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Background
Given the high prevalence of mental health and/or substance use problems in young people, an assessment interview that assists clinicians to engage with young people and assess their psychosocial needs is essential. Currently, there are few assessment tools for this purpose.
Objective
To describe the rationale and process of extending a psychosocial assessment interview to assist clinicians in assessing the full range of mental health disorders common in young people.
Discussion
The 'headspace' assessment interview is designed to assist engagement while assessing psychosocial and mental health problems. It can be used by a range of clinicians in primary care settings for the purposes of developing treatment or referral options. To date, as part of a national clinical service platform, the interview has been used with over 2000 young people. A preliminary process evaluation indicated that the interview is perceived to have utility and acceptability among the clinicians who are using it in their practice to assess young people's mental health problems and psychosocial functioning.
Keywords: mental health; adolescent psychiatry; psychiatry; general practice; substance related disorders; doctor patient relations; health services; evaluation studies
Youth mental health service provision is a rapidly developing field of practice. This reflects increasing recognition of the high incidence of mental health problems in young people and that the onset of most mental disorders occurs before the age of 25 years.1 In Australia, 19% of people aged 13-17 years and 27% of those aged 18-24 years experience a mental health disorder.2
What is 'headspace'?
Recent Federal Governments have committed to improving services to young people experiencing mental health problems via 'headspace', the National Youth Mental Health Foundation.3 'headspace' promotes early intervention for young people with mental and substance use disorders, and seeks to prevent the progression of illness as well as minimise 'collateral damage' to social, educational and vocational functioning.4 To achieve this, 30 headspace centres have been funded across Australia (see Resources). Service providers within headspace centres represent a multidisciplinary workforce including general practitioners, psychologists, allied health workers, drug and alcohol specialists, and youth and vocational workers. headspace practitioners provide integrated care for young people's physical and mental health needs, as well as social and educational/vocational functioning. General practitioners within headspace centres provide comprehensive clinical consultations for a range...