One in four young Australians are affected by a mental illness every year. Many young people have also been substantially affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, making it more important than ever to ensure access to youth mental health services.
\nheadspace provides free or low cost youth-friendly support in four key areas\u2014mental health, related physical health, substance misuse, and social and vocational support. It offers a safe, welcoming place where young people can get non-judgmental professional help and peer support, so they can tackle their challenges in a way that is right for them.
\nThe additional funding will help headspace services that are experiencing high demand across the country to:<\/p>\n
40 headspaces services located in New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, South Australia, Western Australia and the Northern Territory will benefit from grants of up to $1.8 million each.
\nThe grants are part of the Government\u2019s $152\u00a0million investment in the headspace Demand Management and Enhancement Program, to reduce wait times and make capital improvements.
\nIn addition, our Government has allocated $278.6 million in the 2021\u201322 Budget, as part of our record investment of $2.3 billion National Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Plan, to further expand and enhance the national headspace network. Ten new headspace centres will be developed and five headspace satellites will be upgraded to full headspace centres, bringing the total number of headspace services across Australia to 164.
\nThe headspace services which will receive funding through this grant opportunity are:<\/p>\n