Claire Chandler (Tasmania, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Families and Social Services, Senator Ruston. Can the minister advise the Senate what the Morrison government is doing to tackle the unemployment of young Australians who are suffering with a mental illness?

Anne Ruston (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Families and Social Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Chandler for her question about a matter that is very important and facing a lot of young Australians—that is, those who are suffering with mental illness. The government is absolutely focused on ways of removing barriers to employment, and one of those is by investigating new and innovative ways that we can improve outcomes for those people who are unemployed. We know that the onset of mental illness, when it occurs in adolescents and young adults, can often be a significant barrier to young people being able to get into the workforce, and it leads to some very poor employment outcomes for those people. We know how important it is to help young people to overcome those barriers to work, because getting people into work gives them a sense of identity and purpose and provides them with a sense of direction and achievement. This is especially true for young Australians.

One of the programs that we are currently working on is the Individual Placement and Support trial. It's a tailored approach that co-locates employment services and employment incentives at the same places where people are able to receive mental health services through the work of headspace. The original IPS model was developed for adults, but in 2015 the decision was made to trial it with young people to see whether young people under the age of 25 could benefit from a similar type of wraparound service. We originally set up 14 sites in co-location with headspace, and this year we've added more funding to extend the trials out to 24 sites across the country. What makes this model so different and so successful is the fact that it actually embeds the employment specialist alongside the healthcare worker to make sure that the young people are getting the wraparound services that they need to ensure that they have successful employment outcomes into the future.

Scott Ryan (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Chandler, a supplementary question?

Claire Chandler (Tasmania, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Minister, how does the Individual Placement and Support model compare against other programs in generating employment outcomes?

Anne Ruston (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Families and Social Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This particular program is showing early signs of being particularly successful when it comes to allowing young people to transition into work and to deal with the barriers of mental health that they find themselves facing in the process of moving into work. As I said, this particular trial co-locates the employment services and support that the individual needs alongside the mental health supports that young people need, sometimes to deal with issues of anxiety, depression and other mental health conditions. Most particularly, these trial sites have been focused in areas where we have seen higher levels of unemployment and also socioeconomic disadvantage. Importantly, Newstart recipients who have entered the program have the highest level of employment success, with over 60 per cent of those that were on Newstart moving into a job since being engaged in the program. Equally importantly, one in three of the young people on a disability support pension also got a job.

Scott Ryan (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Chandler, a final supplementary question?

Claire Chandler (Tasmania, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Minister, given the benefits of the program that you've just outlined, why is a strong economy important to tackling unemployment of young people suffering with a mental illness?

Anne Ruston (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Families and Social Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mental health and suicide prevention are absolutely the core focus of the health priorities of this government and absolutely central to the Commonwealth's Long Term National Health Plan. It is a strong economy that allows us to invest in these targeted health initiatives to help equip young people with the skills and the resources that they need to deal with the barriers that they face when they're going into work, to deal with their mental health conditions and to make sure that they either enter into education or enter into employment. I think we are very, very proud of the fact that we can say that we're doing far more than any previous government to safeguard the health of Australians, and particularly young Australians, with an expected $5.3 billion invested in the mental health of Australians this year alone, because we understand that overcoming barriers to work is one of the core roles government has to ensure all Australians have the opportunity to get a job.