Ord Minnett Sunshine Coast have helped more young people access best practice mental health services sooner by sponsoring a frontline worker at headspace Maroochydore, a local service operated by Youturn Youth Support.

General Manager Clinical Services Nick Fawcett explains how the wealth management groups donation is being used to put people first to make a real social impact.

“Through the generous donation, we’ve created a fixed term job opportunity in our access and intake team for a top performing social work university graduate who can support clients across their entire journey at headspace,

“This means from assessment to intervention a young person has one consistent contact which makes it easier on them, reduces wait times and a need for other referrals,” Nick Fawcett said.

After completing an outstanding student placement Emma Streater was the successful candidate in 2020 (January to June). Since her commencement wait times have reduced to only 1 week (down from 2 weeks) at the busy centre which see’s up to 600 appointments a month, and Emma alone has seen more than 240 young people over 6 months.

Emma said she was able to hit the ground running and is extremely grateful for the opportunity made possible by Ord Minnett.

“I’ve been able to use my evidence-based knowledge in a really practical way every day helping young people with mild to moderate mental health concerns… it’s been wonderful to get cross-industry support from Ord Minnett to make this happen,” Emma said.

headspace is a free service helping young people aged 12-25 with mental and physical health, education and employment, alcohol and other drug services, funded by the Australian Government. Community partnerships help headspace centres find solutions to local problems.

The partnership between Ord Minnett and headspace Maroochydore is improving access to services for local young people with a vehicle purchased in 2015 for community engagement, as well as the frontline intake and access worker for a more responsive service.