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Transforming early intervention
in Australia's youth mental health system

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Executive Summary

Australia’s youth mental health (YMH) system is at a critical moment. Given the lack of investment and resources nationwide, current prevention strategies are failing to address the growing demand for mental health services, leaving an estimated 1 million children and young people (C&YP) with mild to moderate mental health needs underserved each year.

To address this gap, this whitepaper advocates for a paradigm shift towards increased, scalable, and cost-effective early intervention - described here as a ‘new firstline early intervention service’ that acts as a bridge between existing community prevention and primary care service models. This service would be designed to identify and prioritise C&YP with early mental health symptoms and provide targeted, cost-effective support before these mental health issues escalate.

In order to deliver on this vision, Australia’s youth mental health system requires significant investment by the government to enable effective
early-intervention across local youth mental health systems. Investment would help address systemic gaps in service provision, embed and integrate technology within local care systems, and support improved care
co-ordination via re-designed community roles and referral pathways to enable truly integrated stepped care. By doing so, we can alleviate the pressure on existing youth mental health primary care services and provide a more inclusive and comprehensive youth mental health system that begins to meet the support needs of all young Australians.

About the author

Duncan Fogg works as BFB’s Australia Lead. His previous work in the UK focused on designing and building improved community-led responses to pressing social issues. Much of his work focused on improving services and engaging with communities to develop more inclusive, and effective approaches to community-focused prevention and early intervention services, including youth mental health. Within this work, Duncan previously partnered with a number of leading children and young people’s focused charities focused on child wellbeing and youth mental health, including the NSPCC, YoungMinds, and Impact on Urban Health.

Contact: duncan.fogg@bfb-labs.com

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