Looi Jeffrey C L, Allison Stephen, Bastiampillai Tarun, Kisely Stephen R
Academic Unit of Psychiatry and Addiction Medicine, Australian National University Medical School, Canberra Hospital, Canberra, ACT, Australia.
Consortium of Australian-Academic Psychiatrists for Independent Policy and Research Analysis (CAPIPRA), Canberra, ACT, Australia.
J Can Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry. 2021 May;30(2):116-122. Epub 2021 May 1.
To describe political advocacy and scientific debate about headspace, a non-governmental organisational (NGO) substantially funded by the Australian federal government that has significantly impacted the youth mental healthcare landscape. Access Open Minds is a Canadian clinical research initiative for youth mental health partially based on headspace. Lessons from the Australian experience may thus prove useful for Canadian stakeholders.
The Australian healthcare system, mental health policy and governance for youth mental healthcare are contextually described. The structure and promulgation of the headspace NGO is detailed, as a parallel provider of primary mental healthcare outside of existing public and private mental health services. A review of the existing research on the evaluation of headspace was conducted.
Headspace has expanded rapidly due to successful political advocacy on behalf of the youth early intervention model, with limited coordination in terms of governance, planning and implementation with existing mental health services. In spite of consuming considerable resources, there has been limited evidence of effectiveness.
Canadians should be wary of large youth programs that operate outside mainstream mental healthcare because of similar dangers such as poor co-ordination with existing government-funded services, duplication of care, the substantial consumption of resources, and limited evaluation of outcomes. As Access Open Minds is a clinical research project, there is the opportunity for Canada to evaluate the efficacy of the model before further adoption by governments.
描述关于headspace的政治倡导和科学辩论，headspace是一个由澳大利亚联邦政府大量资助的非政府组织，它对青少年心理健康护理领域产生了重大影响。“开放心灵访问”（Access Open Minds）是一项针对青少年心理健康的加拿大临床研究倡议，部分基于headspace。因此，澳大利亚经验的教训可能对加拿大的利益相关者有用。
对澳大利亚医疗保健系统、青少年心理健康护理的心理健康政策和治理进行背景描述。详细介绍了headspace非政府组织的结构和宣传情况，它是现有公共和私人心理健康服务之外的初级心理健康护理的平行提供者。对现有关于headspace评估的研究进行了综述。
由于代表青少年早期干预模式进行了成功的政治倡导，headspace迅速扩张，但在治理、规划和实施方面与现有心理健康服务的协调有限。尽管消耗了大量资源，但有效性证据有限。
加拿大人应该警惕那些在主流心理健康护理之外运作的大型青少年项目，因为存在类似的风险，如与现有政府资助服务协调不佳、护理重复、资源大量消耗以及对结果的评估有限。由于“开放心灵访问”是一个临床研究项目，加拿大有机会在政府进一步采用该模式之前评估其有效性。
