Families Australia appreciates the opportunity to contribute to Orygen’s call for submissions from the sector regarding youth mental health in order to provide advice to the commissioning agency, the Department of Health and Aged Care on:

• Identifying key challenges and opportunities within the youth mental health system; and
• providing insights on areas of need, barriers, gaps, duplication, and fragmentation within existing systems.

Families Australia is submitting this response in consultation with member organisations, particularly the CAFWA network, a founding member of our organisation.

This submission commences with some high-level principles, or ‘overarching themes’, which must be held central when approaching the topic of youth mental health. While these contextual issues are broader than the TOR of this review process, they have a direct impact on the mental health and wellbeing of young people in Australia. The submission then narrows in on the mental health and wellbeing needs of young people in out-of-home care. In doing so, we draw largely from the expertise of the CAFWAA network.