Sunday Telegraph editorial: Can We Talk about saving lives?

TODAY we begin a new phase of our Can We Talk campaign about youth mental ill-health, and it’s targeted at Malcolm Turnbull. We want the PM to save two crucial programs from death at the hands of his government. 

• Headspace CEO leaves in frustration
• Can We Talk? Funding cuts prompt fears of youth suicide rise

TODAY we begin a new phase of our Can We Talk campaign about youth mental ill-health, and it’s targeted squarely at one person: Malcolm Turnbull. 

We want the Prime Minister to save two vitally important programs from death at the hands of his own government. 

They are headspace, the national youth mental health initiative, and an important project called the headspace Youth Early Psychosis Programme (hYEPP), a groundbreaking early intervention for children as young as 12 suffering the terrifying onset of the symptoms of psychosis, such as hearing voices and seeing things which aren’t real. 

The Can We Talk forum at Campbelltown was well-received. Picture: John Fotiadis

Research has shown that early intervention is by far the best way to help psychosis sufferers from enduring a lifetime of serious mental illness and early death.

As it is, a child who suffers psychosis has just a 30 per cent chance of completing high school. That’s scary enough in itself. 

But the hYEPP program and headspace ­itself are at risk of falling victim to the federal government’s decision to devolve mental health funding away from the Commonwealth and into Primary Health Networks, a system of 31 bureaucratic regions that have replaced Medicare Locals. 

The whole point of headspace is that it is a consistent national model of one-stop shops for young people and their families.

It was first funded by the Howard government in 2006 because there was virtually nowhere for young people to go in the case of major mental health disorders, except to hospital emergency departments — a terrible place for a child to be in any state, let alone the fear and distress of an acute mental health episode.

There are 94 headspace centres around the nation, where any young person can find clinical experts, counsellors and medical professionals.

Samantha Berryman, from Dubbo, spoke at the Can We Talk forum about how headspace assisted her. Picture: Lisa Minner

Less than a month ago, Mr Turnbull opened a new headspace centre in Bondi, claiming it was “really inspiring” and “a great service”.

“This is the type of innovative frontline work in mental health that is so transformative,” Mr Turnbull said. 

But Mr Turnbull’s government is quietly killing off headspace and hYEPP, even as they pretend they’re not. 

There are hYEPP centres around Australia for children with early signs of psychosis, providing acute treatment, crisis intervention, family education, 24-hour home visiting and continued support over five years for every patient.

As eminent Professor Patrick McGorry, one of headspace’s founders, says, headspace and hYEPP are Australian-invented models that are being exported to the world, and now Australia is letting them die. 

The founding chief executive of headspace, Chris Tanti, is taking a redundancy ­because he’s so “very sad” about the “devastating” cuts that he believes will mean the end of the headspace dream.

Health Minister Sussan Ley claims she’s simply changing the way they are funded. She says the 760 people being cared for by hYEPP will be transferred to whatever service their local PHN decides to create. Same with headspace centres.

Ms Ley argues this might mean headspace centres get more money, not less, from the local authorities. Sorry, what? 

If the government is such a fan of headspace, why can’t it simply require every PHN to commit to keeping headspace and hYEPP centres open?

When we approached Ms Ley’s office for comment she accused us and Prof McGorry of a “scare campaign”. But we have spoken to dozens of experts across the mental health sector and every single one believes this means the likely death of headspace and hYEPP.

Even senior bureaucrats in the Commonwealth Department of Health don’t know exactly what will be happening, or when.

Each PHN is supposed to provide the government with a “needs assessment” and a “workplan” on mental health and suicide prevention by May 2017, before then coming up with a “regional mental health and suicide prevention plan” at a date yet to be ­announced.

From July this year, some PHNs will start trials of “co-ordinated care packages”. 

The Can We Talk forum in Campbelltown. Picture: John Fotiadis

It all looks a lot like reinvention of the wheel — and it will leave desperate young people back where they were before headspace began: in the emergency wards or, God forbid, standing on the edge of a cliff. 

In running our Can We Talk forums around NSW, we have worked closely with headspace and we have seen first-hand the close, rich networks the centres have developed with young people and their families.

Headspace has reached young people in a way no other service can. It’s the first service that has cut through.

Until now, it’s been possible at our Can We Talk forums to say to every young person and parent, no matter where they live: “Check out eheadspace or drop into your local headspace centre and they can start getting you some help.”

After these changes, if a young person asked us for advice, we’d have to find out which PHN they’re covered by, then find out what that local PHN has decided to fund, then work out which service is most appropriate for the young person to start with, then find out if they can even get an appointment … it goes on. And it’s not good enough.

In its report to the government in 2014, the National Mental Health Commission had some criticisms of headspace, including that some centres tended to operate independently from other local health services, and also that centres sometimes duplicated some existing local services, but overall the commission had no criticism of headspace’s purpose or work and recommended the headspace model be continued. 

Do not allow bureaucracy and ideology to smother the services that are saving beautiful young lives every day. On behalf of the most desperate young Australians, we beg you to intervene.

We understand why the government wants headspace and hYEPP to be transparent and co-operative with other services. 

But headspace was established by the Howard government to give young people somewhere to go — and there being no early-intervention service to prevent their problems becoming acute in the first place.

Now, after 10 years and before headspace even reaches its goal of 100 centres, the government is telling them to apply to 31 different regional PHNs for money.

The answer is not simply to push headspace and hYEPP into the arms of local health bureaucrats and say: “Best of luck, we’re sure you’ll be fine.”

Young people with mental illness need more than luck. 

The Mental Health Commission suggested a few simple ways to guarantee headspace’s survival and ongoing funding, such as creating a three-way agreement between the federal government, headspaces and PHNs.

That would allow the government to proceed with its PHN system, while ensuring headspace and hYEPP’s future.

So here is our plea to Mr Turnbull: do not let headspace and hYEPP die. Do not allow bureaucracy and ideology to smother the services that are saving beautiful young lives every day.

On behalf of the most desperate young Australians, we beg you to intervene.