Is headspace making a difference to young people’s lives?
Evaluation-of-headspace-program Evaluation-of-headspace-program
6. The Costs of headspace Table 6.6 Funding source, 2013/14 financial year Funding source/Occasions of service Value headspace grant $49,536,937 hNO $6,336,000 MBS $10,210,085 Total $66,083,022 No. Occasions of service 194,968 Average total cost per occasion of service $339 Social Policy Research Centre 2015 headspace Evaluation Final Report 110
7. Conclusion The evaluation of headspace focused on assessing the effectiveness of the program. This assessment included an examination of young people’s access to and engagement with the program, the service delivery model and client outcomes. This scope oriented the project towards a mixed method evaluation, informed by multiple data sources. The evaluation findings are somewhat mixed – a result that complicates a simple synthesis of findings. Moreover, as evidenced in Chapter 4, any assessment of program effect must consider multiple outcome indicators as a narrow focus on K10 scores can obscure other important effects. This is most evident in the analysis of suicidal ideation which showed that some young people who did not show a clinical or significant improvement in psychological distress levels did show significant reductions in suicidal ideation. As evidenced throughout this report, headspace is a complex program, serving a diverse range of vulnerable young people with high levels of psychological distress and a range of social, emotional and health disorders. The evaluation found that headspace is generally accessible and effective. As is typical in large human service evaluations, the qualitative data is overwhelmingly positive, with most young people and their parents attributing improvements across a number of outcome areas to headspace while the statistical data shows a more modest pattern of program effect. The key findings and conclusions related to the evaluation scope areas are outlined below. Access and Engagement headspace was established to provide a highly accessible mental health program for Australia’s young people, and the findings indicate that this program goal is being achieved. Evaluation data shows that headspace is being accessed by a diverse group of young people whose need for mental health care is evidenced by young peoples’ K10 scores on entry. Three in four young people were recorded as having high to very high levels of psychological distress at first assessment. The evaluation shows that headspace has had success in engaging groups of young people who traditionally have been disadvantaged in their access to mental health care. Most notably, young people living in regional areas as well as those from Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander backgrounds are over-represented as headspace clients. These findings are important. The first indicates that headspace is providing services to a significant proportion of young people within communities that traditionally have few or no options for specialised local-based youth mental health care. Young people living in regional areas represent 26.2% of the population nationally, but make up 39% of the headspace client population. Further, Indigenous young people comprise 3.7% of the youth population nationally but make up 7.4% of headspace clients. This over-representation is significant as Indigenous young people are a high risk group for emotional and psychological problems but are less likely to seek help than non-Indigenous young people (Price & Dalgleish, 2013). While the proportion of Indigenous clients varies greatly according to the geographic location of centres, this over-representation works towards balancing inequalities in mental health provision and outcomes for Indigenous young people. Qualitative data indicates that some centres could do more to make their services more culturally appropriate for Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander clients. Data suggests that more flexible and informal drop-in services are more likely to engage Indigenous clients, as are outreach models. Social Policy Research Centre 2015 headspace Evaluation Final Report 111
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6. The Costs of <strong>headspace</strong><br />
Table 6.6 Funding source, 2013/14 financial year<br />
Funding source/Occasions of service<br />
Value<br />
<strong>headspace</strong> grant $49,536,937<br />
hNO $6,336,000<br />
MBS $10,210,085<br />
Total $66,083,022<br />
No. Occasions of service 194,968<br />
Average <strong>to</strong>tal cost per occasion of service $339<br />
Social Policy Research Centre 2015<br />
<strong>headspace</strong> Evaluation Final Report<br />
110
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