Judgment Statement:

• Social actions and public policies have affected young people’s health to a significant extent through comprehensive strategies addressing major health issues and creating supportive environments across multiple health areas.

Strongest Evidence:

• Immunisation programs demonstrate highly effective policy impact with over 95% childhood vaccination coverage achieved nationally, virtually eliminating preventable diseases.
• School-based health education and anti-smoking campaigns have substantially reduced youth smoking rates by approximately 10% over two decades through legislative and educational approaches.
• Mental health initiatives including headspace services provide accessible, youth-friendly support addressing the leading health concern for this demographic.
• Road safety policies including graduated licensing and awareness campaigns have dramatically reduced youth transport fatalities.
• These coordinated efforts show measurable population-level improvements across multiple health indicators.

Secondary Evidence:

• Targeted healthcare services like youth health centres improve access and engagement with preventive care for vulnerable populations.
• Harm minimisation approaches to alcohol and drug education provide realistic safety information.
• However, emerging challenges like cyberbullying, social media impacts and youth obesity present new health risks requiring innovative policy responses.
• Some traditional policies show limited effectiveness in addressing contemporary issues like mental health stigma and lifestyle-related conditions among today’s young people.

Reaffirmation:

• Evidence demonstrates that well-designed social actions and public policies have achieved substantial positive impacts on young people’s health outcomes.
• The combination of prevention strategies, targeted services and supportive legislative frameworks has effectively addressed many traditional health concerns while continuously adapting to contemporary challenges.

\(A\)

Evaluation Statement:

• Actions implemented to support young people at risk of mental health issues demonstrate moderate effectiveness.
• Community-based programs show strong results while school-based interventions reveal limited long-term impact.

Community-Based Programs

• Headspace centres provide highly effective support for young people aged 12-25 experiencing mental health difficulties. These services offer accessible counselling, psychiatry, and peer support in youth-friendly environments located in shopping centres and community hubs. The program demonstrates strong effectiveness through early intervention approaches and integrated service delivery covering mental health, physical health, work and study support.
• For example, Headspace provides online support and eHeadspace chat services, reaching young people who cannot access physical centres.
• Statistics show significant improvements in help-seeking behaviours among participants, with reduced hospitalisation rates and improved educational outcomes.
• The program also offers family and carer support, recognising the importance of support networks. However, limited availability in rural areas reduces overall program reach, with many regional young people unable to access face-to-face services.

School-Based Mental Health Programs

• School counselling services and mental health literacy programs show partial effectiveness in supporting at-risk young people through prevention and early identification.
• Programs like MindMatters and KidsMatter provide comprehensive teacher training and student education about mental health awareness, resilience building and help-seeking strategies. These initiatives adequately address prevention by creating supportive school environments and reducing mental health stigma among students and staff.
• School-based programs reach large numbers of young people in familiar settings, making mental health support more normalised. However, evidence indicates limited success in providing intensive support for severely affected students requiring specialist intervention.
• Many schools lack qualified mental health professionals, relying instead on general counsellors who may not have specialised training in youth mental health. This creates significant gaps in service delivery, follow-up care, and crisis intervention capacity.

Final Evaluation

• Overall assessment shows moderate effectiveness in supporting at-risk young people with mental health issues.
• Community programs like Headspace demonstrate superior outcomes through specialised services, youth-centred approaches, and comprehensive support addressing multiple life domains.
• School-based programs provide valuable prevention and awareness but show limitations in intensive intervention capacity and specialist expertise.
• Weighing these factors reveals that combined approaches achieve better results, with schools identifying at-risk students and referring to specialist community services. However, geographic inequities, funding constraints, and workforce shortages limit optimal effectiveness for all at-risk populations, particularly those in rural and remote areas.

Any TWO of the following

Headspace centres:

• These youth-friendly physical locations provide face-to-face counselling, psychological support and early intervention services, addressing mental health issues by offering accessible, age-appropriate treatment in non-clinical environments that reduce stigma and encourage help-seeking behaviour.

eheadspace online support:

• This digital platform offers web-based and phone counselling services, chat support and self-help resources, addressing mental health issues by providing immediate access to professional support regardless of location, particularly benefiting young people in rural areas or those hesitant to seek face-to-face help.

School support programs:

• Headspace delivers mental health education and early intervention programs directly in educational settings, addressing mental health issues by building awareness, reducing stigma and identifying at-risk students before problems escalate into more serious conditions. 

Family and carer support:

• These programs provide education and resources for parents and carers about youth mental health, addressing mental health issues by creating supportive home environments and equipping families with skills to recognise warning signs and respond appropriately.

Answers could include any two of the following:

Cyberbullying reporting portal

• This online system allows young people to report serious cyberbullying incidents directly to eSafety, who can then require social media platforms to remove harmful content within 24 hours.
• This leads to immediate reduction in psychological harm because victims regain control over their online experience and see tangible action taken against perpetrators.
• As a result, young people feel empowered to seek help early, which prevents the escalation of mental health issues like anxiety and depression that occur when cyberbullying continues unchecked.

Online safety education programs

• These school-based initiatives teach young people to recognise online risks, manage their digital footprint, and develop resilience strategies against cyber-threats.
• This works by building critical thinking skills that enable students to identify predatory behaviour, scams, and harmful content before engaging with them.
• The reason this is effective is that prevention through education creates long-lasting protective behaviours, which results in fewer technology-related mental health issues and demonstrates why early intervention through schools is crucial.

Parent and carer resources

• Educational materials help adults understand online risks, privacy settings, and age-appropriate content restrictions for different platforms.
• This occurs because informed parents can implement protective measures at home, which creates safer digital environments where young people can explore technology without excessive exposure to harmful content.
• This relationship results in stronger family communication about online experiences, thereby reducing the likelihood of young people hiding cyber-incidents and ensuring early intervention when problems arise.

Safer Internet Day campaigns

• Annual awareness activities promote positive online behaviours, digital citizenship, and responsible technology use among young Australians through schools and community events.
• This happens when widespread messaging reaches multiple stakeholders simultaneously, which causes a collective shift in understanding about healthy online interactions.
• This demonstrates why community-wide approaches are powerful – they create social norms around respectful online behaviour, which leads to reduced cyberbullying incidents and establishes technology use as a shared responsibility between young people, families, and schools.

Answers could include any two of the following:

• Comprehensive sexual health education programs in schools provide young people with knowledge about safe sex practices, consent, and sexually transmitted infection prevention.
• Government-funded services like Family Planning NSW and sexual health clinics offer confidential testing, treatment, and counselling specifically designed for young people’s needs.
• Telehealth services – Online and phone consultations making sexual health advice more accessible, especially for rural young people
• Peer education programs – Training young people to educate their peers about sexual health in schools and community settings
• Community health centres – Local services providing free or low-cost sexual health testing and counselling