Abstract
ObjectiveAccess to Allied Psychological Services (ATAPS) was introduced in 2001 by the Australian Government to provide evidence-based psychological interventions for people with high prevalence disorders. headspace, Australia’s National Youth Mental Health Foundation, was established in 2006 to promote and facilitate improvements in the mental health, social wellbeing and economic participation of young people aged 12–25 years. Both programs provided free or low cost psychological services. This paper aims to describe the uptake of psychological services by people aged 12–25 years via ATAPS and headspace, the characteristics of these clients, the types of services received and preliminary client outcomes achieved.MethodsData from 1 July 2009 to 30 June 2012 were sourced from the respective national web-based minimum datasets used for routine data collection in ATAPS and headspace.ResultsIn total, 20,156 and 17,337 young people accessed two or more psychological services via ATAPS and headspace, respectively, in the 3-year analysis period. There were notable differences between the clients of, and the services delivered by, the programs. ATAPS clients were less likely to be male (31 vs 39%) and to reside in major cities (51 vs 62%) than headspace clients; ATAPS clients were also older (18–21 vs 15–17 years modal age group). There was some variation in the number and types of psychological sessions that young people received via the programs but the majority received at least one session of cognitive behavioural therapy. Based on limited available outcome data, both programs appear to have produced improvements in clients’ mental health; specifically, psychological distress as assessed by the Kessler-10 (K-10) was reduced.ConclusionsATAPS and headspace have delivered free or low-cost psychological services to 12–25 year olds with somewhat different characteristics. Both programs have had promising effects on mental health. ATAPS and headspace have operated in a complementary fashion to fill a service gap for young people.
Highlights
Youth mental illness is an important public health problem in Australia and internationally
While data on previous receipt of psychiatric care were not available for the majority of headspace clients (82%), for those with data, just over half had not previously received psychiatric care (53%). It appears that proportionally more headspace than Better Access to Psychiatrists (Access) to Allied Psychological Services (ATAPS) clients were represented across the baseline K-10 severity categories, it should be noted that this information was not available for 70% of ATAPS and 53% of headspace clients, respectively
Notwithstanding the limitations, our findings demonstrated that ATAPS and headspace delivered free or lowcost services to a substantial number of young people who were disadvantaged and historically would not have accessed services
Summary
Youth mental illness is an important public health problem in Australia and internationally. Youth mental health A series of surveys conducted in Australia, which have considered high prevalence disorders across the age Bassilios et al Int J Ment Health Syst (2017) 11:19 spectrum, can shed light on the extent of mental health problems in young people. The most recent National Surveys of Mental Health and Wellbeing (NSMHWB), conducted in 2007, recruited 8841 individuals aged 16–85 years [1]. The most recent survey of child and adolescent mental health, conducted in 2013–14, recruited 6310 parents and carers of children aged 4–17 years and 2967 children aged 11–17 years and found that 14% of children and adolescents had a mental disorder (most commonly attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder followed by anxiety disorders) in the previous year, which was associated with a substantial number of days absent from school [3]
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