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

3. Access and Engagement with Centres
strategies to encourage their young person to keep attending headspace, they were unlikely to have
encouraged their young person to contact headspace to begin treatment. This is because awareness
of headspace and the services it offers was relatively low among this stakeholder group. The majority
of survey respondents (63% or n=58) either had not heard of headspace before their young person
started attending a centre, or had heard of headspace but did not know what they did. According to
survey data, most parents/carers first heard about headspace from a community service provider or
health worker such as a GP (35% or n=33). Another 14% had heard about headspace from a family
member, friend or partner. Smaller numbers of survey respondents had heard about headspace from
an advertisement (13% or n=12) or found headspace online, through social media or another website
(9% or n=8).
Interviews highlighted that young people often found their way to headspace through a multi-step
referral process (for example through recommendation from a school counsellor, followed by a visit
to a GP). Parents often helped their young people along this process (particularly by driving them
to appointments), but they were generally not the ones that suggested that their young person visit
headspace. A common complaint of parents interviewed in focus groups was that they used other
services first because they had not heard of headspace:
Then we went through another school psychologist and we wasted six months and in the
process he got worse. Nobody mentioned headspace.
I’ve lived in [this suburb] all my life [and] I didn’t even know about this place and I wish I knew
years and years ago.
Service providers were an important referral point to headspace, rather than young people and/or
their parents directly knowing about and seeking assistance from headspace centres. Despite this,
once they knew about headspace, these parents and carers were often actively involved in seeking
further information and supporting their young person’s engagement with the service. Survey data
indicates, for example, that a high proportion of parents/carers sought more information about
headspace prior to, or during the young person’s treatment at a centre. This was mostly from the
headspace website (n=55) or health or community service providers (e.g. school counsellors and
youth workers) (n=39; Figure 3.11).
Figure 3.11 Where parents/carers sought further information about headspace
Source: The Parents and Carers Survey
Parents most frequently sought further information about headspace because they wanted to know
more about the services available (n=58), to make sure that headspace would make their young
person feel comfortable (n=37), that it was affordable (n=23) and safe (n=16). Less frequently cited
reasons were ensuring that headspace staff were qualified (n=11) and concerns about privacy and
confidentiality (n=12).
Parents who were interviewed reinforced the important role they played in supporting their young
person in attending headspace. Some participants commented that for their young person, fear of
Social Policy Research Centre 2015
headspace Evaluation Final Report
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