Models of Community Engagement in Headspace

This presentation discusses the models of community engagement used by Headspace, an organization that provides support and services to young people for mental health issues. It explores the importance of community context, community intervention, community and system change, risk identification, and the components of community engagement. The presentation also highlights the use of the psychodynamic theory in delivering effective social work practice. Overall, it emphasizes the role of Headspace in addressing mental health issues among Australian youths.

Community Services Work

Introduction
 In 2016, 22.8% young people aged 15-19 are suffered with mental
illness (blackdoginstitute.org.au, 2017).
 The rate of illness raising in the past five years from 18.7% in 2012 to
22.8% in 2016 (aihw.gov.au, 2019).
 Rate of male patients is higher than the females.
 Interestingly the percentage of youth mental illness among the
aboriginals is lower than the rest of the country (Grove, Reupert &
Maybery, 2015).

Brief of the organisation
 Funded by the Department of Health and Ageing under the Youth
Metal Health Initiative program
 Headquarters of the organisation is in Melbourne, Victoria and the
organisation has over 100 centres across the country (Goodyear et
al., 2015).
 Founded by Professor Patrick McGorry in 2006, the organisation is
flourishing in successfully in Australia with offline and online methods
of services.
 Headspace delivers supports and services to the young people aged
from 12 to 25 years in order to reduce depression, anxiety, stress and
alcohol and illegal substances related issues (Vigo, Thornicroft &
Atun, 2016).

MODELS OF COMMUNITY
ENGAGEMENT

MODELS OF COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT
 Community context and collaborative planning
 It is important for Headspace to identify the problem in a specific community or the entire
region and procuring better action plan to deal with the process.
 It can be argued that the role of the community context is to figure out the problems
related to the community and prioritise it based on the significance of the social issues
(Moffat & Zhang, 2014).
 As headspace is dealing with a number of different mental health problems therefore
putting emphasis on a specific problem will help the organisation to address the issue
specifically.

MODELS OF COMMUNITY
ENGAGEMENT• COMMUNITY INTERVENTION
• THE NEXT STEP IS ASSOCIATED WITH THE COMMUNITY INTERVENTION
PRACTICE. ACCORDING TO SIMPLICAN ET AL. (2015) THE COMMUNITY
INTERVENTION IS A CRUCIAL PART FOR THE ORGANISATION IN ORDER TO
BRING SUCCESS INTO THE SOCIAL CAMPAIGN OR PROGRAM.
• THE COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT PLANNING HELPS THE LOCAL PEOPLE TO
UNDERSTAND THE AGENDA AND IMPORTANCE OF THE SOCIAL ISSUE AND THE
HEADSPACE GENERALLY BRIEFS THE LOCAL COMMUNITY ABOUT THE
ACTIVITIES OF THE SOCIAL PROGRAM.

Models of community
engagement
• Community and system change
In this part, the organisation will initiate the planning with the
help of the local people and proceed towards changing the
malpractice. The objective of the social program is also
reflected through the program and it requires equal
contribution for Headspace and the local community.

Models of
community
engageme
nt
• Risk identification
• It is also important for the social organisation
to assessing the efficacy of the community
engagement model.
• It is associated with the practice of
identifying the risks and doing proper
evaluation of the risk factors so that the
entire campaign will achieve its objectives.
• Headspace is also responsible to identify the
issues extensively and always develop a
contingency plan in order to make the entire
planning feasible and effective (McKenna et
al., 2015).
• Based on the entire planning and risk
management practice, Headspace evaluates
the outcome of the campaign.

COMPONENTS OF COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT

COMPONENTS OF COMMUNITY
ENGAGEMENT
• Users and beneficiaries
• A wide spectrum of people are involved in the process of developing the community
engagement. For an instance, the local communities are the major component of
Headspace’s community engagement.
• To be more specific the youths with an age from 10-15 are the primary focus of the
organisation. Besides this, the role of the school students and the teachers and school
authorities are also considered to be important aspect for the organisation to list as the
beneficiaries.
• Besides this, the concerned parents are also seeking help of headspace in order to get
benefits for the mental disorder of their child.

Components of community
engagement
 Advisers
 It can be stated that for Headspace another key component is the
advisers. According to Simplican et al. (2015) in a social work
organisation, mostly the practitioners are referred as the advisers.
 There are specific details of the doctors and consultants who are the
intricate and most driving factor of headspace. Most of the healthcare
professionals are entitled to look after the young people.
 However, for a better treatment facility Headspace divides it into two
specific genre. A group of doctors are dealing with the general mental
health issues. On the other hand, there is another group of doctors who
are focusing on the school students.

Components of community
engagement
 Management
 The management is responsible to set a better and effective
communication and balance between the healthcare workers so that
it will bring more efficacy into the practice.
 As a matter of fact, the executive team of Headspace is dynamic and
highly professional in order to face the challenges and conduct the
social programs effectively. Jason Trethowan is the Executive head of
the company where Debra Rickwood is the chief scientific advisor and
the executive director of the research and evaluation wing.
 Julia Smith is the Executive Director of Headspace services whereas
Simone Williams is dealing with the strategic communication and
marketing.

Components of community
engagement
• Decision makers.
In this regard, the decision makers are the organisation executives who
take important decisions. However, the permanent employees are also
contributed a lot in terms of ventilating and sharing their views clearly
so that the decision making procedure will be effective enough to deal
with the situation.

Components of community
engagement
• Delivers
Besides the management and social workers are also identified
as the deliverers of the social projects propounded by
Headspace. Therefore, it requires effective communication and
collaboration between different entities to arrange the
campaign effectively.

THEORETICAL APPROACH
• The psychodynamic theory is used by Headspace in order to deliver
effective social work practice within the organisation. As per the research
of Moffat and Zhang (2014) it can be stated that the psychodynamic
theory puts stress on the process of understanding the reason behind such
behavioural issue.
• In-depth analysis and the way to put more focus on the role of the
campaign is also effective enough for Headspace to deal with the social
issue positively. One of the major prospect of the psychodynamic theory is
focusing on the role of the youths and their issues in mental disorder.

CONCLUSION
From that point of view it can be argued that Headspace is playing a major
role in doing social work in Australia. In this regard, the focal point of this
organisation is to increase the number of facilities and clinics for the mental
illness of the Australian youths. As a matter of fact, the organisation also
follows proper model of community engagement in terms of the Social
planning model and manage the components in terms of the stakeholders
effectively to bring more efficiency in the social work practice.

Reference
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https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports-data/population-groups/children-youth/overview
• blackdoginstitute.org.au. (2017). Youth mental health report Youth Survey 2012-16. Retrieved from
https://blackdoginstitute.org.au/docs/default-source/research/evidence-and-policy-section/2017-youth-mental-health-report_mission-australia-
and-black-dog-institute.pdf?sfvrsn=6
• Brijnath, B., Mazza, D., Singh, N., Kosny, A., Ruseckaite, R., & Collie, A. (2014). Mental health claims management and return to work:
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• Headspace.org.au. (2019). Our executive team | headspace. Retrieved from https://headspace.org.au/about-us/the-executive-team/
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