A healthy headspace for Sydney’s youth

Young people between 12 and 25 living in South Sydney and the inner west look set to get a better deal on mental health services in the lead-up to National Mental Health Week.

This follows a link-up of headspace, the National Youth Mental Health Foundation, with it’s counterpart in Central Sydney.

Headspace Central Sydney Youth coordinator, Michelle Lampis, said the foundation is one of the first projects that directly address mental health issues for this age bracket.
‘The idea is that there has been a recognised gap for this age group,’ Ms Lampis said. Generally you fall into the adult services or the child services and they are very different.’

Headspace will utilise the already existing youth services centres of YouthBlock in Camperdown and South Sydney Youth Services (SSYS) in Waterloo and Marrickville Youth Resourc Centre (MYRC).

Since its inception, in 2005, headspace has worked in partnership with four other key mental health services throughout Australia, including the Brain Mind Research Institute (BMRI) at the University of Sydney, which hosts headspace Central Sydney.

Ms Lampis plans to work directly with ten newly-hired young people from the area ‘ all who have been exposed to drugs, alcohol and had mental health difficulties ‘ to create a reference group that will unearth innovative ways to engage young people.
‘We want young people to tell us what young people want,’ she said.

Jodie Sirone from BMRI says learning to recognise the signs and encouraging early intervention is exactly what headspace are addressing.
‘Mental health is a great crisis in Australia,’ Ms Sirone said. ‘More people in Sydney have mental health issues than have diabetes. We need to remove the stigma to endeavour to address this problem.

‘I really want to see us get to the point where you can sit and have decent conversations with people about mental health, its implications and the treatments available.’

Rupert Noffs, development manager at the Ted Noffs Foundation ‘ which will be working closely with headspace ‘ says connecting with young people on their level is the most effective channel through which to reach them.
‘Using Art and music as a communication tool is so integral in reaching youth. Noffs, which offers both holistic and clinical services for young people, like headspace, uses this creativity to build positive relationships with the young people.’

Mental Health Week NSW runs October 5-11, and will kick off with the Healthy Mind Festival at Martin Place on October 8 from 12-2pm.