered
Hannah optimism and hope. Along with
medication and therapy, the peer support
she received was vital in her recovery.
Her peers encouraged her to see her
lived experience as a source of great
strength to help others rather than a
weakness. As peer support played
an essential role in her own recovery,
Hannah says the opportunity to volunteer
and support peers herself, “helped me
find my purpose and now I see myself as
a valuable human being who cannot only
help myself but others too”.
Qheadspace
“Peer support can be delivered in many
creative ways,” says Charlie Cooper,
Youth Advisor and former hY NRG
member from headspace National.
With 20.5 per cent of young people who
present at headspace identifying as
LGBTIQAP+, waitlists for support were
stretched anywhere from two to eight
weeks, and there were high demands on
eheadspace. Support from their peers
is often where these marginalised young
people first seek help so with that in
mind, Qheadspace was developed.
Qheadspace is an online youth-
driven group chat where queer peers
‘come out’. It has been pivotal in youth
participation as it offers anonymity,
confidentiality, a fun space for peers
to answer questions and a series of
supportive online chats. The space
works effectively for remote log-ins, and
importantly, for those young people who
don’t feel safe approaching a centre.
headspace Service Delivery
The beauty of an online discrimination-
free zone run by peers is that it eases
the pressure of wait times by giving
at-risk and marginalised young people an
area for validation and affirmation in the
interim period between appointments.
Once they feel supported, young people
are encouraged to seek further help and
link in to existing inclusive services.
The benefits of peer work are clear:
it facilitates engagement, relationship
building with other young people who
understand them, positive modelling,
increased openness and a connectedness
with someone who ‘gets them’. It is also
an opportunity for headspace to collect
meaningful feedback.
hY NRG are developing a suite of
resources, and although still ironing out
some of the kinks, they are confident
that learning to share stories amongst
peers, in a safe and purposeful way –
whether that be in face-to-face groups
or anonymously online - instills hope
and breaks down the stigma of mental
ill-health, driving positive outcomes and
recovery for young people.
30
 Shedspace –
lifting the roof
and creating a
space to improve
wellbeing

Kirsten Seymour - headspace Townsville

The aim of headspace Townsville’s Shedspace

project was to provide a safe, diversionary
space for young people to engage in creative
and manual arts projects to improve wellbeing.
Like a tricked-out Men’s Shed for young
people, the community-driven and funded
project has activated a huge cross-sector of
support and passion.

31

Kirsten Seymour is a registered
psychologist and the Centre Manager at
headspace Townsville and she admits
Shedspace started off as a very different
project. Two shipping containers were
donated by a local business who had
concerns about their staff wellbeing,
and they were dubious about staff
engagement in traditional corporate
mental health programs. Along with a
donation of $10,000 and the expertise of
a volunteer architect, headspace planned
to convert the containers into usable
workshop spaces for young people.
Unfortunately, local council declined the
use of the shipping containers on their
land, so headspace sourced an unused
building near their offices and established
a five-year lease agreement with
Townsville City Council for $1 per year.
With significant social issues of youth
unemployment and youth crime,
coupled with community outrage and
negative media attention around youth,
headspace and the public wanted an
inclusive, project-based area that offered
activities, mentors and “positive role
models and meaningful connections with
people who aren’t clinicians,” Kirsten said.
“ The one [thing] overall that
headspace Service Delivery
sticks in my mind is the
importance of connections -
the possibilities of connections
for our young people but also
for us working in individual
centres and the connections
that this forum has provided
and showcased!”
In conjunction with the Townsville to contribute back to their community.
headspace Community Network The concept fits into the stepped care
(hCN) – a group of dedicated volunteers model of prevention and early intervention
passionate about wellbeing outcomes for and serves as an adjunct to therapeutic
local youth – they came up with a multi- services. Young people participating in
use, inclusive space that expands on the Shedspace programs will be screened for
Men’s Shed concept. risk and supported to access further care
if needed.
Thanks to major sponsor, Glencore Mines,
alongside community donations of goods There is hope headspace Townsville
and services, headspace Townsville has will gain funding for youth workers to
raised $200,000 to build Shedspace, supervise Shedspace, with the goal to run
which will consist of a workshop space, after-hours and weekend group activities.
art studio, music room, outdoor gig
headspace Townsville has developed
space, kitchenette, and courtyard with
a kit for other centres to use as a guide
potential for a community garden. 

should they like to create their own
A commitment to as many young people Shedspace in their communities. The
working on the project as possible was a centre also hopes to do some research
way to enhance a sense of ownership and around outcomes of Shedspace and
pride in the renovation of the building. The present these findings at a future forum.
branding and logo were co-designed with
their YAChT crew, ensuring it appealed to
a younger audience.
Despite the challenges of building
timeframes, gaps in expertise, recruiting
mentors and…some very comfortable
possums, they are celebrating being at
lock-up stage.
Not only will Shedspace give young
people the opportunity to experience
hands-on activities that may lead to
further education and training, but it will
offer a soft access point for headspace
clinical services and a way for participants
32
 Andrew Wenzel, Megan
Double & Christie Huggins
- headspace Albany

A journey of trial and error saw the team at

headspace Albany shift away from individual
work to a more meaningful approach that
incorporates families.

Despite staff apprehension about

implementing a family-centred service,
Andrew Wenzel, Centre Manager at
headspace Albany, said he believed there
were so many reasons they should be doing
Single Session Family Consultation (SSFC).

For individual young people, SSFC validates

their experience and helps them feel heard,
supported and understood by their primary
support network.

With the assistance of headspace staff who

act as facilitators and educators, engaging
families who are around the young person
24/7, SSFC gives them the opportunity
to develop their own helpful strategies to
support their young person. An imperative
part of this knowledge-sharing is supporting
the family to identify and feel more
comfortable in helping to support risk in their
young person.

Finally, for headspace centres, initiating

SSFC is a dynamic way of working that
addresses waitlists and demands, and
importantly, mobilises support outside of
headspace staff.

Andrew admits that like many centres, there

are ongoing challenges in executing and
supporting integrated SSFC use. Freeing up
staff and ensuring they have adequate training
and supervision during implementation is one
obstacle. Encouraging staff to implement a
new, and at times uncomfortable, model of
working is also a factor.

33

Shifting the systems –
A champion’s journey
implementing SSFC in
a local community
At headspace Albany, they selected
SSFC ‘Champions’ that covered the
broadest span across the team. Starting
off with clients they knew and risks they
were already aware of meant they could
ease SSFC into the treatment plan. It
also offered an opportunity to get to
know the young person further.
One of Albany’s SSFC Champions
is Christie Huggins, an Occupational
Therapist. She said they wanted to look
at a strategy where families were seen
to be part of the solution not part of
the problem. After incorporating SSFC,
Christie said, “we could see that this
strategy had great potential” through
positive changes in the young person
and much happier parents.
Christie’s colleague, Megan Double, a
social worker and SFCC Champion,
admitted that as a graduate, she felt
unsure about initiating family-based
services. She undertook the SSFC
training and continually revisited the
resources provided by headspace to
gain confidence in applying SSFC.
But just like any honeymoon period, after
six months pockets of resistance started
emerging. The champions were keen
to introduce SSFC as part of the initial
assessment, but other staff were locked
into individual ways of working. Concerns
that moving away from this one-on-one
model would mean practitioners might
miss something and that risk might not
be adequately assessed were stopping
them from embracing SSFC.
headspace Service Delivery
Andrew, Megan and Christie knew they Solutions to these uncertainties were
needed to be more proactive about multifaceted but centred around the
introducing SSFC but wondered what core idea that staff needed to be
they could do to get the whole team opportunistic. Changing initial screening
on board. Megan said, “It seemed we to start conversations around family
had a choice: do we stay stuck and do relationships was an effective way to
the minimum, or do we rumble with the engage family members. Additional
resistance?” Their belief in the merits of training and feedback for staff,
SSFC drove them to rumble. encouraging co-facilitation and peer
support, were also ways that aided
After a staff meeting to address the lack
headspace Albany to embed SSFC into
of progress with implementation became
their service.
heated, the Albany team realised
that prioritising weekly meetings to Andrew acknowledges that SSFC is a
consolidate learning and keeping SSFC fundamentally different way of working
on the agenda was the most effective than most mental health practitioners
way for blockages to be addressed. They have been trained, therefore it can be a
identified that the reactions of the staff significant ideological shift. Being mindful
team - the work family - were playing to avoid falling into old patterns, while
out similarly to young people and their creating time and space for staff to
own families. That agitation sparked debrief can mitigate some of the doubts.
meaningful change, it was the conflict Removing the assumption that it won’t
that allowed staff to “give a clear voice suit by having staff justify why, promotes
to the individual and collective fears an opt-in rather than opt-out approach.
we were all having about implementing
Young people, their families and the
Single Session Family Consultation,”
centres can all benefit from SSFC. As
Megan said.
Megan encouraged, “It’s not a linear
Fears that the young person wouldn’t journey, rumble with the resistance
engage, or that the practitioner wouldn’t because it’s worth it.”
be able to build rapport with the family
present were common obstacles. Some
staff saw the family as the problem and
worried they wouldn’t be able to manage
risk and work the same way, therefore
reducing choices for the young person
and creating more work for staff. By
embedding SSFC, some team members
thought it would change how people
viewed headspace, taking them from
a youth-centred service to a family
organisation. What was clear was that
lack of confidence with the experience
was preventing staff from engaging with
the SSFC model.
34
 The BIC experience –
Five years after healthy
headspace skills workshop
– Using the Orygen toolkit
The Brief Interventions Clinic (BIC) is a
treatment model for mild to moderate
mental health problems, informed by
young people, for young people.
Carsten Schley, Clinical Services
Manager at headspace Sunshine, is
one of the developers of BIC, and of
the complementary Brief Interventions
in Youth Mental Health Toolkit (BIT). In
his almost 20 years of working in mental
health, Carsten said it has been one of
the most exciting projects he’s been
involved with.
Seeing 1200 young people a year at
Carsten’s centre forced the team to
question ways they could reduce waiting
times and engage young people with
early problems. Young people with more
complex needs were trumping those
with simpler issues and the staff at
headspace Sunshine knew they required
35
something separate from the therapeutic
services offered.
With no additional funds and looking
for ways to enlist the skills of students
under their supervision, they came
up with the ‘BIC Pack’. It initially
comprised of 10 modules incorporating
various skill building and behavioural
interventions built on the findings of the
Simple Interventions Trial (Parker et al.,
2016).
The development team pulled
together evidence-based information
from around the world. Carsten said
“We have taken what works and put it
in a youth-friendly context”. He said the
program is “stuff you already do, this
just looks better!” The flexibility of the
modules means it is “not a straitjacket”;
there is no set agenda, it is adaptive to
a young person’s specific issues, rather
than prescriptive therapy.
The Brief Interventions
Clinic (BIC) is a treatment
model for mild to moderate
mental health problems,
informed by young people,
for young people.
Most importantly, young people were
front and centre in the development of
the toolkit, which is a living document,
constantly revised and updated based
on the feedback of participants.
In evaluating the effectiveness of the
program and toolkit, Carsten and
his colleagues used the experience
of 122 young people involved in the
development of the clinic over the last
five years. They found an increased
engagement and retention in treatment
and had resounding positive feedback,
with 98 per cent of participants feeling
understood and heard by their therapist
and 94 per cent of participants willing to
recommend it to their friends. The mean
average of waiting time to get onto the
program was 17 days and one third of
participants went on to further treatment.

Carsten said it is absolutely doable
to modify the kit to suit your own
headspace centre needs. “It is not a
static one-size-fits-all document, it is
something we can keep adjusting”.
BIT is freely available from:
orygen.org.au/biymh
Like many centres facing the challenge
of engaging young people in group
activities, headspace Canberra was
keen to initiate a targeted skills-based
intervention for early issues.
Ari Wright and Helen Armstrong, intake
clinicians and counsellors at headspace
Canberra, were brainstorming how to
manage demand, and identify ways to help
more than one person at a time in a group
environment. They also wanted to include
family and friends in skill-building. Finding
BIC and BIT meant they were able to
overcome some of the barriers to running
group programs such as inadequate
staffing, service demands, as well as
training and resources. Using the content
from BIC, they adapted the modules and
wrote workshops that were specific to the
needs of the young people presenting at
headspace Canberra.
In attracting participants, Ari said they
recognised that “the language we were
using was preventing young people
coming along” so they changed the word
‘group’ to ‘workshop’ in order to help
people see these were non-threatening,
skill-building activities.
As modules can be a standalone support
option, there is no opt-in minimum;
young people can do one or all eight
modules. The program has been running
almost every term (depending on staff
and demand) at headspace Canberra
since 2016, for an hour a week over
headspace Service Delivery
Carsten Schley
- headspace Sunshine
Helen Armstrong &
Ari Wright
- headspace Canberra
eight weeks. It is usually attended by
about 10 young people, sometimes
parents and carers join in, which can see
up to 20 people in a room.
Ari said it has had incredible support
compared to the group workshops
they’ve run in the past. “It was so
popular we had to stop people coming”.
They introduced a registration system to
manage demand.
Given the program is already written - a
facilitator guide is available - implementing
it at other headspace centres across
Australia is a relatively simple process. The
commitment of two staff is recommended
so workshop activities can run smoothly.
At headspace Canberra, they also
introduced e-health at the end of every
workshop, whereby participants are
walked through an app that corresponds
to the topic. For example, ‘Smiling
Mind’ is covered when the mindfulness
workshop is run. In addition, sharing crisis
contacts is an imperative duty of care
component as staff may not see particular
participants again.
As for drawing in participants, Ari said
they involve young people who aren’t
necessarily affiliated with headspace,
through referrals and word of mouth.
This offers a soft entry point for further
treatment, if required.
With no exclusion criteria (aside from
qualifying age 12-25) and no long-term
commitment from young people, using
the Orygen Toolkit is a great way to run
group-based interventions for young
people that can be conducted by staff
or students at any centre. Not only does
it aid in providing psychoeducation and
skills to many young people at one time, it
eases waitlists and demand on services.
36
 The Wizarding World
of Engagement
Kelley Phillips & India Cuttilan - headspace Mount Druitt
Using pop-culture to
foster engagement in
young people is a fun,
innovative and magical
approach to both group
and individual sessions.
Kelley Phillips, a senior CCT clinician
from headspace Mount Druitt, is a
passionate Harry Potter fan (a self-
confessed Ravenclaw with a Hufflepuff
heart) and found using references
to the series was a novel way to
entice young people into seeing their
challenges in a different light.
Kelley ran a group session for 12 to
25-year-olds who had experienced
bullying. She personified Boggart as
the bully and encouraged participants
to create personal strengths armours
with post-it notes as a way to
recognise their individual powers.
She then had the young people yell
their strengths at the bully. “It was
an amazing, fun way to do some
resilience building around bullying. The
young people found it to be a really
empowering experience,” Kelley said.
Similarly, Kelley’s colleague India
Cuttilan (a Ravenclaw), had difficulty
engaging one of her young clients
in her role as a Youth Access Team
Clinician. Through discussing Harry
Potter, she identified a shared
passion. Using Harry as an example of
someone who found his strength, India
harnessed the power of pop-culture
to teach her young person to look at
themselves from a new perspective.
37
Applying the therapeutic principle of
the 4Ps, India and Kelley were able
to approach group and individual
therapies using Harry as the example.
• Harry’s trauma history with the early
loss of his parents and an abusive
and neglectful upbringing offered
the predisposing factors for building
his profile.
• His arch-nemesis increasing in
power, the death of a classmate
and difficulty with bullying were
all examples that demonstrated
stressors in his life, qualifying the
precipitating factors.
• Harry’s realistic fear of being
murdered, his disbelief of adult
figures, celebrity status and public
scrutiny all played a part in the
perpetuating issues affecting his life.
• Finally, his athleticism, solid
friendships, resilience and humour
all helped protect him and offer
strength in trying times.
Using the Dementors as symbols of
depression and emotional devastation
and inspiring a young person to
identify their own powers as Harry did,
to connect with their inner happiness
(through meditative exercises) and
find their own Patronus Charm were
highly effective ways for them to view
their own strengths and weaknesses
and build a defence that carried them
towards recovery.
Fun sessions are memorable sessions
and using pop-culture to creatively
apply therapeutic principles is an
inventive way to engage and relate to
young people.
 headspace Service Delivery
“ What I liked best was to hear
from others in the same role
as myself, and seeing what
other centres are offering
and how we can learn and
adapt some of these for our
own centres.”

38
 Arms & Armour –
Supporting young
men to create a
safer community
Andy Penny & Jesse Park
- headspace Ballarat
A couple of snips was often all it took for the
young men to spill their life stories to Jimmy
Morrison, the owner and head barber of
Musket & Bayonet in Ballarat.
Jimmy soon realised that young men felt
safe enough to share in his barbershop,
so he approached headspace Ballarat
about creating an ongoing community
hub and social event to support local
young men.
Add some complimentary burritos from
the local keen-bean Zambrero owner,
Mal Douglas, and the Arms & Armour
program was born.
“Arms & Armour provides a safe and
friendly space for young men aged 18-25
to discuss, explore and challenge what it
means to be a male in today’s society,”
said Andy Penny, youth engagement
officer at headspace Ballarat.
With the rate of male suicide three times
higher than the rate for females, it was
important to have a safe space where
these young men could have brave
conversations about difficult topics, said
Jesse Park, Intake Assessment Officer at
headspace Ballarat
“Many of them resort to violence as a
form of communication and we help
them to grow emotionally and have some
understanding and accountability for their
actions as well,” Jesse said.
39
According to Jesse, young men also headspace Ballarat’s own “rock star
struggle with asking for help. “An drug and alcohol worker” shared personal
estimated 72 per cent of males don’t stories and powerful messages about
seek help for mental health issues. We harm minimisation versus total abstinence.
are pretty stubborn buggers; we won’t
These presenters also created a broader
even go to see a doctor if we’ve had an
professional network for the young men
arm cut off,” Jesse said.
to access as part of ongoing work they
In 2017 the first rendition of Arms & can do with the program, which includes
Armour aimed to change all that by paid talks at workshops, forums and
providing nine 1.5-hour sessions exploring schools.
a range of topics and providing a space
Andy and Jesse have received a lot of
in which the young men could connect,
interest from organisations, schools and
chat, get a free haircut and a feed.
government departments about the Arms
Session topics included unhealthy male & Armour model. They are keen to see
stereotypes, male developmental stages, it spread and grow but not before they
employment, drugs and alcohol, health spend this year running Arms & Armour
and fitness, gender equality, parenting round two and solidifying the model.
and mental health. A range of presenters
from different organisations also led
these discussions.
Alana, a White Ribbon ambassador,
spoke candidly about the lengths women
go to protect themselves from daily
sexual violence and how little the young
men needed to think about this.
Sunny, a local gym owner talked about
his history as professional boxer and
the desire to inspire others to take up
exercise, while Tristan, from the Big
Issue street soccer, talked about building
community through sport.
 headspace Community Engagement
Couch Surfing –
Race for youth
homelessness
Jeremy Tucker
- headspace Rockingham
Want do something about youth
homelessness? You don’t have to get off the
couch to do it: whack some wheels on your
sofa and start a race instead.

That’s what headspace Rockingham did
last April when the centre ran its inaugural
couch surfing race to raise awareness of
youth homelessness and the services that
young people can access.
Five teams from local youth services
gathered in a car park to careen around
an obstacle course with their mobile
couches. They were joined by the local
community, who rocked up to watch
the race, grab a snag at the after-race
party and learn more about the services
available to homeless youth.
To create these sofa steeds, headspace
Rockingham supplied each team with
an old couch and a $200 voucher to
decorate them. They also encouraged
each team to chose a theme song that
would be played to unveil their couch
and if they won a heat.
The couches have since lived to see
another day as art installations in local
libraries, helping to raise further awareness
of the issues and the available services.
The City of Rockingham threw its support
behind the initiative, and headspace
Rockingham plans to run the event annually.
Jeremy Tucker, community awareness
officer at headspace Rockingham,
was inspired to get the project rolling
after learning about young people and
couch surfing. This is a hidden homeless
population of young people who sleep
on the couches of friends, relatives or
strangers every night because they have
no other option.
“It’s not a sleepover if you can’t go home,”
Jeremy said. “When you look into the
statistics, it’s a big Alice-in-Wonderland
thing where you just keep looking and
looking and it makes you sad.”
Nor did he need to look much further
than the doorstep of headspace
Rockingham, where he saw young
people sleeping in their cars or in a
vacant lot next door.
While it may not be a race to stop
a nation, Jeremy hopes that other
headspace centres might be inspired
to develop their own race or another
creative event. He shared his 10 top tips
“for a heaps good event” at the forum.
1. Get your concept down: make sure
your creative idea is clear before going
to your team, councils or communities
about putting it into action.
2. Consult your young people: make sure
to seek young people’s advice, listen
to their feedback and follow through.
“They are our brains trust,” Jeremy said.
3. Make it meaningful: the event needs to
have a key message that people can
take home.
4. Write a kick-arse media release:
this is both invaluable for promoting
the event to media and sharing
information with others.
5. Take pictures: grab some quick pics
and send to the media or throw them
on to your Instagram – they can
become an instant story.
6. Have a solid event plan: plan for the
worst but expect the best. You need
to think about safety for a public event,
especially if you partner with councils
or other organisations.
7. Rope your team in: you need to pass
on responsibilities and trust your team
to do them. “Accept help. We preach
this to young people and we need to
do it ourselves,” Jeremy said.
8. Capture those memories: hire a
photographer or just use your phone.
Photos make your Facebook and your
centre look active.
9. Have some fun: slow down and
engage. If you’re stressed and having
a bad time, young people will smell it
a mile off.
10. Check yo self: collect feedback and
evaluate your performance so you can
do even bigger and better next time.

40
 Driving social inclusion
with adaptable initiatives
like Dog Space, Close the
Gap and more
Nat Oliver - headspace Queanbeyan
Nat Oliver may have been up on the
podium, but the real stars of the show
were Daisy, Maddy and Remmie strolling
around the auditorium and patiently
receiving a plethora of pats.
Quiet adoration is part of the job
description for these therapy dogs, which
take part in Dog Space at headspace
Queanbeyan. It’s one of three engagement
programs that the centre uses to drive
social inclusion and engage gently with
young people.
“Dog Space is one of our key engagement
activities for young people who want to
check out our centre and aren’t necessarily
keen to have a one-on-one appointment.
It’s a really easy engagement strategy,” said
Nat, the youth mental health worker and
community engagement coordinator at
headspace Queanbeyan.
“Often when I’m out in schools talking
about headspace, I’ll talk about Dog
Space. Last week, I had 15 new kids
rock into Dog Space after talking at a
school two weeks before,” she said.
Once every fortnight, Delta Therapy Dogs
bring their furry friends to the headspace
centre, where young people can play
with the pooches for an hour.
Each drop-in group includes two to
15 young people, a Delta Dog team
member and a headspace worker, who
is available to talk about the centre. But
the young people can spend the hour
not talking if they want to.
41
“It’s a really beautiful addition to a clinical
package to be able to provide that
social inclusion mechanism: a way of
interacting and having a safe space that
isn’t about them talking but just being
happy – even just for an hour,” Nat said.
“It can also be a fabulous opportunity for
young people who might not have much
in their lives.”
Tattoo Art is a fortnightly drop-in project,
which is “essentially a mindfulness
colouring group” and particularly popular
with boys between year seven and year
nine. The group is run by a local tattoo
artist, Brad, who was inspired to set it up
after his own troubled son gained support
from headspace Newcastle.
“They come in, they draw and they gain
that social connection. It’s also that soft
engagement strategy,” said Nat. “They
do really like interacting with Brad as
an older adult who’s pretty cool and
they also build a relationship with the
headspace centre as well.”
One of the young boys told her that
Tattoo Art kept him out of trouble. When
she asked why, he replied: “I kept getting
suspended and then I was told I wouldn’t
be allowed to come to Tattoo Art if I kept
getting suspended, so I had to behave.”
Spectrum is the centre’s LGBTIQA+
group. It’s been running for 2.5 years
and has a varied program of outings,
workshops and guest speakers.
It was set up after headspace
Queanbeyan did a needs analysis of
their area – something Nat advises other
centres to do before setting up their own
LGBTIQA+ groups.
“Often in metro areas, there is already
something going on. You need to ask
yourself: Can I add value to that? Can
I direct young people somewhere
already?” Nat said.
The group also collaborates with other
LGBTIQA+ groups, and one of their most
successful efforts is a prom with the local
YWCA. Aimed at 12-25 year olds, the
LGBTIQA+ prom started with 75 young
people in 2016 and more than doubled to
200 last year. Many have felt its impact.
“We have a young woman who comes
up from the coast, and she has been ‘the
only gay in the village’. When she walked
into prom, she couldn’t believe it. She
just stood there and said: ‘There are so
many of us.’ And it was so empowering
and overwhelming for her,” said Nat.
But Spectrum’s real secret sauce is its
peer support. “In our Spectrum group
we have worked very closely with young
people to develop that feeling that they
are supporting each other. It’s not me
as the headspace worker supporting
them,” Nat said.
According to Nat, Dog Space, Tattoo Art
and Spectrum have been good for both
social inclusion and soft engagement,
and ultimately the wellbeing of their
young people.
“Social inclusion is pivotal to wellbeing.
We know it from Seagal’s work – they
found a very strong correlation between
relationships, social connectedness and
wellbeing, so providing those opportunities,
as well as clinical support, is important to
give that holistic approach.”
How do we stay
relatable in
multicultural
environments?
Ira Racines & Anthony Hale
- headspace Darwin
“How do we talk to an audience of young
people when they are so culturally diverse?
Everyone has different understandings and
ways that they do things,” Ira said.
To answer this question, Ira and Anthony
have gone back to fundamentals: the
young people themselves.
Ira and Anthony have adapted the peer
education model to ensure they hear
the voices of these diverse young
people and that these voices are leading
the conversations.
“You need to engage young people and
get them to teach us what they already
know. We’re not here to tell young
people what’s right or wrong. We’re here
to encourage conversations in a safe
environment and also for them to have
conversations with peers,” Ira said.
“We don’t like doing the old teacher thing,”
Anthony said. “We know what it was like at
school, listening to the same teacher over
and over again. That respect is not going
to come if you’re going to just stand there
and talk”.
Their peer education model encourages
participation and interaction, information
exchange through story sharing, an
inclusive and non-judgmental approach
to different perspectives, education
through dialogue, and keeping it simple
and conversational.
Ira Racines and Anthony Hale have their
headspace Community Engagement
work cut out for them. As community
engagement workers for headspace
Darwin, they need to engage with
a veritable cornucopia of cultures,
subcultures and communities in Darwin,
Northern Territory.
The Top End’s capital city is home to a
dizzying array of ethnicities – South-east
Asian, Middle Eastern, Antipodean, English
and Aboriginal people – along with tribes
of skaters, gamers, LGBTIQAP+ and
other subcultural categories. The different
dynamics of metropolitan areas and small
communities are the icing on the cake.
To do this, they use a range of helpful tools: Ira and Anthony have also helped set
up a range of initiatives that reflect this
• Landscape - know your local
approach. This includes the Wellbeing
community, cultures and services.
Champions program, Yarn Safe program,
For Anthony, the centre’s Youth and
headspace Aboriginal focus group,
Community Aboriginal Engagement
a sexual health education program, a
Officer, this means understanding
traineeship program, and an Aboriginal
the dynamic of shame in Aboriginal
youth reference group.
communities and working out ways
to break down those barriers. The Wellbeing Champions program
has worked with AFL NT, the Territory’s
• Activities and games – icebreakers
biggest sporting organisation, to establish
put everyone in the same space and
two champions in each football club who
ready to converse with their peers,
provide resources and a safe place for
and a little healthy competition can
young people to talk. The headspace
also encourage more active listening
Yarn Safe program also attempts to break
and conversation.
down the barriers of shame amongst
• Pop culture – understand what young Indigenous young people by encouraging
people are following on YouTube and them to “talk it out”.
social media and use that as a jump-
The Aboriginal focus group shares tips
off point for conversations.
with headspace staff on how to make
• Listen to the voices of young people services appropriate for Aboriginal young
– provide opportunities for them to people, and the traineeship program
raise topics that are sometimes difficult provides Aboriginal young people with
to suggest in front of their peers. the opportunity to learn about mental
Anonymous polls and suggestion boxes health work and find a career in the field.
can tap into a plethora of conversation
Meanwhile, the sexual health program
subjects that the engagement officer
keeps it seriously fluffy by using giant
can then help facilitate.
microbes – plush toys in the shape of
• Statistics – take advantage of your bacteria and other microorganisms – to
centre’s data. Numbers can help illustrate its points.
highlight particular groups, dynamics
and needs so you can better tailor
your approach.
42
 Pride of Place – A safe
art project for LGBTIQ+
youth in a regional city
Andy Penny & Jesse Park - headspace Ballarat
The art of inclusion is sometimes as simple as painting a canvas and placing it where
everyone can see it.
Last year, headspace Ballarat and its LGBTIQ+ group Zaque painted five very large canvases
with the rainbow-coloured word ‘safe’. They then distributed these paintings across Ballarat
Community Health Centres, where they were given pride of place in receptions and reached
around 40,000 people in the wider community.
The results? Amazing, said Andy Penny,
youth engagement officer at headspace
Ballarat, and Jesse Park, the centre’s
intake assessment officer.
There was a 62.9 per cent increase in
young people identifying as LGBTIQ+
six months after the project ended and
12 months after the centre’s last survey.
Some of their once-shy young people are
also talking in public and to the media
about their lived experiences.
“We’re super proud and also super
honoured to see a huge shift in these
young people, and they’re talking about
their stories with pride as well,” Andy said.
Jesse said the city’s approach to
LGBTIQ+ issues provided the motivation
for the Pride of Place art project while a
LGBTIQ+ training program provided the
insight for the idea.
During the plebiscite, Ballarat council
made the controversial decision to
remove a rainbow flag in the city because
it was concerned about bias. A rainbow
roundabout dedicated to harmony was
also removed because it was considered
historically inappropriate.
43
“Those two things made us a feel a
bit sick, so we wanted to make some
change,” Jesse said.
So headspace Ballarat applied to
the Healthy Equal Youth project and
received $200,000 in funding. The
centre used some of this funding to
organise training for its staff and their
consortium partners, which showed
them how to create LGBTIQ+ inclusive
work spaces.
The main take home? You need to be
overt and affirming of young people
entering your services and employees
need to see this message too.
“Walking into a service and seeing a
pride sticker isn’t showing that we’re
going above and beyond to support
these young people,” Jesse said.
“It’s important to have that unified
organisation message of support:
not just something that sits within our
policies and procedures, but something
that is overt and affirming on the wall for
all employees to see.”
Jesse and Andy also wanted to create
a project that supported the needs of
Zaque, their LGBTIQ+ group, which was
not seeking to “march down the streets
banging drums and blowing trumpets.
They just wanted to feel safe”.
So Jesse came up with the idea for five
artworks that would use the word ‘safe’
in different rainbow-coloured fonts, which
also highlighted the themes of diversity
and unification.
“Pride of place was important to me
because it makes me feel safe walking
into headspace,” said Shae, a member
of Zaque who once struggled to talk
in public and has now shared her
experiences with a crowd at last year’s
International Day against Homophobia,
Biphobia and Transphobia (IDAHOBIT).
For those at the forum and back
home, Jesse threw out this six-second
challenge: walk into your centre and
locate a large overt message of pride in
LGBTIQ+ young people.
“If you can’t, congratulations. You are
now in charge of getting one installed.
And we’d love for you to steal our idea
and make it better,” Jesse said.

Do you have high demand for
your services resulting in huge
waiting lists? headspace
Canberra has developed
a system that gets young
people through the door
faster and provides a non-
threatening way to introduce
them to the services when
they may be hesitant about
seeking support.
The centre introduced Yourspace after
struggling with a dynamic that is all-too
familiar to headspace centres across
the country. Around 30 per cent of their
young people were hesitant to engage
with support services, and when they did
call, they often faced waits of four to six
weeks for the initial assessment.
“For young people accessing mental
health services for the first time, they
don’t know what to expect and they’re a
bit hesitant and a bit scared to engage,”
Helen Armstrong, intake worker and
counsellor at headspace Canberra said.
“We’ve been open nine years now, and
demand just keeps on rising and we still
have the same resources and limited
staff – the usual story,” Helen said.
So headspace Canberra decided
to work smarter, not harder by first
introducing phone screening in 2012.
These half-hour phone sessions allowed
young people to do assessments that
were less time-intensive than face-to-
face assessments.
Then, in 2016, the centre introduced
Yourspace, which enabled groups of
young people and their families to visit
and learn about headspace Canberra
without any obligation.
“It’s a chance to come in, see the centre,
meet the team and find out some of
the ways headspace can help young
people,” Helen said. “They can find out
that we’re not so scary.”
It also helps staff to deliver important
messages to many young people at
once, rather than over and over again via
the phone.
So how does it work? When a young
person is referred to headspace
Canberra, they are given the option
to join a Yourspace gathering, which
happens on the first and third Thursdays
of every month.
On those days, around eight young
people and their families come to
headspace Canberra where four
headspace staff – usually two clinicians
and two admin staff – meet and greet
them. There are snacks and chats about
what services headspace provides and
Yourspace
headspace Community Engagement
– client
information
sessions at
headspace
Ari Wright, Helen Armstrong
& Ben Shipard
- headspace Canberra
what it doesn’t provide, as well as a
conversation about potential fees and
free services.
Staff members then spend about
30 minutes circulating amongst the
group, answering questions, talking to
families, giving them forms and booking
appointments if they are wanted.
Ben, a Youth Reference Group (YRG)
member, has attended nearly every
Yourspace, where he provides a youth
perspective and reassures both the
young people and the parents.
“I’ve been a member of the YRG for
four years and a client for five in the
same centre, so whenever I go along
to Yourspace, I open up and talk to the
parents and young people about my
experience with depression and anxiety,”
Ben said.
“Last week, one of the parents said they
were more comfortable talking to me
than one of the clinicians.”
He said it was important to include a
YRG member not only for the clients’
benefit but also for the benefit of the
YRG member.
“Having Yourspace is one of the ways
to keep our YRG members involved in
the centre by keeping them interactive,”
Ben said.
44
 Hacks and
Knowledge
Wall
Knowledge creation was
one of the core elements
of the headspace Forum.
Through hack sessions and
a knowledge wall, forum
participants were able to
collaborate and generate
new ideas and solutions to
challenges. The best ideas
were captured to be made
visible to the entire network.

The hack sessions were Hack sessions addressing three key headspace challenges were offered:

popular and full of energy as Co-locating services – How can we work with consortium partners and other local
people from centres across services to ensure that as much as possible the young person receives a seamless service
the country met to explore in one location?

the challenges they have
in common. At the end of
each session the participants
selected the most promising
ideas and added them to the
knowledge wall.
Demand management – How can we meet the needs of the young people in our
community using the resources available to us?
Complex presentations – How can we ensure that young people with complex needs are
supported without eroding our capacity to be an early intervention, primary care service?
The sessions were hugely popular and full of energy. At the end of each session the
participants selected the most promising ideas and added them to a knowledge wall in
the foyer. In total 187 ideas made it onto the knowledge wall. These ideas have since been
included as inputs to the planning of the headspace National Centre Services team for the
coming financial year, and circulated back to the network for their consideration.

45
headspace Hacks and Knowledge Wall

46
 The Centres
Showcase
An integral and thoroughly enjoyable part of the headspace Forum
was the Centres Showcase. Every headspace centre had the
opportunity to share some of the spectacular work their centre is
doing, as well as learn from, and be inspired by, the great work and
activities others are carrying out.

In addition to the physical showcase

boards, each centre could also display
their showcase on the forum event app,
along with additional resources and
documents to elaborate on the information
presented in their showcase board.

Community Awareness and Engagement

workers took the lead on their centre’s
board, working closely with their Youth
Reference Groups to infuse some fun
and youth engagement into the process.
The creative juices were definitely flowing
and it was incredible to see the colourful
and unique 100 showcase boards.

To recognise the time and effort that

goes into creating the showcase boards,
cash prizes of $1,000 were up for grabs
for Youth Reference Groups to use in a
local campaign or event. The three best
showcases were determined by popular
vote, with the winning centres being
headspace Rockingham, headspace
Queanbeyan and headspace Adelaide.

A huge congratulations to the winning

centres and thank you to every centre for
making the showcase such a fantastic
component of the headspace Forum! It
was a great way to display the positive
impact each centre has had in local
communities across Australia.

47
headspace Showcase

48
 “ The hY NRG reps were
inspiring and their stories
added a sense of gravity
and importance of the work
we all do.”

49
Poem by Sina Aghamofid, hY NRG
Peer support contorts the system.
Enabling the next generation to draw on our wisdom;
putting in the pieces of the puzzle
to assist them.
Because positive support
creates a rapport,
allowing us to carefully pull someone out of the claw
of ill mental health.
And having fun
is like a gun.
Not shooting out bullets-
but experiences;
laying the groundwork for the long run.
In doing so,
giving society a tonne of knowledge
to acknowledge:
mental health.
So take what we’ve done,
and keep up the fun
in your community.
Community and unity
provide continuity
and equal opportunity,
immunity against discrimination.
We started that in headspace,
the youth mental health foundation.
The pinnacle of innovation
in our great nation.
So thank you.
Thank you,
thank you,
thank you,
thank you,
thank you,
thank you for being a part of this organisation.

50
 Acknowledgements
Forum Working Group Masters of Clinical, Young
Ceremony People & FaF Crew
Ian MacLean Chloe Godau
Convenor Clinical hY NRG and Ally Finnis Nick Duigan
FaF Leader
Sarah Watson Liam Cobain Sarah Faithfull
Project Manager Verity Kowal
Pheobe Ho  Simon Dodd
Communication and
Christian Duell
Engagement Leader Sharene Dearlove  Vikki Ryall
Design Consultant
Hilda Strojil Sina Aghamofid 
Renola Prescott Hacks crew
Communication and
Environment Leader
Engagement Coordinator Session chairs Bec Walters
Rachel Page
Penny Soong Chloe Godau Cristiane Cunial
Technology Leader
Centre Showcases Leader
Diana Quin Christian Duell
Tim Roberts
Content Leader Nathan Hobbs   Eyal Lang

Nick Duigan Nathan Hobbs

Steering Committee Simon Dodd

Technology crew
Jason Trethowan Diana Quin Vikki Ryall
Marie Paraskakis
CEO and Sponsor Representative
Entertainers Nikki Gibilisco
Julia Smith Georgina Hughes
Chair Representative L2R Netna Johnstone

Ian MacLean Jo Newham Mason Hope Patty Stonehouse

Convenor Representative Niharika Hiremath
Communications
Ally Finnis Vikki Ryall Raja Hick crew
Youth representative Representative
Annie Waterworth
Sina Aghamofid Simone Williams Showcase crew
Youth representative Representative Antonio Greer
Georgina Hughes
Debra Rickwood Steve Leicester Hilda Strojil
Juliet McEachran
Representative Representative Lauren Bannister 
Koki Miyazaki
Lorrae Nicholson
Environment Crew
Reference Group Remi Gordon 
Aneta Iloska
Catherine Scott-Richardson Lois Auld Richard Hunt
Ashley Sheridan
Charm White Matt Spencer Verity Kowal
Fiona Caie
Darren Webb Megan Moore
Katy Wilson
Hayden Fletcher Naomi Searle
Marg Fielding
Kiera Mansfield  Ralph Mogridge
Maria Stevens
Kirsten Cleland Sara Strachan
Matt Murray

Robynne Tongue

Rosie Gregersen 

Tara Stevenson 

51
 headspace Acknowledgements
Showcase co-ordinators
Alaina Macdonald Geoff Francis Melody Potter Steven Leicester

Alison Filgate Georgina Brown Michael Hoffman Suellen Althaus

Amy Halloran Hannah Marschall Michelle Russell Suzanne Carter

Andrew Penny Heather Ryan Michelle Walsh Tahlia Kerin

Annabeth Bateman Hilda Strojil Mikarla Papini Tim McClimont

Ashley Nanini Holly McCreery Mitchell Dean Tracey Lee Carnie

Avril Oakley-Hollow Ian Johansen Nat Oliver Verity Kowal

Belinda Tessieri Ira Racines Natalie Jarvis Vicki Papageorgopoulos

Benjamin Wells Jacinta Hesse Nathan Bramston Vikki Ryall

Bree Cross Jacinta Vengtasamy Neily O’Connell Zi Lun Wong

Brett Paradise James Isles Nick Duigan

Brittany Cole Janet Reddacliff Nicole Thomas

Brydie Bourke Jennie Dang Oliver Keane

Byron Williams Jeremy Tucker Paul Bailey

Caitlin Miles Jessica Westfold Penny Mcall

Charishma Kaliyanda Johanna Dore Rachel Donovan

Chenai Mupotsa Jolene Doller Ralph Mogridge

Chenoa Dowling Josh Lourensz Robert McElroy

Chloe Godau Jules Jamieson Robyn Young

Chris Burt Kaitlyn Middleton Rose Griffiths

Chris Meredith Karen Golland Sam Loy

Claire Cottone Karinda Eggington Sam Maloney

Clementina Velasco Kim Dang McDonald Sarah Faithfull

Cristel Simmonds Kitty Chan Sarah Groves

Danika Friedli Kristy O’Brien Sarah Watson

Dannielle Brown Laura Hanlon Seija Gordon

Dave Mascall Lauren Bull Shane Hough

Dave McRae Lawerance Belshaw Shane Sturdy

David Timmins Leah Farnham Sharna Lord

Diana Quin Liz Wyndham Shelagh Curtain

Ella Hewitt Malcolm Scott Sheree Wallis

Emma Hynes Mark McGrath Sian Finn

Emma Schubert Matt Spencer Silas Pollard

Gary Maher Melanie Purkiss Simone Williams

52
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Ian Johansen  Sharon Williams  Sponsors

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53
headspace National Youth Mental Health Foundation is funded by the Australian Government Department of Health