Whilst most young people are doing well, a concerning number are vulnerable to or directly affected by ill mental health (Lawrence et al., 2015). The experience of mental illness can have long lasting impacts including social disconnection and poorer life outcomes (AIHW, 2015). Alongside strategies in early intervention and prevention (Australian Government Department of Health...

The Youth Employment Package aims to give young job seekers under 25 years of age the employability skills and real work experience they need to get a job. The package will boost young people’s job prospects by helping them be better prepared for the workplace and encouraging more businesses to open the door to them...

With one foot in childhood, and one foot in adulthood, the middle years are sometimes described as an “in between” stage of development. This “in between” status has, too often, led to invisibility as far as service providers and policy makers are concerned. Typically, the efforts of service providers and policy makers focus on children...

The costs to the Australia economy of health services associated with young people experiencing homelessness is an average of $8,505 per person per year or $355 million across all young people aged 15-24 accessing Specialist Homelessness Services. This is $6,744.00 per person per year more than for long-term unemployed youth (another key group of disadvantaged...

This article argues that the Australian government needs to adopt a more sophisticated approach to addressing social problems such as homelessness, by investing in early intervention programs and more supportive social housing services.