Youth Enhanced Services
We are contracted by the Australian Government to support the commissioning and implementation of primary care mental health services for young people with severe and complex needs. In this role, we work closely with Primary Health Networks and their commissioned service providers to facilitate the design, delivery and evaluation of evidence-based, youth-friendly models of care.
Youth Enhanced Resources
We've developed a number of resources to support the delivery Youth Enhanced Services.
View our resources
Case studies
There is no single model for Youth Enhanced Services, and commissioned services vary considerably to meet their local needs. The following videos, filmed between November 2018 and May 2019, and infographics describe a number of different service models to demonstrate the wide range of approaches that have been taken.
Early Intervention Program, The Bridge Youth Service
The Early Intervention Program (EIP) offers support to young people who are struggling with mental ill-health (YES stream) or substance use (AOD stream). The purpose of the program is to help young people in the “missing middle”, to reduce their distress and build on their existing strengths and connections. EIP takes a holistic approach that acknowledges young people may need to address other challenges in their life so they can improve their distress. The program works according to the young person’s goals and needs, and integrates a structured intervention into this mix. The aim is to walk alongside young people rather than direct them.
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Bounceback, South Eastern Melbourne, EACH
The BounceBack program provides support to young people presenting with severe and complex mental health in the community health sector. It is funded by the South Eastern Melbourne Primary Health Network and delivered by EACH in partnership with Alfred Health in the Casey, Cardinia, Dandenong and Kingston regions; and Youth Support and Advocacy Service (YSAS) in the Frankston and Mornington Peninsula regions of Victoria. This document focuses on the service delivered by EACH, and was developed as part of their participation in Orygen’s Implementation Lab.
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CARES, headspace Griffith
The CARES program provides care to young people with complex mental health needs and functional impairment. The program is based at headspace Griffith, and also provides occasional outreach to surrounding towns. CARES provides therapeutic and case management support from a multi-disciplinary team, including individual sessions, family-inclusive practice, and group programs. The program can provide flexible, longer-term care at no cost to the young person.
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Youth Engagement Team, Cornerstone Youth Services
The Youth Engagement Team at Cornerstone Youth Services supports young people aged 12-25 years across the north and northwest regions of Tasmania who are experiencing, or are at risk of, severe and complex mental health issues and who are disengaged from services such as healthcare, education and employment. The program operates out of Launceston, Devonport and Burnie.
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Youth Enhanced Support Service (YESS), PARRAMATTA MISSION
The Youth Enhanced Support Service (YESS) Northern Sydney is the first of Parramatta Mission’s three YESS teams across Sydney. The service delivers holistic care to young people with complex mental health issues, and to their families. Through a psychiatry-led interdisciplinary team approach, YESS provides enhanced support to young people who require more than what GPs, private clinicians, headspace, school and university counsellors can provide.
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Enhanced Care Program, headspace Darwin
The Enhanced Care Program, based at headspace Darwin, provides support to young people with emerging complex mental health difficulties. Often, these young people may have trouble engaging with support services due to multiple issues impacting on their lives, which serve as barriers to obtaining mental health treatment. The Enhanced Care Program aims to address these obstacles by providing support with a flexible, assertive outreach, therapeutic case-management approach.
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Thrive, headspace Port Adelaide
Thrive is a mental health program for young people aged 16-25 years who are experiencing, or at risk of experiencing, moderate-to-severe and/or complex mental illness and who may face barriers to accessing mainstream mental health services. Thrive is an office-based program located in the heart of Port Adelaide and covers the western region of metropolitan Adelaide.
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Amber Youth Wellness, MercyCare
Amber Youth Wellness is a free youth mental health outreach service located in Perth’s North. Amber Youth Wellness supports young people aged 12 to 25 years with complex mental health needs that are having a significant impact on their everyday functioning, and who are experiencing significant barriers to accessing supports. The service acknowledges that accessing support can be difficult for some young people so aims to make the process friendly and easy for them.
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Evolve, headspace Murray Bridge, Mt Barker and Victor Harbor
Evolve is a program funded by Country South Australia Primary Health Network to provide youth complex care services to young people in the Murray Lands, Adelaide Hills and Fleurieu regions of South Australia. The focus of the program is to support young people aged 12-25 years with a diagnosed mental health issue or at risk of developing a mental illness. The program is based in three headspace centres, and aims to provide mental health support within a primary care setting, therefore reducing the need for young people to access tertiary mental health services. The program has a strong focus on therapy-based services, alongside intensive therapeutic case management.
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emerge north, adelaide
emerge North is a program delivered by Sonder to provide care to young people aged 16 – 25 years who are experiencing moderate to severe and/or complex mental ill-health. emerge North consists of a multidisciplinary team that provides individual and group support based on the needs and goals of each young person, including psychological therapies, care coordination, youth peer work, functional recovery, access to psychiatry and access to education and employment services. emerge North is part of a Multi-Agency for Youth Initiative that works closely with local services including headspace, headspace Early Psychosis and SA Health on integrated care pathways.
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youth+, central tablelands, new south wales
Youth+ is a brief intervention service that provides support to young people presenting with more complex mental ill-health in the Central Tablelands region of NSW. Youth+ offers a timely and rapid response to young people seeking treatment in crisis to manage the young person’s immediate risk and needs, better involve their family in their care, and link to other support services as required.
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YES hub
The YES hub offers PHNs, commissioned service providers and other health service providers fast and easy access to:
- a wide range of youth enhanced resources, including videos and training materials;
- discussion forums to share and learn from one another; and
- ongoing access to 23 free online training modules.
To register for the YES hub, please visit https://yes.orygen.org.au/ and create a new account if you are a first time user. If you already have a Learning Management System (LMS) account with Orygen, please use your existing login details to enter and access the YES hub.
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Access the YES hub
For enquiries, please email [email protected]