Policy Amendment Proposal for Headspace Youth Mental Health Program

This article proposes a policy amendment for Headspace Youth Mental Health Program to ensure transparency and adherence to the original purpose of the program. The proposed amendment will address sustainability components such as communication and public health impact. The article also discusses alternative policies and the benefits of the proposed amendment.

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Background
Headspace is an Australian company that deals with the youth mental health. The company is a
non-profit organization that was established by the Australia government in the year
2006.Headspace was previously known as the national youth mental health foundation. The main
aim for the organization is to assist the youth in dealing with the mental stress and pressure that
comes about in life. Their services cover areas of mental health and wellbeing, work and study
support, physical and sexual health and alcohol and other drug abuses. The organization has
several centers in Australia that are critical in ensuring that the services are able to reach to a
huge number of the youth population. Most of the youth who are attended to by these centers are
in the age bracket of 12-25.The young people together with their families can get support across
the various centers that have been established. Headspace is purely funded by the Australia
government under the youth mental health initiative.( McGorry, Tanti,Stokes, Hickie, Carnell,
Littlefield, & Moran,2007). The past few years have witnessed the rise in the number of
adolescents who are faced with mental health. The youth are unable to deal with the pressures of
life and thus they resort to alcohol and drug abuse and in severe cases they end up being mentally
challenged. It is this problem that informed the need to set up such centers to offer hope and
support to the youths. Headspace has a national online platform as well as phone support where
the youth can interact with the staff. ( Adams, 2016) . However, the program has been criticized
mainly due to lack of transparency and the change in the original duty that the company was
established to do. The managers of the youth program have focused more on the building of the
headspace brand rather than serving the patients. It is this lack of transparency that has
necessitated the need for policy amendment with regards to the health program of Headspace. An

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amendment is needed in order to ensure that the managers of the operations of the youth mental
hospital are audited and made public in order to ensure that the hospital performs the duties that
it was created to do and thus enhance transparency with the members of the public. The fact that
the program cannot be questioned has contributed greatly to the managers of the program
engaging them in brand marketing rather than offering quality service. It is the duty of the
government to ensure that the health facility is open to scrutiny in order to ensure that the
members of the public access the right kind of services. ( Burini, & Burini, 2018).
Shell et all framework is the development of public programs that can only be of benefit if they
can be able to be sustained over a long period of time. Sustainability of any form of program is
key in its implementation and success. Public health programs also follow this framework as
they need to be sustained for long so that the members of the public can benefit. The
development of the framework is done through several methods and techniques.
Amendment Proposal
The lack of transparency on the program and the diversion from the intended purpose of the
youth program has brought about the need for an amendment. Therefore I would propose a
policy amendment to compel the company to divulge the details regarding their operations and to
be transparent in the way they handle their programs. (Cross, Scott, & Hickie, 2018). There is a
lack of necessary information regarding the services being offered and this has led to a lot of
complains. The disparity in the kind of programs that the people are being offered has not been
explained adequately by the company which tends to leave consumers confused as they always
go there with an expectation of the services they are to receive.( Bramble, Campbell, Maxwell,
Marlow, Heath, & Prior,2018)

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Overview of Amendment
The policy amendment to the program will entail setting up of standards or benchmarks that will
serve as criteria upon which the company will be able to use to set and inform the public on the
programs to expect. The amendment will be done in conjunction with the relevant government
authority that mainly deals with regulation of youth mental programs and that of checking and
ensuring transparency. It will involve the formulating of pieces of legislation that will govern the
company and other such companies in their setting up of programs for their consumers. This is
very crucial as the consumers will be protected from the managers who would want to take
advantage of the program to pursue their own interest. In as much as one is offering services to
the public, it is important that this be done in a systematic and precise manner that will ensure
the consumers are able to enjoy or reap maximum benefits from the programs being offered and
at the same time getting healed. The benefits that one should get from the services provided
should be able to be matched with the kind of investment that is accorded to the program.
( Cooper,2016)
Sustainability components addressed by Amendments
The shell sustainability report contains various components that are useful in ensuring that a
specific framework is well taken care of and the relevant policies are formulated and
implemented to the latter. The various key components include public health impact, political
stability, program evaluation, communication, organization capacity and several others. All these
components are critical in ensuring that there is sustainability in respect to a particular policy
framework. The proposed amendment to the headspace program is no different as It touches on

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some of the components of sustainability as mentioned in the shell sustainability report of 2013.
(Donkin, Goldblatt, Allen, Nathanson, & Marmot, 2018)
The issue of transparency is well connected to the component of communication as per the
sustainability report. The report emphasize on the need for constant communication from the
manager side to the public who are the most important people when it comes to the program. A
constant and proper channel of communication makes the consumer to be aware of the company
they are dealing with and to also feel appreciated. The public are able to ask all sorts of questions
and the fact that they will be answered in a timely manner will make them to have full
confidence in the company and also be satisfied. Headspace is faced with an issue of
transparency and thus the amendment to try and change this is well manifested in the
sustainability report. ( Hughes, Kuhn, Peterson, Rothman, & Solorzano, 2015).The amendment is
going to ensure that the members enrolled in headspace are able to be provided with the right and
proper communication on all issues that are affecting them which will greatly enhance the
relationship of the company and the public.
Also the issue of sticking to the original purpose is a fundamental and critical part of the
sustainability framework. The amendment to ensure that the members of the public are aware of
the various programs has a big impact on the public health. The sustainability report possesses
the component of public health impact and how the activities of a company are critical in
affecting the health of the public. There are a lot of people who are afraid of getting the services
due to the lack of knowledge and understanding of how the programs by headspace are operated.
This fear will make one not to engage them even though he or she might be in need of health
care. The amendment will provide the public with the power of knowledge and they will be able
to understand various aspects that are necessary when it comes to the program and thus they will

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be able to make informed decisions regarding the company. This might see an increase in the
number of people as the public will now be well conversant with the system and thus it would
translate to more people attending the health care system for assistance.. The number of people
who may get positive healing from the programs they have may increase and this will have a
huge impact on the public health of the country. ( Kenny, Fotaki, & Scriver,2018).
Global sustainability issues
There are several global sustainability issues that are associated with the health program. These
issues include poverty, climate, population health, economic and heath equity. These factors are
normally associated with the health programs as they usually go hand in hand. A good health
program will ensure that the health of the population is well taken care of and this may also
contribute to health equity. The amendments to be done on the health program of Headspace are
also associated with the key sustainability issues that we have already mentioned.( Kruk, Larson,
& Twum-Danso,2016).The first issue to be addressed is that of the health of the population.
The availability of transparency of the program has a great impact on whether the consumers will
be able to enroll more in the youth program or not. In real sense, the criteria for engaging with
the hospital will be known. Such a move would result in people looking for information on the
available sites and this may result to an increase in the number of people attending the centers.
Increased number of people means that more people will be able to engage themselves in the
programs provided in the centers and based on the success rate of the programs that is being
floated around, the number of people having their well-being increased will shoot up and thus the
health of the population will be better. Reduced cases such as that of blood pressure may make

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the population to be healthier and thus the amendment on full disclosure that is being proposed
will be able to fully address this global sustainability issue ( Lambert,& Hemingway,2016).
Furthermore, the amendments on transparency and type of programs will go a long way in
addressing the issue of health equity that has always been a hot issue in the global health. The
amendments will involve a review and evaluation of the programs offered with an aim of dealing
with the disparities that have been witnessed in relation to the effectiveness of the programs.(
Loughhead, Guy, Furber, & Segal, 2018).A review will mean that the programs will reasonable and
that which focuses on the problems of the public. The amendments will be able to regulate and
ensure that there is equity based on the effectiveness of the programs on all people that attend the
centers. This in turn would mean that a high number of different people in the society will be
able to access the services and thus the overall effect of the sessions or the positive impact will
be felt across the board. Much of the population will enjoy and access the same services and
therefore the issue of heath equity will behave been addressed. ( Orthwein, 2017).
Alternative policies
Even as we try to formulate amendments to the heath program we must be prepared for other
alternatives in case the intended amendments do not run out as they are supposed to. Therefore in
our case, if the amendments are unsuccessful in bringing the desired changes, we might think of
coming up with an alternative program that will focus more on the problems of the public as
compared to the headspace. The invention of another program will assist the members of public
with mental issues more as they will have a center that caters purely for their needs.
(Skolnik,2015). Also the other alternative may involve intervention strategy whereby a program
such as headspace is controlled by the relevant authorities to ensure that they do not offer a

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different kind of service other than the one intended to. They are able to intervene and ensure
that the company does not obtain money form offering services that are not chargeable. ( Wernli,
Tanner, Kickbusch, Escher, Paccaud,& Flahault,2016).
Amendment benefits
There are several benefits that are associated with these amendments. First, the general public
will be able to access more heath programs than before and this contributes to good health of the
society. Secondly the amendments may lead to a greater focus on the health of the youth. This is
important to them as it would ensure that they are healed through the undertaking of the right
programs in the facilities. For the company it may still be beneficial to them as there will be an
increase in the number of people attending and thus the brand name will still be upheld. The
company may also strive to ensure that they provide the best quality of sessions to the people due
to the increase in demand for their programs. The government is a major stakeholder when it
comes to health matters and thus the amendments will be of great benefit to them. This is in the
sense that much of the population will be able to access heath sessions that may improve their
heath lives and thus the government may also spend less in trying to inform the public of good
health tips to follow. (World Health Organization. 2017). Also a healthy population would mean
that a lot of people will be able to engage in meaningful activities that generate income and thus
the level of employment and the economy will be high.
Conclusion
Therefore, program policy amendment is an important factor in the struggle for a healthier
population. The global health standards demands that we at all times strive to ensure that the
programs that we have set in place are of high standards and are reliable and efficient in the

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achievement of equitable heath and increased wellbeing of the population. The sustainability
components are very critical in ensuring that we are in conformity to the requirements of the
global health and sustainable development as a whole. It is important to note that these programs
such as the headspace are critical in the health sector and ones that should be encouraged as they
normally go a long way in helping a lot of people deal with mental difficulties and stress over
periods of time. Thus we should strive to ensure that we develop more policies that will support
such programs for the benefit of the whole population and also to make sure that we abide by the
sustainability framework guidelines that are key in the maintenance of global health standards.
Once this is done it will be much easier for the implementation of the sustainability policies to be
adopted.(Vedung,2017).

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