Inspire Foundation welcomes the launch of mindhealthconnect

06 July 2012

Jonathan Nicholas, CEO of the Inspire Foundation, the organisation behind leading online youth mental health service ReachOut.com, today welcomed the launch of the Government’s e-mental health portal, mindhealth_connect.

Mr Nicholas said that Inspire was delighted to be a formal partner of mindhealth_connect,_ and that the portal “represents an important step in real mental health reform – reform which is not just about more money, but investing in innovative solutions that are able to reach and engage large numbers of people at low cost.”

He added, “We know from over a decade’s experiencing delivering ReachOut.com that demand for online services continues to grow – in the last year alone over600 000 young people engaged with our program, a 27% increase on the previous year.

With the roll out of the National Broadband Network around Australia, and more people, in particular young people, preferring to seek information and support online, we expect this demand to accelerate, underscoring the importance of initiatives such as mindhealth_connect_ and ReachOut.com as critical pathways to mental health care and support.”

Mr Nicholas noted that “ there are a number of additional benefits associated with e-mental health service delivery, including the fact that they are time and cost-efficient to establish, available 24 hours a day and able to absorb huge demand at little cost, making them an ideal complement to other reforms in mental health.”

Mr Nicholas added that Inspire, along with the mental health sector more broadly, is ready to innovate, and to partner with Government to deliver effective services in an increasingly digital environment.

“Last year, the Inspire Foundation led a coalition of 70 organisations from across the not-for-profit, academic, government and corporate sectors to establish the Young and Well Cooperative Research Centre. Supported by $28 million in funding from the Department of Innovation, Science and Research, the Young and Well CRC will deliver a number of new services and interventions designed to capitalise on the opportunities afforded by technology.

We look forward to working with the Government now and over the coming years to continue to develop and deliver innovative online mental health services.”