Introduction
Addressing youth mental illnesses remains an essential health challenge internationally and in Australia. Organizations such as headspace National Youth Mental Health Foundation are tackling the issue by responding to mental health problems in Australia’s youth (Looi, J.C., et al., 2019). The agency supports young people with physical and mental conditions and assists them in addressing study and work challenges (Pascoe & Parker, 2019). Australia’s headspace is chosen for this research due to its significance to the Australian model of offering mental health services and the provision of services to major parts of the country. The selected method for this research is analytical and critical analysis. This report aims to describe headspace’s background, range and scope of services, organizational structure, staff recruitment and retention, volunteers, budget, and the impact of COVID-19 on the agency’s services.
Background
Australia’s headspace was established as a part of the Australian government program in 2006. Over the next eight years, 67 headspace centers were opened, with services provided to approximately 125,000 young people (headspace, 2020a). The governmental support led to a steady increase in the number of headspace centers (Kwan & Rickwood, 2020). The organization was created to target young people experiencing mental health problems by creating youth-friendly and highly accessible integrated service networks and hubs, offering low-cost or free evidence-based support and interventions. The network of centers and services has supported no less than 600,000 people aged between 12 and 25 (headspace, 2020a). Australia’s headspace offers different services, including mental well-being and health, sexual and physical health, work and study, and alcohol and drug services.
Range and Scope of Services
Australia’s headspace offers services in four essential areas: sexual and physical health, mental well-being and health, drug services, and study and work support. The beneficiaries of headspace’s services are Australians suffering from mild and extreme mental health issues. The eligibility criteria consider whether a person is Australian and aged between 12 and 25 (Seidler et al., 2020). The agency helps individuals to address mental health problems when they experience changes in their lives.
Australia’s headspace offers services that address sexual and physical health issues and addictions as well as improve study and work progress. For example, headspace has friendly nurses and general practitioners who can help with physical health issues and problems related to relationship challenges, sexual health, and contraception. People struggling with alcohol or drug addiction can access support from headspace (headspace, 2020a). The headspace organization’s work and study experts can help young persons having problems at school or work.
Organizational Structure and Number of Staff
The organizational structure of headspace includes the board, executive team, and regular and part-time employees, with a total number of about 240 people. The board is formed of nine members, including the board chair, Ben Shields, who has twenty years of experience in strategy execution, and transformation experience (headspace, 2020a). Other board members include Niharika Hiremath, Naraja Clay, Patrick McGorry, Anne Murphy, Annette Carutthers, Katina Law, John Harvey, and Robbie Sefton (headspace, 2020a). Continuous improvement of the organizational structure is the key to successful work. According to Joseph & Gaba (2020) “It is useful given the proliferation of new organizational forms and supra-firm architectures” (p. 4). These employees benefit the company by bringing their expertise into the boardroom. For instance, Katina Law has worked extensively in the mining sector and manages a company that provides services in various areas such as financial management, change management, and performance auditing. John Harvey has an extensive experience in management and offers invaluable generalist experiences and skills to the organization’s boardroom (headspace, 2022a). Robbie Sefton is experienced in strategic planning, communications, and stakeholder engagement and thus, brings a lot to the headspace boardroom.
The executive team informs the board regarding the agreed performance objectives and strategies. Furthermore, the headspace organizational structure consists of regular and part-time employees. Regular employees are required to hold proof of higher education. For instance, a general practitioner is required to have at least a bachelor’s degree, while part-time jobs may or may not need higher education. In this regard, catering vacancies may not require higher education (headspace, 2020a). Australia’s headspace is committed to diversity and equality; therefore, all employees are granted the same opportunities regardless of their race or ethnicity.
Staff Recruitment, Retention, and Turnover
The headspace organization recruits top talents who are open to diversity, agile, and committed to excellence. Australia’s headspace provides generous salary packages for various job roles and offers up to the maximum salary amount permitted by law. For instance, mental health clinicians are offered a competitive salary of about 67,000 Australian dollars each year (New South Wales Government, 2022). Ultimately, every position has a specific salary range, but headspace offers industry-competitive wages for a non-governmental organization.
The headspace organization retains employees and avoids turnover in different ways. For instance, growth opportunities, flexible hours, and shift work are offered to promote work-life balance. In addition, headspace provides chances for professional development such as leadership programs, tailored skill development, and group and one-on-one supervision, helping reduce turnover (headspace, 2022c). At the same time, the agency’s work is affected by managerial issues, lack of staff privacy, and employee burnout.
Volunteers
Most volunteers are not paid, and their positions require varying educational levels. They can be used as independent chairs or youth advisory group members. Costs are insufficient to cover all voluntary work; thus, some employees are unpaid. Conditions for independent chair volunteers include being skilled and qualified in providing mental health services for youth and having experience in leadership positions. Both independent chairs of various committees and youth advisory group members need to have a Working with Children Check (headspace, 2020b). Volunteers face different problems, including insufficient services and financial rewards and high workload, causing burnout.
Organization’s Budget and Funding
The organization’s budget originates from fundraising or government grants. In 2020, headspace raised about $3.9 million from donations (headspace, 2020a). In contrast, the government allocates $44 million each year to headspace centers to boost facilities and services (headspace, 2020a). Therefore, headspace’s budget is expected to be around $47.5 million each year. The government injection of $44 million has allowed headspace to bolster its workforce and minimize wait times at headspace centers. The organization’s need for funding is highlighted by Australia’s mental health problems.
COVID-19 Impact
COVID-19 compelled headspace to adopt remote working for its whole workforce and centers. According to Pokhrel & Chhetri (2021), “The global outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has spread worldwide, affecting almost all countries and territories” (p. 134). All the world’s organizations have begun to look for alternative ways to work with their employees. Zoom sessions were hosted weekly to provide information, share knowledge, and build resources to guarantee service delivery and business continuity (headspace, 2020a). COVID-19 allowed headspace to understand reactions to the telehealth service and the pressures people faced at the time (McGorry et al., 2020). The agency had to adapt to the altered environment and implement new measures to ensure safety for employees and clients.
Organizational Issues
Australia’s headspace is faced with severe challenges that question the initiative’s effectiveness. Headspace consumes considerable resources; therefore, Australians expect more refined and positive outcomes (Perera et al., 2020). However, there is limited evidence that shows the program achieves its intended purpose (Bastiampillai et al., 2021). Furthermore, headspace faces governance and coordination issues, which may lead to care duplication (Looi et al., 2021). Thus, headspace can address the problem by ensuring effective coordination of its services with existing government programs.
Service Changes during COVID-19
Due to COVID-19, headspace centers altered service delivery and adopted phone and online counseling to serve multiple Australians. Assessments of the risk of staff transmission or exposure to the COVID-19 virus are compared to the severity of the risks to which individual children and their families are exposed. According to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD, 2020) “COVID‑19 exacerbates the risks of poor nutrition, experiencing maltreatment, and being exposed to violence at home” (p. 3). Conditions for the provision of personal services are developed at the local level. Priority is given to cases that may endanger the life, development or well-being of the child. Families and children who are already at risk should also be given priority. For example, those who have previous experience of domestic violence. During the pandemic, Medicare-subsidized telehealth services were offered to every Australian, and digital learning support was provided as a part of the Work and Study plan (headspace, 2020a). These measures aimed to reduce contact and the spread of infection to support the agency’s main goal of ensuring physical and mental safety in the community.
Mental Health Models
The concept of mental health is used in clinical psychology and psychiatry and is adequate for determining a person’s adaptation to society. According to Orygen’s National Programs team (2018) “In Australia one in four young people aged 16-24 years have experienced a mental health disorder in the past 12 months” (p. 4). The headspace model is an integrated care method in mental health that advocates for early intervention and offers support for patients to reduce their risk. It is based on the concept that more than three-thirds of mental health problems happen before 25 (Headspace, 2018). The recovery model is used at headspace since the organization provides immense support to all young people suffering from mental health challenges (Gyamfi et al., 2022; Rickwood et al., 2019).
One of the most effective methods for analyzing psychological problems is quantitative. It is used in the life sciences, especially in the analysis of physical phenomena. According to Rawat (2022) “The quantitative approach is largely empirical and positivist from a philosophical standpoint and empirical, reductive, and structurally oriented from an epistemological standpoint” (p. 20). Currently, quantitative methods are applied only in socio-economic and psychological sciences, in surveys, in experiments conducted in the laboratory, in the so-called formal methods or in mathematical modeling methods. These methods are included in the company’s permanent system of critical analysis. The headspace agency stresses the significance of social support and connectedness for persons experiencing mental health problems.
The traditional medical model is based on the study of pathology, understanding health as a measure of the probability of the onset of a disease and considering the elimination of painful manifestations as its goal. As Kowal (2018) states, “From a psychological point of view the reaction of respondents can be analyzed with the use of projection methods” (p. 327). The examinees watch a set of prepared illustrations, and their task is to define answers to such questions as which pictures are the best and why, which bring certain associations can they represent some features of character. The norm of mental health in this model, acting as an image of mental health, is used to organize practical efforts in the field of medicine, psychology, and pedagogy, or as a means of thinking for researchers. It is focused on the external level of manifestation of mental health, associated with the absence of symptoms that interfere with a person’s adaptation to society and does not take into account the internal level of the world of subjective experiences of the individual.
Evidence of Analytical and Critical Analysis
The method of critical analysis implies a way to achieve the goal. It can be deductive and inductive. In the first case, the analysis of the situation develops from the general to the particular. That is, first the researcher puts forward a hypothesis, or an axiom. Then from the general statement the course of thought is directed to the consequence, or theorem. However, due to the specific characteristics of companies, analytical analysis can be limited in its application (Khan, 2021).
Overall, analytical and critical analysis of the agency is based on exploring the available data regarding the efficiency, structure, and major challenges of headspace. The evidence of such an investigation includes the use of official sources, namely, the agency’s website and reports, as well as scholarly works that explore essential aspects of youth mental health problems in the Australian context. A special commission must carefully study all sources of information in order to correctly interpret and analyze all available data. This research analyzes core challenges by focusing on information available about youth mental health services provided by headspace. Through critical analysis, the organization implemented interactive and clinically integrated learning strategies. Interactive clinical strategies included tasks based on collaboration with medical staff in clinical practice. Horntvedt et al. state that “learning strategies have included clinical practicum projects, lectures, small group work, post-clinical conferences, online modules and simulations” (p. 2). Learning activities with oral presentations of the results of students’ research conducted in their clinical work setting were also mentioned.
Conclusion and Suggestions for Improvement
In conclusion, the headspace organization leverages its staff to provide mental health services to Australian youth, even during COVID-19 when its service delivery was impacted. The agency was created in 2006 to offer assistance in sexual and physical health, work and study support, mental well-being, and drug addiction to young Australians. Based on the organization’s analysis, suggestions for improvement include expanding the number of funding sources, promoting the agency to attract donations, and addressing such problems as employee burnout and managerial issues. Furthermore, the effectiveness of headspace can be enhanced by using evidence-based data to justify outcomes.
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