MJA
MJA

Moving beyond stepped care to staged care using a novel, technology‐enabled care model for youth mental health

Ian B Hickie
Med J Aust 2019; 211 (9): . || doi: 10.5694/mja2.50379
Published online: 4 November 2019

This model of care emphasises not only early access to assessment across a number of clinical and functional domains but also rapid and ongoing provision of stage‐appropriate interventions

Australia can rightly claim to lead the world in mental health awareness, especially for the mental health and wellbeing of young people.1 However, despite the development of designated primary care‐style services (eg, headspace),1 we still do not deliver effective care, early in the course of illness, to most young people with anxiety, depression, or alcohol or other substance misuse.2 Even when we do deliver care, the longer term functional outcomes are often disappointing.3 The consequences of this failure remain large — personally, socially and economically.4

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