Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced $51.8 million in additional funding for Headspace centres around Australia on Sunday. 

The investment is on top of the $95.7 million already committed to Headspace each year.

Headspace Ballarat manager Janelle Johnson said the additional funding will mean shorter wait times for services and extra clinical staff in Ballarat. 

It will also allow the extension of the digital portal eheadspace which provides after hours mental health support. 

“We have been under pressure for the last 12 months to provide services. We have increased our reach by about 1000 young people,” Ms Johnson said. 

Around 4000 young people accessed services at Headspace Ballarat in 2017/18, compared to 3000 young people in 2016/17. 

One in four young Australians experience mental health in any given year.

Ms Johnson said all additional funding provided to Headspace Ballarat will be specifically tailored to Ballarat’s needs. 

“We are really excited to offer as much as we can in immediate support, continue the drop in service and continue referral services. But we have a range of other services including financial support, a dietitian, sexual health services and parenting support which can be increased to respond to demand,” she said. 

There are 26 Headspace facilities in Victoria. Of those 12 are located in a regional area, including Ballarat, Bendigo, Horsham and Warrnambool. 

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No additional funding has been allocated to set up new centres. Meanwhile, many young people in outlying regional areas are travelling long distances for support.

“We see young people from as far afield as Maryborough, Daylesford, Bacchus Marsh and Ballan and even as far as Ararat and Stawell,” she said. 

Headspace Ballarat is a centre based service that is not funded for outreach, but the Headspace in Schools program does provide support to outlying areas. 

Ms Johnson said Headspace Ballarat would lobby for a satellite service in a outlying area if client data reveals a need in future years. 

“At the moment we currently see most of our young people coming from within 50 minutes of our centre. If in the future we see there is a further spread, with people travelling more than 80 minutes to get to our service... we can certainly lobby to funders to get a satellite service,” she said. 

Of the federal government’s $58.1 million commitment, $39 million will go towards services and staff while $12.8 million will go to eheadspace.

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