Mental health scheme for young people under funding pressure

THE Gillard government's Headspace mental health program for youth is facing a funding crisis.

THE Gillard government's Headspace mental health program for youth is facing a funding crisis.

Some centres are considering scaling back services, and children are facing waits of up to a month.

As Julia Gillard announced a $277 million boost to mental health services yesterday, Headspace chief executive Chris Tanti said the 30 existing centres needed a funding injection of at least $15m-$20m to allow them to meet operating costs and demand that was growing by as much as 40 per cent a year.

Mr Tanti applauded the Prime Minister's announcement of a comprehensive package of measures to tackle suicide and promote better mental health.

He said it would make "a significant impact on the lives of many Australians, particularly young people and those at risk of taking their own lives".

But the problem facing the Headspace network was that the government funding provided only a percentage of the recurrent costs of the centres, with psychologists making up the rest of their incomes by billing Medicare for services rendered.

But Mr Tanti said youths suffering emerging psychological problems tended to lead chaotic lives, with many failing to meet appointments.

When this happened, the psychologists could not bill Medicare and they suffered a loss of income.

He said the centres were receiving on average between $450,000 and $500,000 a year from the federal government, but their operating costs were between $750,000 to $1.2m a year.

Mr Tanti's comments came as Australian of the Year and pioneer of the Headspace program Patrick McGorry said the internationally recognised scheme was at "serious risk" of having several sites shut down due to a lack of government investment.

"The funding model is, put simply, inadequate to sustain some of the sites . . . particularly the larger metro ones," Professor McGorry said.

"I would definitely say some of them are at risk of closing down."

A spokeswoman for Health Minister Nicola Roxon said the government "values and supports the important work of Headspace and increased their funding by $78.8m in the most recent budget".

This boost provided additional funding for existing sites as well as increasing the number of locations where young people could get assistance.

This would mean an extra 20,000 young people would be receiving help.