Increases in youth mental health services in Australia: Have they had an impact on youth population mental health?

Background: Mental disorders often have their first onset during youth, which justifies targeting treatment services at this age group. Australia has had a substantial increase in youth mental health services since the introduction of the Medicare Better Access scheme and headspace services in 2006–2007. This paper examines trends in the mental health of Australian youth before and after this time using available national and state datasets. Methods: The following data were examined for age groups available in the age range of 12–25 years: use of mental health services per 100,000 population provided under Medicare by GPs, psychiatrists, clinical psychologists, other psychologists and allied health professionals; per capita accessing of headspace services; and prevalence of high and very high psychological distress (using the K10) in youth age groups in the National Health Survey, the Victorian Population Health Survey and the New South Wales Population Health Survey between 2001 and 2018. Results: There has been a large increase in use of mental health services since the introduction of Better Access and headspace. No significant improvement in youth mental health was evident following the introduction of these schemes. Rather, there appeared to be a worsening of youth mental health from around 2015 onwards. Conclusion: Despite a large increase in the provision of mental health services to Australian youth, there has not been a detectable reduction in the prevalence of psychological distress. There may be other factors that have worsened youth mental health in recent years.