Anthony Byrne (Holt, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Tonight I rise to provide an update on the rollout of the headspace at Fountain Gate and again congratulate the young representatives from the City of Casey Youth Services about their ongoing campaign to overcome the stigma that still exists in relation to youth mental health issues. Last month I spoke of my concerns about the Abbott government's decision to replace the Medicare Local network with a new primary health care network, primarily because the decision had caused a delay in the rollout of the headspace at Fountain Gate. I am pleased to report to this place that the South Eastern Melbourne Medicare Local has been advised by headspace and the health minister that it can now continue with the rollout of the much-needed headspace at Fountain Gate. The auspicing body is the South Eastern Melbourne Medicare Local. Its aim is to establish and co-locate a headspace with what is called an early psychosis prevention and intervention centre—its acronym is EPPIC—at the Westfield Fountain Gate shopping centre precinct in Narre Warren. We know that the EPPIC centre will provide three core functions: acute care, early detection, and recovery for young people suffering from a mental illness.

The ages of between 15 and 24 years are a crucial time in the development of a young person. It coincides with the peak onset of serious mental illness, including a first episode of psychosis. According to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, mental illness accounts for 50 per cent of the total disease burden among young people aged 12 to 25 years in Australia, and 75 per cent of mental disorders will have developed by the age of 25. Therefore, concerted efforts focusing on early identification and effective intervention have now become an increasing public health priority, not only for Australia but throughout the world.

There is clear evidence that delaying the provision of appropriate treatment, which prolongs the duration of untreated psychosis, can have a major negative impact on the future development of young people, in addition to prolonging distressing symptoms and increasing the risk of premature death. Early intervention services like EPPIC, through early detection and provision of accessible, welcoming, non-judgemental, youth-oriented access to the early-psychosis treatments, can change the course of mental illnesses in young people. EPPIC is a world renowned model of specialised early intervention in psychosis care, first developed by Professor Patrick McGorry, former Australian of the Year, at Orygen Youth Health in 1992. Over the last 20 years the EPPIC clinical service experience has become the prototype for numerous early-psychosis intervention services both nationally and internationally. Our local area has a significant youth population. Some estimates are about 60,000 young people in the City of Casey. They deserve and need this headspace and the EPPIC centre, which we all hope will be established by the end of the year.

Tonight I also want to announce a pretty exciting development for the young people who have been lobbying for an appropriate forum to continue the discussion about youth mental health: we will be holding another youth mental health forum to promote the need for action to address youth mental health challenges. Importantly, Village Cinemas, which has been a great partner of ours in the Westfield Fountain Gate shopping centre, has offered to provide a Vmax cinema so that young people can come and talk to Professor McGorry and myself about their issues. I would like to thank them for providing this facility. My staffer was on the phone to them today, and they were very supportive, and I think that says a lot about the community spiritedness of this cinema chain.

I know that Casey Youth Services are very excited about this forthcoming forum. We have a lot of feedback from them. What our young people want is for their voices to be heard. Young men like Jake Downward, who has been in contact with my office for some time, would like the opportunity to further discuss the issues he is dealing with. He feels, for example, that at the school he attends not enough attention is paid when young people are developing serious mental health issues. He believes that when we are offering services to young people we should be doing it in a user-friendly, youth-friendly way. And he believes that to date that is not what we have been doing. He is a young man with I think a brilliant future before him. We believe that his voice does deserve to be heard, and we are going to make sure that that happens in the youth mental health forum. Dani Rothwell, who has been a leader for the campaign for the headspace at Fountain Gate, a young woman of enormous capability, is also campaigning hard for this youth mental health round table and forum. In the time remaining I would like to congratulate the young people. They have campaigned, they have their headspaces and their EPPIC centre and I continue to commend them for the great work they do.