Youth Mental Health
Our research is primarily focused on improving access to quality mental health services for young Australians. We are also interested in how young people use social media, the design of social media platforms, and associated links to mental health.
The Challenge
Despite Australia increasing its investment into mental health services since 2006, and service use amongst young people aged 15-24 increasing substantially, the mental health of young people in Australia has also been steadily declining.
To address these challenges, there is a need for greater and smarter investment into the mental health system, including youth mental health services, to improve the system’s ability to cope with its volume. Smarter investment will require understanding key system leverage points where intervention can have the greatest impact.
The Approach
Our ‘Launchpad’ exploratory project comprised a series of research activities, including desk research, consultations with professional and youth experts, and administrative data analysis.
The purpose of the research was to:
1) Understand the informal supports and professional services available to young people experiencing mental health challenges.
2) Identify the psychological and structural barriers that make it hard to ask for or get help from these services.
3) Identify and develop actionable ideas for how the system could work more effectively, to improve access to quality mental health services for young people through a behavioural and systems lens.
Find out more
Explore our Launchpad Webinar below (recorded on April 3, 2025) to dive deeper into our exploratory research. Click to view the system map and our comprehensive report: ‘A fresh approach to improving access to quality mental health services for young Australians‘.
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