This national day is to ensure that every young person has access to youth friendly mental health services, no matter where they live.

headspace day celebrated 10 years of innovation in youth mental health and was also triggered by alarming new research from Orygen and headspace that revealed over 50 per cent of young people were waiting six or more months before seeking help for mental health issues.

This period of waiting and worrying can have detrimental effects. From social isolation to relationship breakdowns, drug and alcohol abuse and in severe cases, incidents of self-harm or suicide.

The research also uncovered that close to 50 per cent of young people said financial cost was a barrier in preventing them from getting treatment. Nearly half said they believed they could not be helped and more than 50 per cent said they were afraid of what others would think.

We need to change these perceptions.  Every year, a quarter of all young people in this country will experience mental health issues and we want them all to know headspace is here to help.

With 95 centres across Australia, integrated with a phone and online chat service eheadspace, over the past decade headspace has enabled over 270,000 young people to access mental health care.

We will soon expand to 110 headspace centres thanks to the Government’s election commitment and a ringing endorsement of headspace as its model for youth mental health care for the future.

headspace has made outstanding progress over the past ten years but we still have a way to go.

Access is crucial and help seeking is the first step that every young person must make and we need to continue to provide effective and easy pathways to make sure this can happen for everyone.

We want to see every Australian community with a headspace centre. If you who would like to support headspace visit headspaceday.org.au to see how you and your local community can get involved or give a donation to support young people in need.

And finally thanks to everyone who took part in the first headspace day, we look forward to you all joining us again next year.

Professor Patrick McGorry AO

Critical sociological change such as same sex marriage and medically assisted dying are both deserving of a plebiscite or direct vote of the electorate.  I certainly believe in a majority vote of the parliament (Federal and State) but cannot abide a politician's conscience vote on such issues of critical sociological change.

Same sex marriage is constitutionally, a federal issue and medically assisted dying is both a state and federal issue.  Currently, the Australian Government is considering legislation for a plebiscite on same sex marriage and the Victorian Government is considering a parliamentary report on medically assisted dying.

The federal issue cannot currently, be decided by a majority of votes in the parliament of the Commonwealth of Australia but the state and federal issue of medically assisted dying could soon be legislated by the state parliament of Victoria.  What a constitutional conundrum for the Commonwealth of Australia and the States.  Can you imagine the frustration of Australians?

Some states with and some states without and the NT not able to decide for itself on either issue.

Why don't we seriously consider and settle both of these critical sociological issues in 2017 with a plebiscite or direct vote of the electorate and let the Australian people decide?

Brian Winship, Port Macquarie